Should Congress undo the Dept. of Energy’s new standards for commercial fridges and freezers?
This resolution overturns a Department of Energy rule that set stricter energy efficiency standards for commercial refrigerators and freezers, which took effect on January 21, 2025. The rule aimed to reduce energy consumption by requiring businesses like grocery stores and restaurants to use more efficient refrigeration equipment, as long as the upgrades were technologically feasible and financially reasonable. By nullifying the rule, businesses would not be required to meet the new standards, potentially lowering upfront costs but leading to higher energy use over time.
Sponsor: Rep. Craig Goldman (Republican, Texas, District 5)
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Opponents say
• "Complying with the DOE’s regulations offers multiple advantages: Energy Savings: More efficient equipment reduces energy consumption, leading to lower utility bills for your clients. Environmental Impact: Enhanced efficiency means a smaller carbon footprint, contributing to environmental conservation efforts. Market Competitiveness: Technicians familiar with and adhering to these standards can offer superior services, giving them an edge in the marketplace." Source: Compressors Unlimited International, LLC
• "Enhanced energy efficiency, where economically justified, improves the Nation's energy security, strengthens the economy, and reduces the environmental impacts (costs) of energy production. Reduced electricity demand due to energy conservation standards is also likely to reduce the cost of maintaining the reliability of the electricity system, particularly during peak-load periods. Energy conservation resulting from potential energy conservation standards for CRE is expected to yield environmental benefits in the form of reduced emissions of certain air pollutants and greenhouse gases. DOE also estimated monetary benefits likely to result from the reduced emissions that DOE estimated for each of the considered ELs for CRE. Chapter 6 of the accompanying NODA support document provides DOE's estimate of cumulative emissions reductions and associated monetized benefits expected to result at each EL." Source: Department of Energy, via the Federal Register
Proponents say
• "Our focus has been on ensuring that the consumer protections built into the underlying statute, the Energy and Policy Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA), are given full weight by DOE in the rulemaking process. In our view, these consumer protections have frequently been downplayed or ignored by the agency when setting excessively stringent appliance efficiency standards that raise overall costs and/or compromise product choice, features, performance, and reliability. In addition to questionable claims of net consumer benefits, DOE also includes the calculated climate change benefits as part of its justification for these appliance rules. In response, we have provided in each of our comments a critical assessment of these claimed benefits, which we believe have been greatly exaggerated by the agency. We have also noted that any such monetized climate benefits, regardless of amount, ought to play a limited role given EPCA’s overriding emphasis on the direct consumer impacts of appliance standards. But now, with the notification of data availability and request for comment for commercial refrigeration equipment at issue here, the agency is considering a major change in its methodology that would further inflate the climate benefits by at least three-fold. Our comment will focus on the problems with the current methodology and how the proposed change would make things worse." Source: Competitive Enterprise Institute
- Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Refrigerators, Freezers, and Refrigerator-Freezers (Fe
- Appliance Energy Use Chart (Silicon Valley Power)
- What Project 2025 would mean for the fight against climate change (The Hill)
- Rep. Craig Goldman’s Biggest Donors (OpenSecrets)
