The Department of Energy (DOE) released a five-year plan to implement the backlog of appliance efficiency standards.
The American Council for an Energy-Eficient Economy, called the plan a “good start”, but called on the DOE to also include two of the products which offer the biggest potential energy savings: home refrigerators and furnace fans – one-fourth of the overall potential energy savings from new standards.
A number of statutes require DOE to set appliance efficiency standards at levels that achieve the maximum improvement in energy efficiency that is technologically feasible and economically justified. Standards already in place for residential products are expected to save consumers nearly $93 billion, by 2020; and enough energy to operate all U.S. homes for approximately two years.
In addition to products required under EPACT 2005, the plan provides for the issuance of one standard for each of the 18 products currently in the backlog, such as residential furnaces and boilers; mobile home furnaces; small furnaces; residential water heaters; direct heating equipment; pool heaters; electric motors; incandescent reflector lamps; fluorescent lamps; incandescent general service lamps; fluorescent lamp ballasts; residential dishwashers; ranges and ovens; microwave ovens; residential clothes dryers; room air conditioners; packaged terminal air conditioners and heat pumps; residential central air conditioners.
The Department is working to speed up the process of developing and issuing appliance standards rulemakings through process improvements such as bundling multiple products into single rulemakings, shortening the time to complete successive rulemakings, and other techniques.
According to the ACEEE, the schedule can be improved in three crucial areas:
a. Address home refrigerators and furnace fans, two products among those with the largest potential energy savings.
The schedule also fails to address commercial boilers, certain commercial water heaters, and some types of small motors. It is unclear whether some types of commercial lighting will be addressed.
b. DOE schedule must be made binding.
In recent years, although DOE has established schedules for its top priority rulemakings, it has repeatedly missed the self-imposed deadlines.
Such a court order could materialize. Last fall, 15 states, led by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and several public interest groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council and National Consumer Law Center brought suit over the missed deadlines, seeking a court-imposed and monitored schedule. That litigation is still pending. In addition, Congress, in the 2005 energy law, required that DOE provide a plan for getting current on all required standards and provide semi-annual reports to Congress on its progress toward meeting the deadlines. DOE provided its first report to Congress today. Furthermore, Congress’ Government Accountability Office is currently investigating the causes for the rulemaking delays.
c. DOE should expedite two standards which are far-advanced in the rulemaking process.
DOE has been working on thermal efficiency standards for home furnaces and boilers and electric distribution transformers since 2001 and issued Advanced Notices of Proposed Rulemakings in summer 2004. By Congressional deadline, these standards were due in 1994 and 1996, respectively. Each year of delay locks in enormous long-term energy waste since products sold and installed can last two-to-three decades. According to the schedule issued today, these standards would be completed in fall 2007. By expediting these standards now, the Department could issue final standards by the end of 2006.
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