Voglio sapere a riguardo di…

jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with PROPOSALS

43972

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 152 / Wednesday, August 11, 2021 / Proposed Rules
use less than 307 kwh/year and 5.0
gallons per cycle, while compact dishwashers, regardless of normal cycle time, had to use less than 222 kwh/year and 3.5 gallons per cycle.
On October 30, 2020, DOE published a final rule that replaced an existing product class for dishwashers with two new product classes based on cycle time and amended the standards for such dishwashers. 85 FR 68723. DOE
initiated the rulemaking in response to a petition for rulemaking submitted by the Competitive Enterprise Institute CEI in March 2018, in which CEI
asserted that there was considerable consumer disatisfaction with the dramatically longer cycle time for dishwashers under the then-current energy conservation standards. 83 FR
17768 Apr. 24, 2018. CEI requested that DOE establish a new product class for dishwashers with a cycle time of less than one hour. Id. at 83 FR 17771.
In the October 2020 Final Rule, DOE
stated that a product class of standard size residential dishwashers with a normal cycle of 60 minutes or less would allow manufacturers to provide consumers with the option to purchase a dishwasher that maximizes the consumer utility of a short-cycle time to wash and dry dishes. 85 FR 68723, 68724. DOE also stated that a product class for which the normal cycle time is 60 minutes or less could spur manufacturer innovation to generate additional product offerings to fill the market gap that exists for these products. Id. at 85 FR 68726. DOE
determined that, under 42 U.S.C.
6295q, dishwashers with a normal cycle time of 60 minutes or less have a performance-related feature that other dishwashers lack and that this feature justifies a separate product class subject to a higher or lower standard than the standards currently applicable to the existing product classes of dishwashers.
Id. As a result, DOE replaced the existing product class for standard dishwashers with two new product classes for standard size dishwashers based on normal cycle time. DOE kept the existing energy conservation standards for standard size dishwashers with a normal cycle time greater than 60
minutes at the level previously prescribed for the product class that covered all standard size dishwashers.
Id. at 85 FR 68741. DOE also stated that standard size dishwashers with a normal cycle time of 60 minutes or less were not subject to any energy or water conservation standards, thus allowing for unlimited water and energy usage.
power-dry setting. 10 CFR part 430 subpart B
appendix C1 Appendix C1, section 1.12.

VerDate Sep<11>2014

17:48 Aug 10, 2021

Jkt 253001

Id. at 85 FR 68742. DOE stated it would consider further amending energy and water conservation standards for standard size dishwashers with a normal cycle time of 60 minutes or less in a future rulemaking. Id. at 85 FR
68724.
On December 29, 2020, the National Resources Defense Council NRDC, Sierra Club, Consumer Federation of America, and Massachusetts Union of Public Housing Tenants petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to review and set aside the October 2020 Final Rule. Natural Resources Defense Council v. U.S. Dept of Energy, No. 204256 2d Cir.. On the same day, the States of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the City of New York filed a separate petition for review of the October 2020 Final Rule in the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
California v. U.S. Dept of Energy, No.
204285 2d Cir.. These two cases have been consolidated in the Second Circuit and have been placed in abeyance pending DOEs review of the October 2020 Final Rule.
Further, on March 1, 2021, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers AHAM petitioned DOE to reconsider the October 2020
Final Rule that established and amended standards for short-cycle residential dishwashers. AHAM
petition for reconsideration-1; Docket EERE2021BTSTD0002, No. 001 at p. 2.4 5 On April 28, 2021, the NRDC, Sierra Club, the Consumer Federation of America, and the Massachusetts Union of Public Housing Tenants NRDC et al. also submitted a petition for DOE
to repeal the same October 2020 Final Rule NRDC petition for reconsideration.6 The petition challenges the legality of the final rule, 4 AHAM submitted its petition pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act APA, 5 U.S.C.
551 et seq., which provides among other things, that each agency shall give an interested person the right to petition for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of a rule. 5 U.S.C. 553e. The AHAM
petition is available in the docket to this rulemaking, EERE2021BTSTD0002, at https
www.regulations.gov.
5 A notation in this form provides a reference for information that is in the specified docket, which is available at https www.regulations.gov. This notation indicates that the statement preceding the reference is included in document number 001 of that docket at page 2.
6 NRDC also submitted its petition pursuant to the APA, 5 U.S.C. 553e, to repeal the final rule. The NRDC petition is available in the docket to this rulemaking, EERE2021BTSTD0002, at https
www.regulations.gov.

PO 00000

Frm 00003

Fmt 4702

Sfmt 4702

stating that the creation of the new product class violates the core requirements of EPCA. NRDC petition for reconsideration, Docket EERE2021
BTSTD0002, No. 003 at 2. The petition contends that addressing those defects is critical to preventing such an error from being repeated in the future.
2. Residential Clothes Washers and Consumer Clothes Dryers Prior to the December 2020 Final Rule, product classes for residential clothes washers were based on clothing container capacity and axis of loading i.e., front-loading or top-loading. 10 CFR
430.32g4 Dec. 15, 2020. And, prior to the December 2020 Final Rule, product classes for consumer clothes dryers were based on fuel source 120V
electric, 240V electric, or gas, venting configuration vented or ventless, capacity, and integration with a clothes washer combination washer-dryer. 10
CFR 430.32h3 as effective Dec. 15, 2020. Each product class was subject to a specific energy or energy and water conservation standard that applied regardless of the cycle time.
In August 2020, DOE proposed to replace existing product classes with new product classes based on cycle time for top-loading standard residential clothes washers 30 minutes or greater;
less than 30 minutes, front-loading standard residential clothes washers 45
minutes or greater; less than 45
minutes, and consumer clothes dryers 30 minutes or greater; less than 30
minutes. 85 FR 49297, 4931149312
Aug. 13, 2020 August 2020 NOPR.
Unlike the dishwasher product class rulemaking, this rulemaking was not initiated in response to a petition, but instead relied on particular similarities between consumer use of dishwashers and clothes washers and clothes dryers as the basis for proposing the rulemaking. Id. at 85 FR 49298. Shortly thereafter, on December 16, 2020, DOE
published the December 2020 Final Rule that replaced the product classes with new product classes based on cycle time and kept the existing energy conservation standards for the new product classes with longer cycle times, while declaring the short-cycle product classes are not currently subject to any energy or water conservation standards, thus allowing for unlimited water and energy usage. 85 FR 81359, 81375
81376.
On January 19, 2021, the States of California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the City of
E:FRFM11AUP1.SGM

11AUP1