Appliance and Equipment Efficiency Standards: History, Impacts, Current Status, and Future Directions

Steven Nadel and David Goldstein

It has been more than twenty years since the first appliance efficiency standards were enacted in the United States. In the initial years appliance standard discussions were marked by bitter debates but by the early 1990s a middle ground had been found in which manufacturers, states, and energy efficiency advocates often worked together to negotiate consensual national efficiency standards that preempted standards set by states. Standards set in this manner are producing substantial reductions in U.S. energy use (more than 2.5 percent of U.S. energy use, once existing standards are fully implemented) while maintaining a benefit-cost ratio of more than 3:1.

In 1994/1995, this apparent consensus broke down, due to some particularly controversial draft standards the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposed in early 1994 and also due to the November 1994 election after which members opposed to regulation took hold of Congress. Equipment manufacturers sought to take advantage of this new state of affairs and incapacitate the standards program. As of early 1996, Congress had imposed a one-year moratorium on setting new standards, and DOE also had developed, with extensive stakeholder input, a series of reforms to improve the standard-setting process. Substantial savings are at stake&emdash;standards now under development could reduce projected U.S. energy use by more than 1.5 percent, raising total savings to more than 4 percent of U.S. energy use.