Energy Conservation Program: Proposed Withdrawal of Determination of Portable Air Conditioners as a Covered Consumer Product

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY <CFR>10 CFR Part 430</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket EERE-2025-BT-DET-0024]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1904-AF94</RIN> <SUBJECT>Energy Conservation Program: Proposed Withdrawal of Determination of Portable Air Conditioners as a Covered Consumer Product</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice of proposed rulemaking; proposed withdrawal of determination. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> DOE is proposing to withdraw its prior determination that portable air conditioners (“portable ACs”) qualify as covered products under Part A of Title III of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended (“EPCA”). </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Written comments, data, and information are requested and will be accepted on or before July 15, 2025. DOE will hold a webinar on Thursday, May 29, 2025, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. See section III, “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-DET-0024 Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Alternatively, interested persons may submit comments, identified by docket number EERE-2025-BT-DET-0024, by any of the following methods: (1) <E T="03">Email: PortableAC2025DET0024@ee.doe.gov.</E> Include the docket number EERE-2025-BT-DET-0024 in the subject line of the message. (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 III (Public Participation) 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-2025-BT-DET-0024</E> . The docket web page contains instructions on how to access all documents, including public comments, in the docket. See section III of this document for information on how to submit comments through <E T="03">www.regulations.gov.</E> In accordance with 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(4), a summary of this rule may be found at <E T="03">regulations.gov</E> , under the docket number. <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 Orders 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. Procedures 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="FP1-2">E. Issues on Which DOE Seeks Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Approval of the Office of the Secretary</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. General Discussion</HD> Under EPCA, DOE may add consumer products to the list of covered products for which energy conservation standards can be established. 42 U.S.C. 6292(b)(1). The coverage determination procedures require DOE to conclude that classifying products of such type as covered products is necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of this chapter, among other requirements. <E T="03">Id.</E> at 42 U.S.C. 6292(b)(1)(A). Only after coverage is determined, may DOE then adopt standards and test procedures regulating such products, pursuant to the requirements set out in the statute. See generally 42 U.S.C. 6293, 6295. On July 5, 2013, DOE published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> a notice of proposed determination of coverage (NOPD) in which it tentatively determined that portable ACs satisfy the provisions of 42 U.S.C. 6292(b)(1). 78 FR 40403. After considering public comments on the NOPD, DOE issued a final determination of coverage for portable ACs on April 18, 2016. 81 FR 22514. As part of the determination, DOE adopted a definition of “portable air conditioners” and amended the definition of “covered products” to include portable ACs. <E T="03">Id.</E> at 81 FR 22514, 22519-22520. DOE has reevaluated its prior determination of whether including portable ACs as a covered product is necessary and appropriate to carry out the purposes of EPCA. Based on this reevaluation, DOE has tentatively determined that, at this time, it is not necessary or appropriate to classify portable ACs as a covered product to carry out the purposes of EPCA. EPCA provides the Secretary discretion in classifying a type of consumer product as a covered product because the Secretary <E T="03">may</E> classify if certain requirements are met. See 42 U.S.C. 6292(b) (emphasis added). While DOE found in the April 2016 Final Determination that classifying portable ACs as a covered product was needed to set energy conservation standards for portable ACs and carry out EPCA's purposes to conserve energy supplies and provide for improved energy efficiency of other consumer products, DOE has reevaluated that determination. See 81 FR 22514, 22517. Using the discretion provided by EPCA for classifying additional covered products, DOE has tentatively determined that there are other avenues to conserve energy supplies than classifying portable ACs as a covered product and establishing standards. Therefore, DOE has tentatively found that classifying portable ACs as a covered product is not necessary or appropriate to carry out the purposes of EPCA. Additionally, if DOE proceeds with issuing a final withdrawal of the coverage determination for portable ACs, then DOE subsequently lacks the authority to prescribe energy conservation standards for portable ACs. See 42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(2)(A) and (o)(3)(B). For this reason, DOE is also proposing to withdraw the applicable energy conservations standards for portable ACs. See 85 FR 1378 (Jan. 10, 2020); 10 CFR 430.32(cc). DOE proposes to withdraw the final determination and accompanying energy conservation standards for portable ACs in full and seeks comment on all aspects of the proposal. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Procedural Issues and Regulatory Review</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Review Under Executive Orders 12866</HD> Executive Order (“E.O.”) 12866, “Regulatory Planning and Review,” requires agencies, to the extent permitted by law, to (1) propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify its costs (recognizing that some benefits and costs are difficult to quantify); (2) tailor regulations to impose the least burden on society, consistent with obtaining regulatory objectives, taking into account, among other things, and to the extent practicable, the costs of cumulative regulations; (3) select, in choosing among alternative regulatory approaches, those approaches that maximize net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety, and other advantages; distributive impacts; and equity); (4) ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 38k characters. 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