On April 1, 2021, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comment that proposed undoing revisions that the previous administration had made to the process rule. The DOE's process rule governs the process of developing energy conservation standards for appliances such as dishwashers and refrigerators.
On January 16, 2020, DOE finalized amendments to the process rule that established a new threshold for the amount of energy conservation required to trigger the process of updating standards that is likely to result in fewer updates in the future. The revisions also require DOE to codify private sector consensus standards for test procedures. The April 1, 2021 notice proposes reversing these and other amendments.
Comments will be accepted until May 16, 2021.