A U.S. appeals court on Monday rejected the Biden administration’s new efficiency regulations for dishwashers and washing machines, siding with Republican attorneys general.
The decision is a blow to the Biden administration and its effort to crack down on the energy used by household appliances.
In its ruling, published late Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit rejected the Biden administration’s 2022 proposed rule that sought to roll back Trump-era efficiency standards for dishwashers and short-cycle washing machines. The court noted that the Biden administration failed to respond to complaints from consumer groups and manufacturers and failed to prove the 2022 standards are more efficient.
The decision remands the rule back to the Energy Department to begin drafting new efficiency standards.
At issue were the Trump administration’s efficiency class updates for washing machines and dishwashers, which it touted as a time-saving option for consumers and one that would expand consumer choice.
But the rules, finalized in October 2020, also slightly increased water and energy use — earning criticism from Democrats and the Biden administration, which has targeted household appliance emissions as part of its broader efforts to reduce carbon emissions to zero on aggregate.
In 2022, the Biden administration published a new rule to repeal the Trump-era changes and reinstate the previous federal efficiency rules — a change it argued would save consumers billions in energy and water bills over the lifespan of the appliances.
But those revisions were met with fierce pushback from Republicans, including the 11 state attorneys general led by Jeff Landry, of Louisiana, who filed the challenge in federal court.
Trade groups and appliance manufacturers also pushed back on the proposed rule, arguing in comments published in the Federal Register that the changes could hurt appliance performance and lead to longer wash times with lower efficiency — potentially forcing consumers to run multiple cycles.
The 5th Circuit appeared to agree. The court wrote in its decision Monday that the Biden administration “failed to adequately consider appliance performance, substitution effects, and the ample record evidence that DOE’s conservation standards are causing Americans to use more energy and water rather than less” in its proposed rule, despite the objections raised by manufacturers.
“DOE recognized the facts that undermined its Repeal Rule, cited other facts to suggest the Repeal Rule would conserve water and energy, and then implicitly credited the latter without explaining why,” the judges said. “That is the touchstone of arbitrary and capricious agency action.”
The rule is part of a broader push on energy efficiency from the Biden administration. To date, it has taken more than 110 separate actions aimed at strengthening energy efficiency standards for appliances, lowering energy costs, and addressing what it described as a “vast backlog of outdated energy efficiency standards.”
Still, the 5th Circuit ruling was cheered by a coalition of Republicans, manufacturers, and trade industry officials, who hailed the decision as a win for consumers.
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“In this opinion, the court has forced DOE to follow the law and even noted that one of the positions DOE took in this suit ‘borders on frivolous,’” Devin Watkins, an attorney for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Examiner.
“This decision allows manufacturers to build better dishwashers, not be encumbered by counterproductive federal regulations,” he added.
