What Happened?
The rules that determine how much energy your refrigerator, water heater, and other appliances must save could soon get harder to tighten and easier to roll back. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report titled "Reforming the Energy Policy and Conservation Act: Balancing Costs and Benefits and Curating the Law's Energy Standards."
Congress first mandated a national appliance standards program in 1978, directing the Secretary of Energy to set binding energy-performance targets for certain consumer products. The law requires reviews every six years and bars any standard from being weakened once set.
On July 7, the Department of Energy (DOE) proposed a two-part test requiring either a 10 percent cut in energy use over 30 years or at least two quadrillion British thermal units (BTUs) of savings, a approach that mirrors a 2020 proposal from the first Trump administration that the Biden administration reversed in 2021.
Why Does it Matter to Me?
Updating efficiency standards under the existing framework would save households $160 a year and businesses $15 billion in cumulative annual savings, according to a study by the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, with those benefits projected between 2030 and 2050.
Whether states like California can keep their own stricter rules is also at stake.
H.R. 4626, passed by the House in the 119th Congress, would set a quantitative energy savings threshold, give the Department of Energy explicit power to revoke standards, eliminate the mandatory six-year review cycle, and replace it with a two-year review after standards take effect.
Both Sides, Now
The Trump administration has signaled it wants to weaken existing standards and make future rulemakings harder to complete. In May 2025, DOE announced it would propose eliminating or reducing 47 rules, with 24 targeting appliance efficiency standards. Congress used the Congressional Review Act, a tool that lets Congress cancel recently finalized federal rules, to revoke three revised standards covering water heaters, walk-in coolers, and commercial refrigeration equipment.
DOE officials are also arguing that the law's anti-backsliding provision, which bars weakening a standard once set, applies only to targets written directly into the statute, not those added by regulatory interpretation.
DOE finalized updated water-heater efficiency standards in May 2024, projecting they would save households more than $7 billion annually on utility bills, savings that could be forgone if future updates become harder to enact. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) reported in September 2022 that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) settled a lawsuit over missing 20 legal deadlines to review and update efficiency standards.
What Happens Next?
The House passed H.R. 4626 in the 119th Congress, and similar bills passed the House in the two prior Congresses. A 2021 review found 33 rulemakings were late relative to statutory deadlines, with 25 having missed the six-year periodic review requirement, a backlog that has already produced federal litigation.
The central question is whether the Senate will take up the bill, and whether DOE's proposed new test survives legal challenges to the anti-backsliding rule.
---
AllCiv makes it easy to stay politically informed and involved.
---
Spot something wrong? Report an issue with this article