Contact: Ben Somberg, 202-658-8129, bsomberg@aceee.org
Washington, DC— A proposed rule announced by the Trump administration today would create roadblocks for future administrations updating efficiency standards for appliances and equipment, putting major cost-saving advances at risk. The proposal from the Department of Energy (DOE) would add a series of time-consuming steps and challenging restrictions to the agency’s already lengthy standard-setting process.
“Efficiency standards are a proven policy for lowering Americans’ energy bills, but this would create hurdles designed to make updating them more difficult,” said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP). “This obstacle course of restrictions would hinder the department from carrying out its congressional mandate to protect consumers. We have products that keep getting more efficient and we need to embrace these technology advances, not reject them, especially as data centers strain our electric grid.”
Major energy savings could be at stake. Thanks to technological advances, the next round of strengthened standards could reduce a typical household’s utility bills by an average of about $160 annually and collectively save businesses almost $15 billion in annual operating costs over two decades (2030–2050), a recent ASAP analysis found. The proposed hurdles could frustrate or block that effort.
Provisions of the proposed “process rule” update include:
- A minimum savings threshold that would prevent new standards for many products, even if they would deliver significant benefits to the consumers and businesses who use them. The proposed threshold would block standards that deliver less than 2 quadrillion Btu of full-fuel-cycle energy savings (and save less than 10% of energy used by the products). This would mean prohibiting individual standards that deliver as much as $35 billion in energy bill savings.
- Adding an additional “early assessment” step, which could add time to the rulemaking process and potentially be duplicative. The agency has generally used two or three public comment steps, while many agencies regularly issue final rules after a single public comment step.
- A mandatory 180-day waiting period between a test procedure final rule and a proposal for a new standard.
- Requiring DOE to conduct a comparative analysis of potential standards in a manner that conflicts with the law, which requires that DOE adopt the maximum efficiency level that is technologically feasible and economically justified.
- A requirement that DOE restart the standards rulemaking process whenever more products are included within the scope of a regulation, once again forcing a choice between including products that logically should be part of a rule or more delay.
- A requirement that DOE “cover” new products, a separate process with its own timeline, before initiating rulemakings to set test procedures or standards.
- Increased deference to industry-developed test procedures, which may emphasize reducing manufacturer costs rather than efficiency ratings that reflect real-world performance.
- For commercial product standards, increased deference to standards established by ASHRAE, a professional society in which manufacturers have a strong voice, even when higher efficiency levels would deliver much larger savings for businesses.
- A mandate that would make the process rule legally binding for actions that would strengthen standards or cover additional products, but not for other actions. This would require DOE to scale the hurdles proposed today as well as others, taking away flexibility in how it sets standards.
The law set by Congress already sets clear and sufficient limits on DOE’s authority. DOE already only sets standards that save consumers more money than they cost, and it ensures that consumers continue to have access to product features they value. As Congress directed in bipartisan laws, DOE is required to review and update each standard periodically to keep pace with evolving technology.
DOE made process changes similar to those in today’s proposal in 2020, in the first Trump administration. The Biden administration largely undid those changes.
Polling has consistently shown wide, bipartisan support for efficiency standards. A 2025 Consumer Reports poll found 87% of respondents support standards. And a majority of Americans want them strengthened: A 2024 YouGov poll found that 58% of respondents support "setting tougher energy efficiency standards for appliances," while 16% are not sure and only 26% are opposed. A Morning Consult poll in 2023 found similar results.
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