A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report shows the Department of Energy (DOE) has missed all 34 statutory rulemaking deadlines for setting minimum energy efficiency standards.
The report, “Long-Standing Problems with the Department of Energy’s Program for Setting Efficiency Standards Continue to Result in Foregone Energy Savings” was requested by Reps. John D. Dingell, Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Rick Boucher, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality and Ed Markey, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.
Efficiency standards on consumer products are set by DOE rulemaking. For the 20 product categories with statutory deadlines, GAO found that 11 of the 34 rules were completed late and 23 have not been completed at all. DOE’s delays range from less than a year to 15 years. Rulemakings have been completed for only refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers and freezers, small furnaces, and clothes washers. There are 17 consumer product categories that DOE has yet to finish.
According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, delays in setting standards for the top four energy-consuming categories will ultimately cost our nation a minimum of $28 billion in foregone energy savings, which is equal to the annual primary energy consumption of approximately 20 million households. The delays will also result in 53 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, an amount equivalent to about one percent of the total estimated U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2004.
Rep. Markey (D-MA) said, “The GAO report we are releasing today represents a blistering indictment of a culture of incompetence and delay at the Department of Energy’s appliance and building code standards setting programs, a concern I have long maintained. As the GAO notes that ‘plans should hold officials and staff accountable for meeting interim and final deadlines,’ the same report acknowledges that the DOE plan does not even include a system to ensure that reviewers and staff are held to meeting deadlines. Accountability is critical, and the DOE needs to address this finding immediately.”
The Alliance to Save Energy called on the DOE and Congress to join forces to ensure that DOE issues strong and timely energy-efficiency appliance standards for 20 types of products on which DOE has missed statutory deadlines.
“Appliance standards are the bedrock of our federal energy-efficiency policy. But in order to meet our nation’s energy needs, Congress and DOE need to work together to give this program the resources, management, authority, and focus it deserves. DOE needs to set standards quickly and effectively,” said Alliance Senior Policy Analyst Lowell Ungar.
He added, “For too long, and through multiple administrations, the appliance standards program has been not just a day late and a dollar short, but years late and billions of dollars short on consumer energy savings.
The Alliance supports legislation to:
” Clarify DOE’s authority to set standards that best serve the public interest, including multiple specifications for a single product and standards that vary by region for climate-sensitive products;
” Clarify that preemption of state standards applies only to products for which there is a federal standard;
” Require regular review and update of all test procedures and standards;
” Adopt standards based on consensus agreements between efficiency advocates and manufacturers, and allow expedited rulemaking for DOE to issue further standards based on consensus agreements; and
” Provide sufficient and stable funding for the program.
The full GAO report can be found at:
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