On April 14, 2020 the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sued the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco over the DOE’s revised process for setting appliance standards.[1] Along with NRDC, parties to the suit include Earthjustice, representing the Sierra Club, Consumer Federation of America, and Massachusetts Union of Public Housing Tenants; the U.S. Public Interest Research Group; and Environment America. According to the NRDC, this lawsuit is the 107th legal challenge to the administration’s rulings on environmental issues, and the third time in five months that groups have filed suit over the appliance standards program. DOE’s revised process requires a new standard to save 0.3 quadrillion BTUs of energy consumed by appliances on site over 30 years. However, the lawsuit argues that the new process sets an arbitrary baseline for “significant savings” to establish a new standard.

The DOE, however, argues that the current rules require too much investment for savings that are not always significant. The DOE is now taking public comment on how to prioritize its review of appliance standards under the revised process.[2] Environmental advocates say they will be following it closely and believe the move is unnecessary.

[1] https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/energy-efficiency-standards-20200414.pdf

[2] https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/04/15/2020-07721/energy-conservation-program-procedures-for-use-in-new-or-revised-energy-conservation-standards-and