Energy Department’s Cooking Efficiency Standards Draw Challenge

Seven conservative states are challenging the Energy Department’s decision to adopt energy efficiency standards for stoves and ovens, saying the agency improperly used a streamlined process.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit should hold that the agency’s refusal to withdraw the 2024 standards violated the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the states said in their brief filed Wednesday.

The rule amends conservation standards for consumer conventional cooking products, which the agency claimed were “technologically feasible and economically justified.”

The challenged standards don’t meet the requirements of a direct final rulemaking—which streamlines the ...