Manufacturers Warn Trump’s Proposed Energy Efficiency Rollbacks Would Strand Investments, Advantage Foreign Factories

When the Department of Energy proposed to roll back efficiency standards for 17 products, we noted that this was not only illegal but could cost families and businesses up to $43 billion.

Since then, manufacturers of the products at issue (and associations representing these companies) have weighed in on the proposals.

After reviewing all of the submitted comments, we found that manufacturers and their associations submitted more than 30 opposing the rollbacks and not a single one in support.

Manufacturers opposed the rollbacks for many reasons, but one theme that stood out was a warning that the proposals would undercut their U.S. factories, stranding investments and giving an advantage to foreign-produced products.

Plumbing Manufacturers International opposed weakening standards for faucets, saying, “As soon as the federal maximum flow rate is 2.5 gpm, imports, mainly from China, will flood the U.S. market,” and that “redesigning faucets to meet the newly proposed requirements will put U.S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage against foreign competitors.”

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which represents producers of several of the products at issue, opposed the rollbacks, too. In its comments against weakening standards for washing machines, it said that "manufacturers have invested heavily in innovating to meet energy conservation standards” and warned that “were DOE to finalize this proposed rule, the result would be millions of dollars in stranded investments and now obsolete innovation, as manufacturers would essentially be required to abandon these innovations in efficiency."

The manufacturer Ingersoll Rand, commenting on the proposed rollback of standards for compressors, said, “the removal of the current rule may create an environment where foreign-manufactured low priced inefficient product are dumped onto the U.S. markets.”

Opening up U.S. markets to a potential flood of inefficient imports would not only raise costs for already-strapped families, but also undercut U.S. manufacturing jobs.