States continue appliance standards momentum in 2022

Momentum for states adopting appliance efficiency standards has not slowed down following a banner year in 2021. In the last five months, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Oregon, Washington have adopted or implemented appliance standards while New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut still have standards under consideration. 2022 has also seen the launch of a new online tool designed to help implementation and enforcement of appliance standards easier for states and manufacturers alike.

State Standards Activity: September 2021 - April 2022

• In December 2021, Massachusetts regulators finalized administrative rules for 17 appliance standards. These standards resulted from the state legislature passing S.9 in March 2021. Importantly, the standards took effect on January 1, 2022 and manufacturers must now certify products in order to ship them to the state. Directions on how to certify can be found here.
• New Jersey was first out of the gate in 2022, putting 17 new appliance standards into law when Governor Phil Murphy signed S3324 / A5160 on January 18th. Notably, one-third of the bill’s total economic savings come from standards for two water-using products—showerheads and faucets. That’s because better efficiency in these products means there’s less water that needs to be heated, so New Jersey residents save on both energy and water bills (and wastewater bills, too).
• Maryland's legislature has passed appliance standards legislation for 13 common household and commercial appliances, including air purifiers, faucets, water coolers, and restaurant cooking equipment. Governor Larry Hogan’s Maryland Energy Administration supported the bill (HB 772 / SB 494) and the governor is anticipated to sign it. For more information see our latest blog post.
• Washington added to its already strong suite of appliance standards when Governor Jay Inslee signed HB 1619 on March 11th. The law sets standards for three new products in the state (air purifiers, commercial ovens, and electric vehicle supply equipment) while updating existing standards for three products (commercial hot-food holding cabinets, portable electric spas, and residential ventilating fans). Washington became the third state to adopt standards for air purifiers, a particularly energy intensive product and one that is growing in sales volumes in part due to rising concerns about wildfire smoke in the state.
• Back in 2021, Oregon adopted a fresh set of appliance standards for 11 products. Now in 2022 lawmakers added a new product to the list that will greatly help reduce water waste: spray sprinkler bodies. This one product alone will save Oregon approximately 117 billion gallons of water through 2040.

New Tool: State Appliance Standards Database (SASD)

With 13 states adopting appliance standards in the last five years and more likely to come, a new online tool was launched at the start of 2022 to help states and manufacturers alike to track and implement these policies. The State Appliance Standards Database (SASD) aims to be a one-stop-shop for manufacturers to both understand which appliance standards are in each state and list which of their products qualify to be sold there. The tool is also designed to help state agencies implement appliance standards by being able to more quickly identify whether a product being sold in their state meets the efficiency levels. The SASD is a project of our colleagues at the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) and is available to any state.