Regulatory Freeze Delays New Energy Efficiency, Renewable Fuel Standards

Today, the Trump Administration issued a Presidential Memorandum entitled “Regulatory Freeze Pending Review” which directs all agencies to postpone the publication of new and pending regulations in order to give the new administration time to review those regulations. Specifically, the memorandum states that:

• Pending regulations should not be submitted to the Office of the Federal Register (“OFR”) until a department or agency head appointed by President Trump reviews and approves the regulation.
• Regulations that have been sent to the OFR but not yet published in the Federal Register should be immediately withdrawn for review and approval as provided above.
• The effective date of regulations that have been published in the Federal Register but have not yet taken effect should be postponed until March 21, 2017 to provide an opportunity for the incoming administration to review these regulations.

Regulations subject to statutory or judicial deadlines are excluded from these directives.

Affected regulations: The memorandum indefinitely postpones the publication of four energy efficiency standards finalized by the Department of Energy (DOE) in December 2016 as part of the Energy Conservation Program (these standards have not yet been published in the Federal Register and thus had to be withdrawn for review). These include:

• Energy Conservation Standards for Portable Air Conditioners (RIN 1904-AD02)
• Energy Conservation Standards for Walk-in Cooler and Freezer Refrigeration Systems (RIN 1904-AD59)
• Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Packaged Boilers (RIN 1904-AD01)
• Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Dedicated Purpose Pool Pumps (RIN 1904-AD52)

The memorandum also postpones the effective date of renewable fuel standards recently promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and published in the Federal Register:

• Renewable Fuel Standard Program: Standards for 2017 and Biomass-Based Diesel Volume for 2018, 81 Fed. Reg. 89746 (Dec. 12, 2016) (old effective date was 2/10/17, new effective date is 3/21/17)

A complete list of affected EPA regulations is available here. Additional information about postponed rules will be noted in future tracker entries.