Energy Conservation Program: Notification of Petition for Rulemaking

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY <CFR>10 CFR Parts 429 and 430</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EERE-2024-BT-TP-0011]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Energy Conservation Program: Notification of Petition for Rulemaking</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notification of petition for rulemaking; request for comment. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> On September 11, 2024, the Department of Energy (“DOE”) received a petition from Dyson Inc. for DOE to revoke the procedures by which manufacturers must measure and represent to consumers the effective room size coverage and integrated energy factor of their air cleaner products. If the provisions are not revoked, Dyson Inc. requested that DOE stay enforcement of these provisions pending a new notice and comment period regarding potential amendments to these provisions. DOE is not revoking or staying enforcement of the test procedure and representations provisions raised in Dyson's petition at this time. Through this notification, DOE is seeking views on whether it should grant the petition and undertake a rulemaking to consider the proposal contained in the petition, as well as any data or information that could be used in DOE's determination whether to grant the petition. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Written comments and information are requested and will be accepted on or before May 30, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> Interested persons are encouraged to submit comments using the Federal eRulemaking Portal at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov</E> under docket number EERE-2024-BT-TP-0011. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Alternatively, interested persons may submit comments, identified by docket number EERE-2024-BT-TP-0011, by any of the following methods: <E T="03">Email: AirCleanersPetition2024TP0011@ee.doe.gov</E> . Include the docket number and/or RIN in the subject line of the message. <E T="03">Postal Mail:</E> Appliance and Equipment Standards Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Building Technologies Office, Mailstop EE-5B, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121. If possible, please submit all items on a compact disc (“CD”), in which case it is not necessary to include printed copies. <E T="03">Hand Delivery/Courier:</E> Appliance and Equipment Standards Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Building Technologies Office, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121. Telephone: (202) 287-1445. If possible, please submit all items on a CD, in which case it is not necessary to include printed copies. No telefacsimiles (“faxes”) will be accepted. For detailed instructions on submitting comments and additional information on this process, see the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section of this document. <E T="03">Docket:</E> The docket for this activity, which includes <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notices, public meeting attendee lists and transcripts (if a public meeting is held), 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-TP-0011</E> . The docket web page contains instructions on how to access all documents, including public comments, in the docket. <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, Mailstop EE-5B, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121. Telephone: (240) 315-4339. Email: <E T="03">ApplianceStandardsQuestions@ee.doe.gov</E> . Mr. Uchechukwu “Emeka” Eze, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of the General Counsel, Mail Stop GC-33, Forrestal Building, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0103. Telephone: (202) 586-4798. Email: <E T="03">uchechukwu.eze@hq.doe.gov</E> . </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</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)) The Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended (“EPCA”), also specifically permits test procedures petitions. (See, 42 U.S.C. 6293(b)(2))  <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> If the Secretary determines, on his own behalf or in response to a petition by any interested person, that a test procedure should be prescribed or amended, the Secretary shall promptly publish in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> proposed test procedures and afford interested persons an opportunity to present oral and written data, views, and arguments with respect to such procedures. The comment period shall not be less than 60 days and may be extended for good cause shown to not more than 270 days. In prescribing or amending a test procedure, the Secretary shall take into account such information as the Secretary determines relevant to such procedure, including technological developments relating to energy use or energy efficiency of the type (or class) of covered products involved. (42 U.S.C. 6293(b)(2)) When DOE determines that test procedure revisions are not appropriate, DOE's practice is to publish its determination not to amend the test procedures. <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 reflects the last statutory amendments that impact Parts A and A-1 of EPCA. </FTNT> DOE received a petition from Dyson Inc. (“Dyson”) as described in this document and set forth verbatim below, <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> requesting that DOE amend its regulations to revoke the following regulatory text from the Code of Federal Regulations (“CFR”): (1) 10 CFR 429.68(a)(4), which specifies that any represented value of the effective room size of an air cleaner basic model must be calculated as the product of 1.55 and the represented smoke clean air delivery rate (“CADR”) value of the basic model; and, (2) 10 CFR 430.23(hh)(4), which specifies that the annual energy consumption and integrated energy factor (“IEF”) of a conventional room air cleaner is measured in accordance with section 7 of 10 CFR part 430, subpart B, appendix FF (“appendix FF”). In its petition, Dyson also requests that if DOE does not revoke the provisions as requested in the petition, that DOE stay enforcement of those provisions pending a period of notice and comment to consider further changes to the test procedure. <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  Dyson's petition for rulemaking is available in the docket at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov/document/EERE-2024-BT-TP-0011-0001</E> . </FTNT> In a final rule published on March 6, 2023 (88 FR 14014), DOE established the air cleaners test procedure at appendix FF and 10 CFR 430.23(hh) and sampling and representation requirements at 10 CFR 429.68. These test procedure requirements were established through a rulemaking process that included a notice of proposed rulemaking (“NOPR”) published on October 18, 2022. 87 FR 63324. Following publication of the NOPR, on August 23, 2022, DOE received a letter titled “Joint Statement of Joint Stakeholder Proposal on Recommended Energy Conservation Standards and Test Procedure for Consumer Room Air Cleaners” (hereafter referred to as the “Joint Proposal”)  <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> submitted by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Appliance Standards Awareness Project, Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (“AHAM”), <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> Consumer Federation of America, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company, collectively, the “Joint Stakeholders.” In the Joint Proposal, the signatories recommended DOE adopt a Federal test procedure by incorporating by reference industry standards AHAM AC-7-2022  <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> and AHAM AC-1-2020. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> In the March 2023 test procedure final rule, DOE considered comments received in response to the test procedure NOPR as well as the Joint Proposal in adopting the current air cleaners test procedures. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  Available at <E T="03">www.regulations.gov/comment/EERE-2024-BT-TP-0011-0002</E> . </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  Representing the following companies who manufacture consumer room air cleaners and are members of the Portable Appliance Division: 3M Co., ACCO Brands Corporation, Airgle Corporation, Alticor, Inc., Beijing Smartmi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., BISSELL Inc., Blueair Inc., BSH Home Appliances Corporation, De'Longhi America, Inc., Dyson Limited, Essick Air Products, Fellowes Inc., Foxconn Technology Group, Gree Electric Appliances Inc., Groupe SEB, Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd., Helen of Troy-Health & Home, Lasko Products, Inc., Molekule Inc., Newell Brands Inc., Oransi LLC, Phillips Domestic Appliances NA Corporation, SharkNinja Operating, LLC, Vornado Air LLC, Winix Inc., and Zojirushi America Corporation. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  AHAM AC-7-2022, “Energy Test Method for Consumer Room Air Cleaners,” copyright 2022. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  ANSI/AHAM AC-1-2020, “Method for Measuring Performance of Portable Household Electric Room Air Cleaners,” ANSI-approved December 2020, including AHAM Standard Interpretation on September 19, 2022. </FTNT> In announcing this petition for public comment, DOE is seeking ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 77k characters. 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