AHAM, the North American Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, commended the Department of Energy on the release of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) to modernize its process rule for developing appliance efficiency standards and related test procedures.
«This process – Joseph M. McGuire, AHAM president and CEO stated – was last updated in 1996 with input by stakeholders, but has not always adhered to by the Department of Energy since then. The release of this NOPR brings greater transparency and consistency to the development of appliance efficiency standards. Importantly, it would also require that relevant federal test procedures that determine product energy consumption are in place before new appliance standards are proposed. This sequencing is critical so that manufacturers can gauge real world impacts.» 
As explained by AHAM, the Process Improvement Rule (PIR) requires that the Department of Energy consistently adhere to its process requirements. It also will allow DOE to better prioritize its resources based on energy savings – the core goal of the program. For updates to current standards, DOE will undertake an early, fact-based assessment of the need for further updates before the normal multi-year process to analyze all other impacts of a standards updates. This assessment will be subject to public comments and will aid in prioritization of appliance standards rulemakings based on energy savings potential, not by an arbitrary 6 year lookback period.
