Rulemaking for Amendments and Correction to Petitions for Waiver and Interim Waiver for Consumer Products and Commercial and Industrial Equipment

The Department of Energy (DOE) has published a notice of proposed rulemaking considering amendments to portions of its regulations governing petitions for waiver and interim waiver from DOE test procedures. 77 FR 74616 (December 17, 2012).

The public comment period is closed.

The waiver rulemaking docket EERE-2012-BT-TP-0003 contains all notices, public comments, public meeting transcripts, and supporting documents. For the latest information on the planned timing of future DOE regulatory milestones, see the current Office of Management and Budget Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. All planned dates are preliminary and subject to change.

DOE's regulatory provisions governing the submission and processing of test procedure waivers for both consumer products under Part A of EPCA and commercial equipment under Part A-1. EPCA directs DOE to prescribe test procedures that are reasonably designed to produce results reflecting the energy efficiency, energy use, and estimated annual operating costs for those products, and that are not unduly burdensome to conduct. 42 U.S.C. 6293(b)(3), 6314(a)(2). DOE’s existing regulations in Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Section 430.27 (consumer products) and Section 431.401 (commercial equipment) contain provisions allowing a person to seek a waiver from the test procedure requirements if certain conditions are met. A waiver allows manufacturers to use an alternative test procedure in situations where the DOE test procedure cannot be used to test the products or equipment, or where use of the DOE test procedure would provide unrepresentative results.