Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions · Major · Needs Congress

Repeal the law mandating appliance energy efficiency standards

Partially done

379 12. Department of Energy and Related Commissions

“Eliminate energy efficiency standards for appliances. The next Administration should work with Congress to modify or repeal the law mandating energy efficiency standards.”

What has happened

  1. Partially done

    The House passed H.R. 4626, the Home Appliance Protection and Affordability Act, 217–190 (Roll no. 76), which would amend EPCA §325 to bar DOE from prescribing standards that are not technologically feasible and economically justified and would loosen the anti-backsliding rule; received in the Senate 2026-02-25 and referred to Energy and Natural Resources. One-chamber passage of a bill that modifies rather than repeals the mandate: it does not move the Status on its own, which already stands at `partial` on the four enacted CRA disapprovals.

  2. Partially done

    DOE announced 47 deregulatory actions, most of them proposed rules published 2025-05-16 that would rescind or withdraw individual appliance standards (dehumidifiers, battery chargers, commercial clothes washers, dishwashers, faucets, microwave ovens, cooking tops, external power supplies) and de-list product classes (air cleaners, compressors, portable air conditioners, fans and blowers, spas, miscellaneous gas and refrigeration products). An executive workaround within EPCA, not a change to it; several were finalized in 2026 (e.g. exempt power supplies, 2026-04-28).

  3. Partially done

    Congress struck four Biden-era DOE appliance standards (gas-fired instantaneous water heaters, walk-in coolers and freezers, commercial refrigerators, and the certification/labeling rule) by Congressional Review Act resolutions signed into law as P.L. 119-6 through 119-9. Under the CRA the department may not reissue substantially similar rules, but the Energy Policy and Conservation Act mandate itself is untouched.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • The federal records we keep and search list 20+ DOE proposed rules of 2025-05-16 in the deregulatory package (document numbers 2025-08556 through 2025-08623); only two are cited above as representative. DOE also proposed a rewrite of its “Process Rule” (2025-04-17, 2026-07-07) and a review of its analytic methods (2026-07-07) — procedural changes inside EPCA.
  • The House vote date on H.R. 4626 (2026-02-24, 217–190, Roll no. 76) was read from the bill’s list of actions on congress.gov; the event is dated from the vote, not from the Senate receipt (2026-02-25), because a passage is dated when the chamber votes. The Evidence item keeps its own document date, the 2026-02-25 referred-in-Senate print.
  • Status reading: the ask’s object is the appliance standards themselves, and four of them were struck by enacted law (P.L. 119-6 through 119-9), which is “enacted in part” on the Requires-Congress ladder — partial. The Energy Policy and Conservation Act mandate is untouched, which is why it is not done.
  • S. 4892, SMART Energy Efficiency Standards Act (introduced 2026-06-24), is a Senate companion effort; introduction alone is not an event.
Action
repeal
Object
appliance energy efficiency standards under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act
ID
964