NPGA Files Brief Against DOE Appliance Rules

On Wednesday, July 10, NPGA and partner organizations filed a reply brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in an ongoing challenge against three United States Department of Energy (DOE) rules that would limit customer access to propane appliances. The challenged standards would, in violation of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), eliminate from the market furnaces and commercial water heaters installed in millions of homes and businesses today. Our brief argues that these noncondensing propane appliances benefit consumers by having a performance characteristic that allows them to perform in their existing buildings without renovation, which the plain text of EPCA protects from elimination. Additionally, the brief argues that DOE rules do not follow statutory requirements and fail to meet the necessary legal standard of being technologically feasible and economically justified, and pulls from the recent groundbreaking Supreme Court decision overruling Chevron to argue that courts, not agencies, should handle technical statutory questions.  

For more, contact NPGA General Counsel Benjamin Nussdorf or Associate General Counsel Kate Gaziano.