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On May 6, APGA filed comments in response to the Department of Energy (DOE) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to streamline and modernize the Process Rule. The Process Rule addresses the procedures and policies that guide DOE in establishing new or amended energy-efficiency standards. The hearing was well attended by representatives from the energy industry, appliance manufacturers, utilities, and efficiency groups. The NOPR, which was released in February, includes many of the changes pushed for by APGA at a January 2018 Public Meeting and in comments filed last year to DOE. The revisions contained in the proposed rule include: making the Process Rule binding; test procedures must be completed 180 days before DOE issues an efficiency standard; and, establishment of a recurring peer review of DOE’s analytical methods at least once every 10 years.

In its comments, APGA expresses support for the NOPR and encourages DOE to move swiftly to a final rule. APGA’s comments also express concerns regarding the modeling and analyses that DOE has used over the past several years to justify proposed efficiency standards, stating that flawed modeling has led DOE to overstate the potential benefits associated with proposed standards while understating the costs of the standard. APGA supports DOE’s proposal to make the Process Rule binding, communicating that by making the rule binding “there will be a consistent set of procedures in place to hold DOE accountable to its own procedures, and this will increase public confidence in the fairness of the regulatory process.” APGA also expresses support for the proposed requirement that test procedures used to evaluate proposed standards be finalized at least 180 days prior to publication of a NOPR proposing new or amended standards, stating that if “stakeholders do not know the exact procedure for testing equipment to determine compliance with a proposed efficiency standard, they cannot meaningfully analyze and comment on the impact of the proposed standard.”

A copy of the Process Rule comments is available on the APGA website. For questions on this article, please contact Dave Schryver of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at dschryver@apga.org.