May 2, 2023
Attorney General Sean D. Reyes joined a coalition of states in co-signing a comment letter to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), expressing concern “with the DOE’s new attempt to control what appliances Americans can buy – this time for residential clothes washers.”
The coalition highlights that this rule follows three other proposed EPCA standards, one for dishwashers, one for ovens/stoves, and one for refrigerators/refrigerator-freezers/freezers. The attorneys general write, “This inexplicable slog through Americans’ homes is unwarranted by the facts and unauthorized by the law.” They urge the Department to pull back and let Americans decide what appliances they will use daily.
The coalition’s comment letter contains four parts. First, “the Department should not use or reference the IWG estimates in its analysis. Second, the Department’s analysis does not comply with Executive Order 13,132. Third, the Department failed to consider the EPCA’s constitutional issues in analyzing the Proposed Standards. Finally, the Department’s analysis ignores important aspects of the problem.”
Joining General Reyes in this letter to the DOE are the attorneys general of Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Read the comment letter here.
