Input Stories

The Department of Energy finalized its home-appliance energy-efficiency standards this week, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription)—and the rules are less stringent than in previous iterations, due in large part to advocacy from the NAM and its partners. 

What’s going on: Under rules announced Monday, “[g]as stoves can keep high-powered burners, oversize cast-iron grates and other features.”

• Some 97% of gas stove models and 77% of smooth electric stove models on the market meet the new efficiency standards, according to the DOE, which “estimates that over 30 years, the changes will lower utility bills by $1.6 billion and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by nearly 4 million metric tons.”
• Last year, the agency proposed a far more stringent version of the standard, which would have rendered noncompliant some 96% of gas stoves on the market.
• In June, the department announced that in response to feedback and data submitted by an NAM trade association partner and a utility company, it would loosen the rules.

Our advocacy: The NAM “and our association partners led the way in challenging
[the DOE]’s overly stringent efficiency threshold for gas stoves,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons wrote in a social post. “Manufacturers will continue to work with policymakers to push back against the regulatory onslaught facing our industry.”

• The NAM worked with association partners to give manufacturers an avenue to voice their concerns directly to Congress.

​​​​​​​Why it’s important: The original rules would have cost manufacturers more than $2.5 billion in regulation-readiness costs.

• They would also have resulted in savings of just $1.51 per year for consumers, according to the DOE’s own estimates and agency-data-based calculations by NAM partner Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.