Groups urge Biden to ‘Finish the job’ on appliance efficiency

On Wednesday, April 10th, members of Congress joined consumer, environmental and health advocates outside the U.S. Department of Energy to commend the Biden Administration for its work to date on appliance efficiency and to urge them to get the job done.

The Department of Energy has taken action to make sure dishwashers, clothes dryers, washing machines, refrigerators, furnaces and many more appliances waste less energy. But, last week the Department of Energy issued an energy efficiency rule for transformers that left significant achievable energy savings on the table. That will make it harder for the Biden Administration to meet its pledged goal to issue standards that would save consumers nearly $1 trillion and avert 2.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions this presidential term.

“The Biden administration has used up its wiggle room,” said Lisa Frank, Executive Director, Washington Legislative Office, Environment America. “For the sake of our health and our planet, and to hit the pollution reduction goals set by the administration, the government needs to deliver.”

More than a dozen standards, including those for residential water heaters, are still pending.