Latest news with #AndrewDeLaski
New York Times
12-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Energy Department to Repeal Efficiency Rules for Appliances
The Energy Department said on Monday that it was preparing to roll back energy and water conservation standards for a long list of electric and gas appliances, targeting 47 regulations that it said were 'driving up costs and lowering quality of life for the American people.' The moves follow an executive order last week from President Trump directing the Energy Department to 'eliminate restrictive water pressure and efficiency rules that make household appliances less effective and more expensive.' But energy-efficiency experts and climate advocates said the Energy Department's moves would increase the cost of running household appliances like dehumidifiers and portable air-conditioners as well as air compressors used in industry. 'If this attack on consumers succeeds, President Trump would be raising costs dramatically for families as manufacturers dump energy- and water-wasting products into the market,' said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, a coalition of environmental and consumer groups, utilities and government agencies. Mr. deLaski also said that the effort violated an anti-backsliding provision in a decades-old underlying statute, which prohibits the federal government from adopting standards that are more lenient than ones already on the books. 'It's patently illegal, so hold your horses,' he said in a statement. Like many other countries, the United States has for decades adopted standards that govern how much energy or water that appliances — including lightbulbs, dishwashers, water heaters and washing machines — can use. By government scientists' own accounting, efficiency standards saved the average American household about $576 in 2024 on water and gas bills while cutting the nation's annual energy consumption by 6.5 percent and public water use by 12 percent. Thanks in part to those measures, the total amount of energy and water used by American households has not grown nearly as fast as the population. But the Trump administration has framed the standards as an example of governmental overreach. Mr. Trump has also made a habit of complaining about shower heads with weak water pressure, or toilets that don't flush properly, and has blamed efficiency standards for those issues. Conservative groups have also argued that efficiency standards hurt the performance of appliances like dishwashers. The Energy Department's list of appliance regulations it has targeted includes air cleaners, battery chargers, compressors, cooking tops, dehumidifiers, external power supplies, microwave ovens, dishwashers and faucets. Getting rid of the standards would 'cut more than 125,000 words from the Code of Federal Regulations,' the department said. Still, rolling back the standards would require a new rule-making process thatcould take months or longer. The rollback is also likely to face legal challenges. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, is planning to eliminate Energy Star, the popular energy-efficiency certification for dishwashers, refrigerators, dryers and other home appliances. In the past, manufacturers have been supportive of government efficiency standards, but now they are moving to take advantage of Mr. Trump's deregulatory drive. The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which represents 150 manufacturers behind 95 percent of the household appliances shipped for sale within the United States, said it was still evaluating Monday's announcements. But Jill A. Notini, a spokeswoman for the association, pointed to a statement in which the association said that the standards had 'helped achieve decades of successful improvements in appliance efficiency.' The association added, 'With most appliances operating near peak efficiency, additional meaningful savings are unlikely for some products' without some loss of performance. In addition to repealing efficiency measures, the Energy Department is planning to eliminate several clean energy and climate change programs. It will rescind reporting requirements for a voluntary program under which companies can report their greenhouse gas emissions, and end a program that provides payments for electricity produced with renewable power. The Energy Department is also getting rid of what it calls 'unscientific' diversity, equity and inclusion requirements for grant recipients. Specifically, it is proposing to repeal regulations to ensure grant recipients are not discriminated against on the basis of sex, race or age. Some proposals seem to have little to do with the department's purview. One proposed repeal, for example, is for 'Ending Requirements for Members of One Sex to Be Able to Try Out for Sports Teams of the Opposite Sex.'
The Verge
12-05-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Trump administration announces ‘illegal' rollback of energy and water efficiency standards
The US Energy Department says it's rolling back long-standing efficiency standards for appliances, which advocates are calling a clear violation of the law. Continuing the Trump administration's assault on federal water and energy efficiency programs, the department announced today what it's calling its 'largest deregulatory effort in history.' The agency is trying to rollback 47 regulations it says are 'burdensome and costly,' including more than a dozen efficiency standards for appliances and battery chargers. The proposed rules target the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), which contains an anti-backsliding provision — and that the Trump administration is seemingly trying to bypass. 'If this attack on consumers succeeds, President Trump would be raising costs dramatically for families as manufacturers dump energy- and water-wasting products into the market. Fortunately, it's patently illegal, so hold your horses,' Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, said in a press statement released today. 'Fortunately, it's patently illegal, so hold your horses.' The Energy Department didn't immediately respond to a press inquiry from The Verge asking why it believes its proposals do not violate EPCA, which passed Congress in 1975 and had the anti-backsliding provision added in 1987. However, drafts of proposed rules on the Federal Register's website say that it wants to return standards to previous limits set by Congress. In some cases, doing so could eliminate decades of energy and water saving standards, deLaski tells The Verge. A proposed rule for commercial clothes washers, for instance, would bring water conservation standards back to a 'statutory baseline' set in 2007. Other rules target microwave ovens, conventional ovens, dish washers, faucets, portable air conditioners, and more. The law's anti-backsliding provision stipulates that the energy secretary can't amend a standard in a way that 'increases the maximum allowable energy use' or 'decreases the minimum required energy efficiency' of a covered product. In other words, the agency can't issue rules that are weaker than they were before. In many cases, the Energy Department has updated standards initially set by Congress as more efficient technologies became available — which it's required to do by law if it is 'economically justified.' The rules proposed today attempt to go back to limits set by Congress years ago, undoing tougher standards set more recently. The Energy Department is also attempting to get rid of standards altogether in cases where limits weren't explicitly set in law by Congress. In the proposed rule for commercial clothes washers, the agency argues that the anti-backsliding provision applies to energy efficiency but not water standards. 'Water use has nothing to do with the energy consumed by a clothes washer. Therefore, the anti-backsliding provision does not apply,' it says. The agency still needs to open up its rules for public comment before attempting to finalize them, and is likely to face legal challenges. Courts have previously weighed in on the strength of the anti-backsliding provision. A 2004 decision from a federal appeals court says EPCA 'unambiguously' constrains the Energy Department's ability to weaken efficiency standards once they are published as final rules in the Federal Register. 'We're seeing the wholesale abandonment of a dozen-plus energy efficiency standards without any justification, and that absolutely violates the anti-backsliding provision,' says Kit Kennedy, who was one of the attorneys in the 2004 case and is currently a managing director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The move follows a presidential memorandum Trump signed on Friday that takes aim at water use rules and related energy efficiency standards, as well as news that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to wind down the Energy Star program. Experts warn that the proposed rules could lead to higher utility bills for consumers. While a program like Energy Star can help people choose more efficient appliances, standards the Trump administration is now targeting are supposed to ensure that more efficient technologies are accessible to anyone regardless of what they can afford to purchase. Appliance energy efficiency standards have been a great success. They save households on their electricity bills every month,' Michael Gerrard, founder and faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University says in an email to The Verge. 'Refrigerators are just as cold and just as large as they ever were but they are now much cheaper to run.'
