U.S. PIRG, Environment America, and other advocacy groups file federal lawsuit over new process to determine the stringency of energy efficiency standards

Media Contacts
Matt Casale

Former Director, Environment Campaigns, PIRG

U.S. PIRG

SAN FRANCISCO — U.S. PIRG, Environment America, and other advocacy groups filed a lawsuit Friday to protect energy efficiency standards. The suit challenges the Department of Energy’s new rule that changes the process by which it determines the stringency of energy efficiency standards. The lawsuit follows one filed earlier this year dealing with similar issues. 

“For the past 30 years, a common-sense process to set efficiency standards has saved consumers money and protected the environment. There’s no good reason to change that system now,” said Matt Casale, director of U.S. PIRG’s environment campaigns. “We’re going to court to save a practical rule that protects both our planet and our pocketbooks.”

Historically, the DOE has tried to balance energy efficiency mandates with how much it would cost product manufacturers and consumers to achieve those standards. The government continuously weighs that trade-off, starting by trying to maximize energy savings, then progressively “walks down” to a less stringent standard (and potentially lower levels after that) until it determines it can economically justify the chosen standard.

The DOE’s new rule would overhaul this system and establish a new process in which it simultaneously compares the benefits and burdens of multiple possible standards to determine whether a particular standard is economically justified. This would both make it easier for the current administration to justify lower energy efficiency standards and make it more difficult for future administration to defend higher ones.

The lawsuit was filed with NRDC and the Sierra Club (represented by Earthjustice) in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.