By law, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) must review each national appliance standard every six years and publish either a proposed rule to update the standard or a determination that no change is warranted. If DOE publishes a proposed update, a final rule is due two years later. In addition, Congress set unique review schedules for a few products. As of March 2021, DOE has missed legal deadlines for twenty-eight product standards.
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New York Times Op-ed
By Terry Sobolewski and Ralph Cavanagh, NRDC
Partisan fights in Washington can leave the impression that we’re hopelessly divided. The truth is there are plenty of bipartisan solutions to the energy and environmental challenges we face, and energy efficiency is near the top of the list.

NRDC blog post by Ed Osann
Twenty-five years ago this week, President George H.W. Bush ushered the federal government into our bathrooms.
This turned out to be a good thing.

In a letter to House and Senate subcommittees and to DOE Secretary Perry from "the entire group of Senate-confirmed Republican and Democratic Assistant Secretaries of Energy who led the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) between 1989 and 2017", standards are billed as the "little engine that could."

Little-known appliance standards rank as the #2 energy-saving tool in the US. Already saving enough annually to power 1 out of 3 homes.

In October 2020, the Trump administration passed a new rule for dishwasher efficiency, claiming that it would undo “burdensome reg

Washington, DC is set to become the eighth U.S. jurisdiction to adopt energy-saving standards for common household and commercial products since the start of the Trump administration. On Tuesday afternoon, the DC Council voted unanimously in support of the measure, which will cut utility bills for consumer and businesses and help meet the district’s target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2032.

Download the Report
Read the Press Release
Authors: Joanna Mauer and Andrew deLaski
November 2020
An ASAP and ACEEE report