The Department of Energy is proposing one of the biggest deregulatory plans in its history, proposing sweeping changes to programs affecting fossil fuels, renewables and efficiency.
DOE outlined the plans in dozens of proposals in the Federal Register on Monday, including roughly 20 rules calling for elimination of mandatory efficiency standards for products including dishwashers and portable air conditioners. Energy Secretary Chris Wright previewed the rulemaking blitz on “Fox and Friends” on Sunday.
“We have worked with the team here day and night to look at all the regulations put out by the DOE, and [Monday] we’ll announce 47 changes to regulations, mostly just straight-out elimination of regulations on everything from your dishwasher to your stove to your washing machine, your microwave, and maybe biggest of all your showerhead,” Wright said.
In a statement, DOE said the 47 actions would cut more than 125,000 words from the Code of Federal Regulations.
“While it would normally take years for the Department of Energy to remove just a handful of regulations, the Trump administration assembled a team working around the clock to reduce costs and deliver results for the American people in just over 110 days,” Wright said, calling the plan a “first step.”
Wright and President Donald Trump have made reversing efficiency rules a priority, saying existing standards are burdensome and decrease consumer choice. The proposed rules also would affect procedures for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and rules for some renewable incentives, among other things.
Environmentalists said the proposed rollback of final efficiency standards is illegal, considering an anti-backsliding clause in existing law blocking new standards from being weaker for a covered product than what is already on the books.
“They are ignoring the law,” said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project. “When you take these standards away, that’s going to increase costs for consumers and businesses.”
DOE “is going to be sued by states and various [nongovernmental organizations],” said Daniel Eisenberg, a principal at Beveridge & Diamond.
DOE is presenting a far narrower view of the backsliding provision, adding that the deregulatory effort will have “wide-ranging impacts on consumers, manufacturers, importers and energy utilities,” he said.
In one document, DOE says it has “reevaluated” its statutory authority and tentatively determined that rescinding a rule does not violate the backsliding clause.
The regulatory rollbacks are a more aggressive attack on DOE’s efficiency rules than in Trump’s first term, when many standards were delayed. On Friday, Trump also signed four bills undoing efficiency rules for gas tankless water heaters, commercial refrigerator and freezer standards, walk-in cooler standards, and the certification rule.
He also released a memorandum Friday directing DOE to alter water standards that he said “make bathroom appliances more expensive and less functional.”
Trump called on the Energy secretary to use “all lawful authority” to rescind standards for dishwashers, faucets and showerheads and submit recommendations to the White House within 60 days for Congress to repeal language affecting water pressure in appliances.
The move echoes a Trump order in April directing Wright to “make showers great again” by rescinding a 2021 rule limiting the appliances to spraying 2.5 gallons of water a minute.
Reporter Brian Dabbs contributed.
