Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Faucets

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY <CFR>10 CFR Part 430</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EERE-2025-BT-STD-0021]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1904-AF91</RIN> <SUBJECT>Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Faucets</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy (DOE). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemakings; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to rescind the amended water use standards for faucets. If finalized, this will reset existing water use requirements for faucets to the statutory standard. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Comments:</E> Comments must be received within 60 days of May 16, 2025. <E T="03">Meeting:</E> DOE will hold a meeting via a webinar on Thursday, May 29, 2025, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. See section III of this document, “Public Participation,” for webinar registration information, participant instructions and information about the capabilities available to webinar participants. </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-2025-BT-STD-0021. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Alternatively, interested persons may submit comments, identified by docket number EERE-2025-BT-STD-0021, by any of the following methods: (1) <E T="03">Email: Faucets2025STD0021@ee.doe.gov.</E> Include the docket number EERE-2025-BT-STD-0021 in the subject line of the message. Submit electronic comments in WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, PDF, or ASCII file format, and avoid the use of special characters or any form of encryption. (2) <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. Telephone: (202) 287-1445. If possible, please submit all items on a compact disc (“CD”), in which case it is not necessary to include printed copies. (3) <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 section IV of this document. <E T="03">Docket:</E> The docket for this rulemaking, which includes <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notices, public meeting attendee lists and transcripts (if one is held), comments, and other supporting documents and 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-2025-BT-STD-0021.</E> The docket web page contains instructions on how to access all documents, including public comments, in the docket, as well as a summary of the rulemaking. See section III of this document, “Public Participation,” for further information on how to submit comments through <E T="03">www.regulations.gov.</E> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: </HD> Mr. David Taggart, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of the General Counsel, GC-1, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121. Telephone: (202) 586-5281. Email: <E T="03">DOEGeneralCounsel@hq.doe.gov.</E> For further information on how to submit a comment or review other public comments and 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> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. General Discussion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Procedural Issues and Regulatory Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Review Under Executive Order 12866</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Review Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Review Under the Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Review Under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Review Under Executive Order 13132</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Review Under Executive Order 12988</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Review Under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Review Under the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 1999</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. Review Under Executive Order 12630</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">J. Review Under the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 2001</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">K. Review Under Executive Order 13211</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">L. Review Under the Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">M. Review Under Additional Executive Orders and Presidential Memoranda</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Public Participation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Participation in the Webinar</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Procedure for Submitting Prepared General Statements for Distribution</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Conduct of the Webinar</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Submission of Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Approval of the Office of the Secretary</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. General Discussion</HD> The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing to rescind the maximum water use requirements for faucets, codified in title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (“CFR”) 430.32(o), and return to the Congressionally established maximum water use. DOE proposes to rescind the regulatory water use standards in their entirety and seeks comment on all aspects of this proposal. The rescission will return the water use requirements for the five enumerated faucet types to the standards established in 42 U.S.C. 6295(j)(2). Title III, Part B of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), Public Law 94-163 (42 U.S.C. 6291-6309, as codified), established the Energy Conservation Program for “Consumer Products Other Than Automobiles.” Faucets are included in the list of “covered products” for which DOE is authorized to establish and amend energy conservation standards and test procedures. (42 U.S.C. 6292(a)(16)) Through EPCA, Congress established water conservation standards for faucets, which set the maximum water use allowed as 2.5 gallons per minute for lavatory faucets, lavatory replacement aerators, kitchen faucets, kitchen replacement aerators, or 0.25 gallons per cycle for metering faucets when measured at a flowing water pressure of 80 pounds per square inch. (42 U.S.C 6295(j)(2)) These standards, as prescribed by EPCA, originate in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers/American National Standards Institute (“ASME/ANSI”) Standard A112.18.1M-1989. 62 FR 7834, 7835 (Feb. 20, 1997). EPCA further provides that if the requirements of ASME/ANSI Standard A112.18.1M-1989 are amended to improve the efficiency of water use, the Secretary shall publish a final rule establishing an amended uniform national standard <E T="03">unless</E> the Secretary determines that adoption of such a standard at the level specified is not: (i) technologically feasible and economically justified under subsection (o) of this section; (ii) consistent with the maintenance of public health and safety; or (iii) consistent with the purposes of this Act. (42 U.S.C. 6295(j)(3)(A)) Finally, EPCA offers a pathway for the Secretary to adopt a uniform national standard for faucets that are more stringent than amened ASME/ANSI standards if it “(I) would result in additional conservation of energy or water; (II) would be technologically feasible and economically justified under subsection (o) of this section; and (III) would be consistent with the maintenance of public health and safety.” (42 U.S.C. 6295(j)(3)(B)(i)) DOE codified the maximum water use allowed for this covered product by establishing 10 CFR 430.32(o) through a final rule in 1998. Instead of adopting the values from the statute, which parallelled ASME/ANS Standard A112.18.1M-1989, DOE incorporated the water use thresholds from the recently amended ASME/ANS Standard A112.18.1M-1996 into its regulation. See 63 FR 13308, 13309 (March 18, 1998). DOE is now proposing to rescind the maximum water use allowances at 10 CFR 430.32(o) that adopted ASME/ANS Standard A112.18.1M-1996. As mentioned previously, EPCA provided DOE with the authority to adopt amended standards for water use if the ASME/ANSI Standard A112.18.1M-1989 was amended and directed the agency to adopt a uniform national standard meeting the amended levels <E T="03">unless</E> the Secretary determined that such standards was not technologically feasible and economically justified; consistent with the maintenance of public health and safety; or (iii) consistent with the purposes of EPCA. (42 U.S.C. 6295(j)(3)(A)(i-iii)) Upon reevaluation, DOE has tentatively determined that the maximum water use values from ASME/ANSI Standard A112.18.1M-1996 were not economically justified, and likely should not have been adopted in regulation, and should now be rescinded. If this proposal is finalized, regulated entities should instead rely on the statutory maximum water use allowances at 42 U.S.C. 6295(j)(2). DOE seeks comment on all aspects of DOE's statutory authority as relevant to the water use regulations of faucets and the proposal to rescind the standard ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 37k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━