Schedule Setting

This page describes the schedule of new appliance standards rulemakings; provides links to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reports to Congress; and describes the 2005 public meeting on appliance standards scheduling, which resulted in a five-year plan. In 2009, DOE will hold another public meeting to discuss the next phase of the appliance standards rulemakings.

Some of the following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.

Current Schedule

The current schedule of approximate rule initiation dates and final action dates contains rulemakings on those products listed in the Product(s) column. The rule type (determination analysis, test procedures, or standards) and the responsible team are indicated for each. The table also shows the source of the requirement to conduct each rulemaking: the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005), the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA 2007), or Backlog (before EPAct 2005).

Download the Multi-Year Schedule (PDF 272 KB)

Reports to Congress

Section 141 of EPAct 2005 requires DOE to issue an initial report and semi-annual reports thereafter to describe its rulemaking schedule and plan for implementing the schedule. The report was first published on January 31, 2006, and has been updated semi-annually since. The initial and all subsequent reports are listed here with the most recent first.

August 2009 – Seventh Semi-Annual Report to Congress on Appliance Energy Efficiency Rulemakings – Implementation Report: Energy Conservation Standards Activities (PDF 438 KB)
February 2009 – Sixth Semi-Annual Report to Congress on Appliance Energy Efficiency Rulemakings – Implementation Report: Energy Conservation Standards Activities (PDF 198 KB)
August 2008 – Fifth Semi-Annual Report to Congress on Appliance Energy-Efficiency Rulemakings – Implementation Report: Energy Conservation Standards Activities (PDF 340 KB)
February 2008 – Fourth Semi-Annual Report to Congress on Appliance Energy-Efficiency Rulemakings – Implementation Report: Energy Conservation Standards Activities (PDF 311 KB)
August 2007 – Third Semi-Annual Report to Congress on Appliance Energy-Efficiency Rulemakings – Implementation Report: Energy Conservation Standards Activities (PDF 153 KB)
February 2007 – Second Semi-Annual Report to Congress on Appliance Energy-Efficiency Rulemakings – Implementation Report: Energy Conservation Standards Activities (PDF 262 KB)
August 2006 – First Semi-Annual Report to Congress on Appliance Energy-Efficiency Rulemakings – Implementation Report: Energy Conservation Standards Activities (PDF 214 KB)
January 2006 – Report to Congress on Appliance Energy-Efficiency Rulemakings (PDF 924 KB)

Meeting on Appliance Standards Scheduling

DOE held a public meeting on November 15, 2005, in Washington, D.C., to discuss appliance standards scheduling issues. DOE received comments on the desire to bring all appliance rulemaking activities into compliance with the applicable statutory requirements. DOE based its standards scheduling plan on consideration of comments received during and following the public meeting.

On January 31, 2006, DOE released a schedule for setting new appliance efficiency standards that will save American consumers billions of dollars in energy costs (see Report to Congress on Appliance Energy-Efficiency Rulemakings, January 2006 above). The 5-year plan outlines how DOE plans to address the appliance standards rulemaking backlog and meet all the statutory requirements established in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and EPAct 2005.

The following is a list of documents related to agenda setting for appliance standards rulemakings:

Preliminary agenda for the November 15, 2005, meeting (PDF 42 KB)
Statement issued by DOE on November 15, 2005, stating that it will release a schedule for completing all affected rulemakings no later than January 31, 2006 (PDF 12 KB)
Federal Register Notice published on October 24, 2005, which contains more details about the public meeting and how to provide comments (PDF 61 KB)
DOE Appliances & Commercial Equipment Standards Program – Rulemaking Activities summary tables, which contain a list of rulemaking cycles with statutory deadlines and data sheet page references (PDF 647 KB)
2006 Draft Rulemaking Activities Data Sheets, October 2005; Revised data sheets are labeled "revised for 2006" (PDF 528 KB)
2006 Schedule Setting Spreadsheets – Provides estimates of national energy savings potential for 17 products (ZIP 631 KB)
Draft Technical Report – Analysis of Amended Energy Conservation Standards for Residential Refrigerator-Freezers, October, 2005 – Prepared in response to a petition by stakeholders to amend the standards (PDF 2.1 MB).