The Department of Energy reaffirmed on Thursday that it will continue to include “short-cycle” appliances in its energy efficiency regulations.
The proposal would cement the agency’s reversal of a Trump-era carve-out for dishwashers, residential clothes washers (RCWs), and clothes dryers that run shorter-than-standard cycles. DOE is on track to finalize the decision before the end of the Biden administration — perhaps only for it to be overturned once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
“DOE tentatively concludes that the short-cycle features of dishwashers, RCWs, and consumer clothes dryers do not justify standards different from those applicable to those products generally,” the DOE notice said.
A group of Republican attorneys general, led by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, challenged the Biden administration’s repeal of the Trump-era carve-out, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit remanded the issue to DOE in 2022.
