Obama orders fast action on efficiency standards

The President has ordered the Dept. of Energy to finalize new appliance energy efficiency standards as soon as possible.

By Source: Dept. of Energy February 18, 2009

President Barack Obama issued a memo to the Dept. of Energy urging the swift finalization of new appliance energy efficiency standard. Although the DOE has made progress on efforts to publish final rules on standards stemming from a consent decree, Obama has stressed the importance of achieving the goals sooner, rather than later, so that Americans can benefit from improved energy efficiency.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA) set deadlines for the DOE to set energy efficiency standards for various residential and commercial products; in 2005, DOE was sued for failing to meet the deadlines and other requirements of the EPCA. In November 2006, DOE entered into a consent decree, agreeing to publish the final rules for 22 product categories by specific deadlines, the latest of which is June 30, 2011.

President Obama directed DOE to focus its efforts on the five energy efficiency rules with deadlines prior to Aug. 8, and then to focus on tackling the standards with greatest potential savings.

Click here to view Obama’s speech.