Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for External Power Supplies

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY <CFR>10 CFR Part 430</CFR> <DEPDOC>[EERE-2025-BT-STD-0026]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1904-AF96</RIN> <SUBJECT>Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for External Power Supplies</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 rulemaking; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> DOE is proposing to rescind its existing regulations regarding the energy conservation standards for consumer external power supplies adopted under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA). </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Comments:</E> Written comments, data, and information are requested and must be received on or before July 15, 2025. <E T="03">Meeting:</E> DOE will hold a webinar on Thursday, May 29, 2025, from 1 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-STD-0026. Follow the instructions for submitting comments. Alternatively, interested persons may submit comments, identified by docket number EERE-2025-BT-STD-0026 by any of the following methods: (1) <E T="03">Email: ExtPowerSupplies2025STD0026@ee.doe.gov.</E> Include the docket number EERE-2025-BT-STD-0026 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. 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 proposed rulemaking, which includes <E T="04">Federal Register</E> notices, public meeting attendee lists and transcripts, 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-0026.</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, “Public Participation,” for further 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 rulemaking may be found at <E T="03">www.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. 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</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. Attendance at the Public Meeting/Webinar</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Procedure for Submitting Prepared General Statements for Distribution</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Conduct of the Public Meeting/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. Discussion</HD> DOE is proposing to rescind the efficiency standards for external power supplies (EPS), codified in 10 CFR 430.32(w). Title III, Part B of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (“EPCA”), Public Law 94-163 (42 U.S.C. 6291-6309, as codified), established the Energy Conservation Program for Consumer Products Other Than Automobiles. Congress added EPSs as a covered product in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Public Law 109-58. Congress subsequently passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and provided therein efficiency standards for Class A EPSs as well as a schedule for the amendment of efficiency standards. Public Law 110-140, 301, 121 Stat. 1492, 1549-51 (2007). This schedule requires the Secretary to publish final rules determining whether the standards established by EISA should be amended. <E T="03">Id.</E> DOE proposed to adopt new energy conservation standards for EPSs in June 2009, and issued its final rule on September 19, 2011, amending the energy conservation standard for EPSs. DOE again amended the energy conservation standard on February 10, 2014. After reevaluation of the EPS standards, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 6295(u)(3)(D), the Secretary has tentatively determined that the standards legislated by Congress do not require amendment and the current regulatory standards are not economically justified. Accordingly, DOE is proposing to rescind the current rule, last amended by DOE on February 10, 2014, via 79 FR 7846, Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for External Power Supplies, and codified in 10 CFR 430.32. This recission will result in a reversion to the efficiency standard legislated by Congress in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. EPCA “provide[s] Federal energy conservation standards applicable to covered products,” and also “authorize[s] the Secretary to prescribe amended or new energy conservation standards for each type (or class) of covered product.” 42 U.S.C. 6295(a). DOE must follow specific statutory criteria for prescribing new or amended standards for covered products. EPCA also specifies that the Secretary may not prescribe any amended standard which “increases the maximum allowable energy use, or, in the case of showerheads, faucets, water closets, or urinals, water use, or decreases the minimum required energy efficiency, of a covered product.” 42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(1). This restriction is generally referred to as the “anti-backsliding” provision. Additionally, EPCA specifies that any new or amended energy conservation standard for any type of covered product shall be designed to achieve the maximum improvement in energy efficiency that is technologically feasible and economically justified. 42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(2)(A). The Secretary has reevaluated DOE's statutory authority and tentatively determined that when DOE rescinds a rule in full it has not “prescribe[d] any amended standard” that falls under the anti-backsliding provision. See 42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(1). Moreover, even if a rescission is an “amended standard,” the anti-backsliding provision only prevents DOE from setting standards below the statutory maximum or minimum. This position appears to be supported by the legislative history surrounding the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act of 1987 (NAECA), which amended EPCA to include the anti-backsliding provision. In summarizing NAECA, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources reported that “[a]fter the 3 to 10 year `lock-in' period, DOE may promulgate new standards for each product which may not be less than those established by the <E T="03">legislation.”</E> 133 Cong. Rec. S1909-01 (Feb. 5, 1987) (emphasis added). Legislation refers to the standards set by Congress, not the regulatory standards set by DOE. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, the NAECA sponsor, explained that NAECA would avoid costly regulating “by <E T="03">legislatively establishing standards</E> which have already been ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 38k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━