New bill would cement DOE appliance standard overhaul

While the federal government flip-flops on how the Department of Energy should set energy-efficiency standards for HVAC equipment, Utah Senator Mike Lee on Thursday introduced a bill to make a recent set of proposed changes permanent. 

Catch up quick: In early July, the DOE published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to “permanently end home appliance and equipment mandates that raise costs and disrupt consumer choice.”

• The proposal would update the agency’s “process rule” used to establish energy conservation standards for household appliances and equipment, including ACs and water heaters. (It would not repeal existing energy efficiency standards or prevent future ones, despite the announcement’s framing.)
• Nearly five dozen members of Congress have opposed the proposal, with 18 Senators arguing it layers on “needless additional requirements” to finalize a standard, as Homepros reported Friday, while HVAC industry groups, including ACCA and PHCC, support the proposal.

What’s happening: Lee’s bill — the Energy Efficiency Reform Act of 2026 — would require the DOE to finalize its proposed process rule within 270 days. It would also:

• Void the long-contested 95 percent residential gas furnace rule, which is set to effectively ban non-condensing furnaces beginning in late 2028 and is tied up in litigation. 
• Block states from banning products based on their fuel source, including natural gas.
• And strike a requirement that the agency review standards every six years, instead relying only on petition-driven calls for review.

Why it matters: The bill would achieve these changes by amending the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), the federal law that gives the DOE authority to set efficiency standards, meaning the provisions — if it passes — would be locked into law, changeable only by Congress.

What they’re saying: “Under the Biden administration, regulators repeatedly pursued standards that narrowed consumer choice without adequately accounting for performance or cost,” Lee said in a statement on Thursday.

• “PHCC is pleased,” Chuck White, the association’s vice president of regulatory affairs, told Homepros in an email. “As drafted, the bill will stop the long debated furnace rule in its tracks, slow the constant changing of products that contractors sell, define the metrics that justify feasibility of new products, and clarify the role that DOE has in protecting the consumer choice for their energy needs.”

The other side: Following Lee’s announcement, the Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP) criticized the move, estimating it will raise household utility bills by $160 each year and “make it virtually impossible for the Department of Energy to update energy efficiency standards for equipment.”

• “This would lock in using outdated technologies that require more energy to do the same job. There’s no reason to throw in the towel on progress,” said Andrew deLaski, executive director of ASAP. “This bill says you can take your high energy costs and stuff it.”

What’s next: Lee’s bill has been introduced and referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources — and must undergo subcommittee hearings and a formal markup session before consideration.

• Meanwhile, the public comment period for the Energy Department’s proposed rulemaking ends on August 21.