Microwaves, Other Appliances to Undergo DOE Efficiency Review

The Energy Department committed Tuesday to reviewing energy efficiency standards for 20 categories of appliances and equipment, resolving environmental and consumer advocacy groups’ legal challenges against Trump-era delays.

The settlement, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, sets final rule deadlines for appliances such as microwave ovens, non-weatherized and mobile home gas furnaces, residential clothes dryers, and residential refrigerators, freezers, and clothes washers.

It comes as the Biden administration works through a backlog of efficiency standards left from the previous administration.

Updating the 20 overdue standards would translate to roughly $650 billion in ...