Campaign Promises
Departments -> Energy -> Energy-Efficient Applicances | ||
| Item | Energy | |
| Energy-Efficient Applicances | Grade | |
| EN-32 | The Promise: "...will provide more resources to his Department of Energy so it implements regular updates for efficiency standards." When/Where: Obama-Biden Plan: "New Energy for America" dated 09/06/08. Source: http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/edg/media/Obama_New_Energy_0804.pdf Status:Under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA), the Department of Energy (DOE) is required to establish by certain dates energy efficiency standards for a broad class of residential and commercial products. These products are appliances and other equipment used in consumers' homes and in commercial establishments. National appliance, equipment and lighting standards were first enacted by Congress in 1988. In the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT), the Congress directed the DOE to develop a plan to issue expeditiously efficiency standards for those products with respect to which the DOE had not yet met the deadlines specified in the EPCA. New standards were added under the Energy Policy Acts of 1992 and 2005 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. During CY2009, the DOE did a bit of catching up. It completed several appliance standards rules: codified the standards prescribed by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, established standards for fluorescent and incandescent lamps, beverage vending machine, ranges and ovens, and some commercial equipment contained in the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers Standard (ASHRAE) 90.1, commercial clothes washers, small electric motors, residential water heaters, direct heating equipment, and gas pool heaters. Between funding increases provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and other annual plus-ups ($35M in FY2010 and FY2011, an amount President Obama requested be doubled in FY2012), the DOE has benefited from "more resources" to update efficiency standards as promised. As of CY2016, the DOE's Appliance and Equipment Standards Program continues to experience backlogs. However, these are mostly attributed to snail-paced action by the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB), which must analyze and clear rules/regulations before they are published in the Federal Register. This promise was fulfilled. | 1.00 |