US Department of Energy may revoke Trump-era dishwasher standards

Arizona Attorney General weighs in on the matter

PHOENIX, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - The U.S. Department of Energy recently published a Federal Register notice looking to revoke 2020 efficiency rules which improved home-appliance wash times for consumers.

“A lot of the Biden Administration's policies hit close to home, but this one comes right to your dinner table,” said Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. “Revoking these rules will limit consumers' choices and eliminate useful products that can help people with busy lives.”

The Federal Register notice proposes revisions to the Department's “Procedures, Interpretations, and Policies for Consideration of New or Revised Energy Conservation Standards and Test Procedures for Consumer Products and Certain Commercial/Industrial Equipment” (Process Rule) and requests comment on the proposals and any potential alternatives.

In 2018, many consumers expressed much support for the two rules the Department now seeks to revoke.

Testimonials considered during previous hearings:

• Tim Bjorklund demanded on June 15, 2018: “Remove these worthless regulations and let us have products that get the job done quickly.”
• Laurel Kemper remarked on July 17, 2018: “My dishwasher, purchased in 2016, uses a minimal amount of water to ‘save’ water. But in order to get the dishes mostly clean, I have to use the sanitize cycle, which is 3 hours long. So, less water, but 3 times the electricity and the dishes are still not completely clean, doesn’t seem like a good trade-off.  We need the ‘old’ style dishwashers back, please!”
• Clinton Beal stated on July 17, 2018: “I am tired of having a dishwasher that takes hours to cycle (the primary reason I turn it on before I go to bed), still requires towel drying of all the cups and glasses in the top rack, and occasionally has small food particles clinging to some of the silverware. My first dishwasher, ca. 1965, ran for approximately an hour, and everything came out clean and dry.”

The Department expressed interest in rolling back the previous administration’s rules for dishwashers and other home appliances has some consumers concerned.

According to Brnovich's submittal, Trump’s 2020 rules created a new class for washing machines with shorter wash times and dishwashers with cycle times of 60 minutes or less.

"A 60-minute dishwasher cycle or 30- or 45-minute clothes washer or dryer cycle is a distinct performance feature not available in the market under the pre-2020 standards that provides a much-demanded utility to consumers," Brnovich added. "The Department had clear authority under the law to create these new classes and the statements in the Proposed Rule now that claim it did not sufficiently make this determination are in plain error."