DOE Publishes Proposed Rule to Define New Class of Dishwashers Under the Energy Policy & Conservation Act

The Department of Energy has granted a petition for rulemaking from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) for a proposed rule to define a new product class under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended (EPCA), for residential dishwashers. The new product class would be defined to cover dishwashers with a cycle time for the normal cycle of less than one hour from washing through drying. The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on July 15, 2019.

The CEI petition argues for the new class on the basis that meeting energy conservation standards under EPCA has led to longer dishwasher cycles resulting in customer dissatisfaction. DOE published the CEI petition and put out a request for comments in the Federal Register on April 24, 2018. DOE stated that it intends to consider appropriate energy and water use limits for the new product class, if adopted, in a separate rulemaking.

DOE is providing a 60-day comment period which ends on September 16, 2019.