Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Dishwashers, Residential Clothes Washers, and Consumer Clothes Dryers

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY <CFR>10 CFR Part 430</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EERE-2024-BT-STD-0002]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1904-AF69</RIN> <SUBJECT>Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Dishwashers, Residential Clothes Washers, and Consumer Clothes Dryers</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule; confirmation of effective date. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In light of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granting a petition for review of a final rule published by the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) on January 19, 2022, and remanding the matter to DOE for further proceedings, DOE has considered the factors outlined by the Fifth Circuit on whether “short-cycle” product classes for dishwashers, residential clothes washers, and consumer clothes dryers are warranted under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and confirms the withdrawal of “short-cycle” product classes in the January 19, 2022, final rule. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The effective date of the final rule published on January 19, 2022 (87 FR 2673) is confirmed as February 18, 2022, without change. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> The docket for this rulemaking, which includes <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notices, comments, and other supporting documents/materials, is available for review at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov.</E> All documents in the docket are listed in the <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> index. However, not all documents listed in the index may be publicly available, such as information that is exempt from public disclosure. The docket web page can be found at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov/docket/EERE-2024-BT-STD-0002.</E> The docket web page contains instructions on how to access all documents, including public comments, in the docket. For further information on how to review the docket, contact the Appliance and Equipment Standards Program staff at (202) 287-1445 or by email: <E T="03">ApplianceStandardsQuestions@ee.doe.gov.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Dr. Carl Shapiro, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building Technologies Office, EE-5B, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121. Telephone: (202) 287-5649. Email: <E T="03">ApplianceStandardsQuestions@ee.doe.gov.</E> Mr. Pete Cochran, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of the General Counsel, GC-33, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121. Telephone: (240) 961-1189. Email: <E T="03">Peter.Cochran@hq.doe.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Introduction</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Authority</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Discussion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Dishwashers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Cycle Time as a Performance-Related Feature</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Justification of Different Standards for Dishwashers With a Short-Cycle Feature</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Response to Other Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Historical Cycle Time Trends</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Residential Clothes Washers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Cycle Time as a Performance-Related Feature</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Justification of Different Standards for Residential Clothes Washers With a Short-Cycle Feature</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Consumer Clothes Dryers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Cycle Time as a Performance-Related Feature</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Justification of Different Standards for Consumer Clothes Dryers With a Short-Cycle Feature</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Other Topics Addressed by the Fifth Circuit</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">1. Water Authority</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">2. Test Procedure Authority</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">3. Preservation of Product Utility and Potential for Increased Energy or Water Use</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">a. Dishwashers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">b. Residential Clothes Washers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">c. Consumer Clothes Dryers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Conclusions</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Procedural Issues and Regulatory Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Approval of the Office of the Secretary</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Introduction</HD> The following sections briefly discuss the statutory authority underlying this confirmation of withdrawal, as well as some of the historical background relevant to dishwashers, residential clothes washers (“RCWs”), and consumer clothes dryers. <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Authority</HD> The U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) must follow specific statutory criteria under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, Public Law 94-163, <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> as amended, (“EPCA”) for prescribing new or amended standards for covered products, including dishwashers, RCWs, and consumer clothes dryers. Any new or amended standard for a covered product must be designed to achieve the maximum improvement in energy efficiency that the Secretary of Energy (“Secretary”) determines is technologically feasible and economically justified. (42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(2)(A)) Furthermore, DOE may not adopt any standard that would not result in the significant conservation of energy. (42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(3)(B)) <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  All references to EPCA in this document refer to the statute as amended through the Energy Act of 2020, Public Law 116-260 (Dec. 27, 2020), which reflect the last statutory amendments that impact parts A and A-1 of EPCA. </FTNT> In deciding whether a proposed standard is economically justified, DOE must determine whether the benefits of the standard exceed its burdens. (42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(2)(B)(i)) DOE must make this determination after receiving comments on the proposed standard, and by considering, to the greatest extent practicable, the following seven statutory factors: (1) The economic impact of the standard on manufacturers and consumers of the products subject to the standard; (2) The savings in operating costs throughout the estimated average life of the covered products in the type (or class) compared to any increase in the price, initial charges, or maintenance expenses for the covered products that are likely to result from the standard; (3) The total projected amount of energy (or as applicable, water) savings likely to result directly from the standard; (4) Any lessening of the utility or the performance of the covered products likely to result from the standard; (5) The impact of any lessening of competition, as determined in writing by the Attorney General, that is likely to result from the standard; (6) The need for national energy and water conservation; and (7) Other factors the Secretary considers relevant. <FP>(42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(2)(B)(i)(I) through (VII))</FP> EPCA, as codified, also contains what is known as an “anti-backsliding” provision, which prevents the Secretary from prescribing any amended standard that either increases the maximum allowable energy use or decreases the minimum required energy efficiency of a covered product. (42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(1)) Also, the Secretary may not prescribe an amended or new standard if interested persons have established by a preponderance of the evidence that the standard is likely to result in the unavailability in the United States in any covered product type (or class) of performance characteristics (including reliability), features, sizes, capacities, and volumes that are substantially the same as those generally available in the United States. (42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(4)) Additionally, EPCA specifies requirements when promulgating an energy conservation standard for a covered product that has two or more subcategories. A rule prescribing an energy conservation standard for a type (or class) of product must specify a different standard level for a type or class of products that has the same function or intended use if DOE determines that products within such group (A) consume a different kind of energy from that consumed by other covered products within such type (or class); or (B) have a capacity or other performance-related feature which other products within such type (or class) do not have and such feature justifies a higher or lower standard. (42 U.S.C. 6295(q)(1)) In determining whether a performance-related feature justifies a different standard for a group of products, DOE considers such factors as the utility to the consumer of such a feature and other factors DOE deems appropriate. ( <E T="03">Id.</E> ) Any rule prescribing such a standard must include an explanation of the basis on which such higher or lower level was established. (42 U.S.C. 6295(q)(2)) <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Background</HD> The Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”), 5 U.S.C. 551 <E T="03">et seq.,</E> provides, among other things, that “[e]ach agency shall give an interested person the right to petition for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of a rule.” (5 U.S.C. 553(e)) Pursuant to this provision of the APA, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”) petitioned DOE (“March 2018 Petition”) for the issuance of a rule establishing a new product class under 42 U.S.C. 6295(q) that would cover dishwashers with a cycle time of less than 60 minutes from washing through drying, asserting that it is not technologically feasible to create dishwashers that both meet the current standards and have cycle times of 60 minutes or less. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> On October 30, 2020, DOE published a final rule that established a product class for standard-size dishwashers with a cycle time for the normal cycle  <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> of 60 minutes or less. 85 FR 68723 (“October 2020 Final Rule”). Contrary to CEI's claim in the March 2 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 170k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━