118THCONGRESS
2
DSESSION H. R. 6192
AN ACT
To amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to pro-
hibit the Secretary of Energy from prescribing any new
or amended energy conservation standard for a product
that is not technologically feasible and economically justi-
fied, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Hands Off Our Home 2
Appliances Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. PRESCRIBING NEW OR AMENDED ENERGY CON-4
SERVATION STANDARDS. 5
(a) A
MENDMENT OF STANDARDS.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 325(m)(1) of the 7
Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 8
6295(m)(1)) is amended to read as follows: 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may, for any 10
product, publish a notice of proposed rulemaking in-11
cluding new proposed standards for such product 12
based on the criteria established under subsection 13
(o) and the procedures established under subsection 14
(p).’’. 15
(2) A
MENDMENT OF STANDARD .—Section 16
325(m)(3) of the Energy Policy and Conservation 17
Act (42 U.S.C. 6295(m)(3)) is amended to read as 18
follows: 19
‘‘(3) A
MENDMENT OF STANDARD .—Not later 20
than 2 years after a notice is issued under para-21
graph (1), the Secretary shall publish a final rule 22
amending the standard for the product.’’. 23
(b) P
ETITION FORAMENDEDSTANDARD.—Section 24
325(n) of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 25
U.S.C. 6295(n)) is amended— 26 3
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(1) in the subsection heading, by striking ‘‘AN 1
A
MENDEDSTANDARD’’ and inserting ‘‘AMENDMENT 2
ORREVOCATION OFSTANDARD’’; 3
(2) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘or revoked’’ 4
after ‘‘should be amended’’; 5
(3) by amending paragraph (2) to read as fol-6
lows: 7
‘‘(2) The Secretary shall grant a petition to deter-8
mine if energy conservation standards for a covered prod-9
uct should be amended or revoked if the Secretary finds 10
that such petition contains evidence, assuming no other 11
evidence were considered, that such standards— 12
‘‘(A) result in additional costs to consumers; 13
‘‘(B) do not result in significant conservation of 14
energy or water; 15
‘‘(C) are not technologically feasible; and 16
‘‘(D) result in such covered product not being 17
commercially available in the United States to all 18
consumers.’’; and 19
(4) in paragraph (4)— 20
(A) by striking ‘‘N
EW OR AMENDED 21
STANDARDS.’’ and inserting ‘‘NEW, AMENDED, 22
OR REVOKED STANDARDS .’’; 23 4
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(B) by redesignating subparagraphs (A) 1
and (B) as clauses (i) and (ii), respectively (and 2
by conforming the margins accordingly); 3
(C) by striking ‘‘Not later than 3 years’’ 4
and inserting the following: 5
‘‘(A) Not later than 3 years’’; and 6
(D) by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(B) Not later than 180 days after the 8
date of granting a petition to revoke standards, 9
the Secretary shall publish in the Federal Reg-10
ister— 11
‘‘(i) a final rule revoking the stand-12
ards; or 13
‘‘(ii) a determination that it is not 14
necessary to revoke the standards. 15
‘‘(C) The grant of a petition by the Sec-16
retary under this subsection creates no pre-17
sumption with respect to the Secretary’s deter-18
mination of any of the criteria in a rulemaking 19
under this section. 20
‘‘(D) Standards that have been revoked 21
pursuant to subparagraph (B) shall be consid-22
ered to be in effect for purposes of section 23
327.’’. 24 5
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(c) CRITERIA.—Paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 1
325(o) of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 2
U.S.C. 6295(o)) are amended to read as follows: 3
‘‘(2) R
EQUIREMENTS.— 4
‘‘(A) D
ESIGN.—Any new or amended en-5
ergy conservation standard prescribed by the 6
Secretary under this section for any type (or 7
class) of covered product shall be designed to 8
achieve the maximum improvement in energy 9
efficiency, or, in the case of showerheads, fau-10
cets, water closets, or urinals, water efficiency, 11
which the Secretary determines is techno-12
logically feasible and economically justified. 13
‘‘(B) T
EST PROCEDURES.—The Secretary 14
may not prescribe a new or amended energy 15
conservation standard under this section for a 16
type (or class) of covered product if a test pro-17
cedure has not been prescribed pursuant to sec-18
tion 323 with respect to that type (or class) of 19
product. 20
‘‘(C) S
IGNIFICANT CONSERVATION .—The 21
Secretary may not prescribe a new or amended 22
energy conservation standard under this section 23
for a type (or class) of covered product if the 24
Secretary determines that the establishment 25 6
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and imposition of such energy conservation 1
standard will not result in significant conserva-2
tion of— 3
‘‘(i) energy; or 4
‘‘(ii) in the case of showerheads, fau-5
cets, water closets, or urinals, water. 6
‘‘(D) T
ECHNOLOGICALLY FEASIBLE AND 7
ECONOMICALLY JUSTIFIED .—The Secretary 8
may not prescribe a new or amended energy 9
conservation standard under this section for a 10
type (or class) of covered product unless the 11
Secretary determines that the establishment 12
and imposition of such energy conservation 13
standard is technologically feasible and eco-14
nomically justified. 15
‘‘(E) D
ISCLOSURE.—The Secretary may 16
not prescribe a new or amended energy con-17
servation standard under this section for a type 18
(or class) of covered product unless the Sec-19
retary, not later than the date on which the 20
standard is prescribed, publicly discloses each 21
meeting held by the Secretary, during the 5- 22
year period preceding such date, with any entity 23
that— 24 7
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‘‘(i) has ties to the People’s Republic 1
of China or the Chinese Communist Party; 2
‘‘(ii) has produced studies regarding, 3
or advocated for, regulations or policy to 4
limit, restrict, or ban the use of any type 5
of energy; and 6
‘‘(iii) has applied for or received Fed-7
eral funds. 8
‘‘(3) F
ACTORS FOR DETERMINATION .— 9
‘‘(A) E
CONOMIC ANALYSIS.—Prior to pre-10
scribing any new or amended energy conserva-11
tion standard under this section for any type 12
(or class) of covered product, the Secretary 13
shall conduct a quantitative economic impact 14
analysis of imposition of the energy conserva-15
tion standard that determines the predicted— 16
‘‘(i) effects of imposition of the energy 17
conservation standard on costs and mone-18
tary benefits to consumers of the products 19
subject to such energy conservation stand-20
ard, including— 21
‘‘(I) costs to low-income house-22
holds; and 23
‘‘(II) variations in costs to con-24
sumers based on differences in re-25 8
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gions, including rural populations, 1
cost of living comparisons, and cli-2
matic differences; 3
‘‘(ii) effects of imposition of the en-4
ergy conservation standard on employment; 5
and 6
‘‘(iii) lifecycle costs for the covered 7
product, including costs associated with 8
the purchase, installation, maintenance, 9
disposal, and replacement of the covered 10
product. 11
‘‘(B) P
ROHIBITION ON ADDITIONAL COSTS 12
TO THE CONSUMER .—The Secretary may not 13
determine that imposition of an energy con-14
servation standard is economically justified un-15
less the Secretary, based on an economic anal-16
ysis under subparagraph (A), determines that— 17
‘‘(i) imposition of such energy con-18
servation standard is not likely to result in 19
additional net costs to the consumer, in-20
cluding any increase in net costs associated 21
with the purchase, installation, mainte-22
nance, disposal, and replacement of the 23
covered product; and 24 9
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‘‘(ii) the monetary value of the energy 1
savings and, as applicable, water savings, 2
that the consumer will receive as a result 3
of such energy conservation standard dur-4
ing the first 3 years after purchasing and 5
installing a covered product complying with 6
such energy conservation standard, as cal-7
culated under the applicable test proce-8
dure, will be greater than any increased 9
costs to the consumer of the covered prod-10
uct due to imposition of such energy con-11
servation standard, including increased 12
costs associated with the purchase, instal-13
lation, maintenance, disposal, and replace-14
ment of the covered product. 15
‘‘(C) R
EQUIRED ENERGY OR WATER SAV -16
INGS.—The Secretary may not determine that 17
imposition of an energy conservation standard 18
is economically justified unless the Secretary 19
determines that compliance with such energy 20
conservation standard will result in— 21
‘‘(i) a reduction of at least 0.3 quads 22
of site energy over 30 years; or 23
‘‘(ii) at least a 10 percent reduction in 24
energy or water use of the covered product. 25 10
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‘‘(D) CRITERIA RELATED TO PERFORM -1
ANCE.—The Secretary may not determine that 2
imposition of an energy conservation standard 3
is economically justified unless the Secretary 4
determines that imposition of such energy con-5
servation standard will not result in any less-6
ening of the utility or the performance of the 7
applicable covered product, taking into consid-8
eration the effects of such energy conservation 9
standard on— 10
‘‘(i) the compatibility of the covered 11
product with existing systems; 12
‘‘(ii) the life span of the covered prod-13
uct; 14
‘‘(iii) the operating conditions of the 15
covered product; 16
‘‘(iv) the duty cycle, charging time, 17
and run time of the covered product, as 18
applicable; 19
‘‘(v) the maintenance requirements of 20
the covered product; and 21
‘‘(vi) the replacement and disposal re-22
quirements for the covered product. 23
‘‘(E) C
RITERIA RELATED TO MARKET COM -24
PETITION AND PRICE DISCRIMINATION .—The 25 11
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Secretary may not determine that imposition of 1
an energy conservation standard is economically 2
justified unless the Secretary determines that 3
imposition of the energy conservation standard 4
is not likely to result in— 5
‘‘(i) any lessening of market competi-6
tion; or 7
‘‘(ii) price discrimination. 8
‘‘(F) T
ECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION .—The 9
Secretary may not determine that imposition of 10
an energy conservation standard is economically 11
justified unless the Secretary determines that 12
imposition of such energy conservation standard 13
is not likely to result in the unavailability in the 14
United States of a type (or class) of products 15
based on what type of fuel the product con-16
sumes. 17
‘‘(G) O
THER CONSIDERATIONS .—In deter-18
mining whether imposition of an energy con-19
servation standard is economically justified, the 20
Secretary— 21
‘‘(i) shall prioritize the interests of 22
consumers; 23
‘‘(ii) may not consider estimates of 24
the social costs or social benefits associated 25 12
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with incremental greenhouse gas emissions; 1
and 2
‘‘(iii) shall consider— 3
‘‘(I) the economic impact of the 4
standard on the manufacturers and 5
on the consumers of the products sub-6
ject to such standard; 7
‘‘(II) the savings in operating 8
costs throughout the estimated aver-9
age life of the covered product in the 10
type (or class) compared to any in-11
crease in the price of, or in the initial 12
charges for, or maintenance expenses 13
of, the covered products which are 14
likely to result from the imposition of 15
the standard; 16
‘‘(III) the total projected amount 17
of energy, or as applicable, water, sav-18
ings likely to result directly from the 19
imposition of the standard; 20
‘‘(IV) the need for national en-21
ergy and water conservation; and 22
‘‘(V) other factors the Secretary 23
considers relevant. 24
‘‘(H) R
EGULATORY REVIEW .— 25 13
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‘‘(i) EVALUATION.—Not later than 2 years 1
after the issuance of any final rule prescribing 2
a new or amended energy conservation standard 3
under this section for any type (or class) of cov-4
ered product, the Secretary shall evaluate the 5
rule to determine whether such energy con-6
servation standard is technologically feasible 7
and economically justified and whether the reg-8
ulatory impact analysis for such rule remains 9
accurate. 10
‘‘(ii) E
FFECT.—Notwithstanding any other 11
provision of this part, if the Secretary deter-12
mines, based on an evaluation under clause (i), 13
that an energy conservation standard is not 14
technologically feasible or economically justi-15
fied— 16
‘‘(I) the Secretary shall publish such 17
determination and such energy conserva-18
tion standard shall have no force or effect 19
(except that such energy conservation 20
standard shall be considered to be in effect 21
for purposes of section 327); and 22
‘‘(II) the Secretary may publish a 23
final rule amending the energy conserva-24
tion standard for the type (or class) of cov-25 14
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ered product to be technologically feasible 1
and economically justified in accordance 2
with this subsection, which amendment 3
shall apply to such a product that is manu-4
factured after the date that is 2 years 5
after publication of such final rule.’’. 6
SEC. 3. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS. 7
(a) R
EGIONAL STANDARDS.—Section 8
325(o)(6)(D)(i)(II) of the Energy Policy and Conservation 9
Act (42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(6)(D)(i)(II)) is amended by strik-10
ing ‘‘this paragraph’’ and inserting ‘‘this subsection’’. 11
(b) P
ROCEDURE FORPRESCRIBINGNEW ORAMEND-12
EDSTANDARDS.—Section 325(p)(2)(A) of the Energy 13
Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6295(p)(2)(A)) 14
is amended by striking ‘‘taking into account those factors 15
which the Secretary must consider under subsection 16
(o)(2)’’ and inserting ‘‘as determined in accordance with 17
subsection (o)’’. 18
(c) E
NERGYCONSERVATIONSTANDARDS FORHIGH- 19
I
NTENSITYDISCHARGELAMPS, DISTRIBUTIONTRANS-20
FORMERS, ANDSMALLELECTRICMOTORS.—Section 346 21
of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 22
6317) is amended by striking subsection (c). 23 15
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SEC. 4. DISTRIBUTION TRANSFORMERS. 1
The final rule titled ‘‘Energy Conservation Program: 2
Energy Conservation Standards for Distribution Trans-3
formers’’ (signed on April 3, 2024; Docket No. EERE– 4
2019–BT–STD–0018) shall not take effect. 5
Passed the House of Representatives May 7, 2024.
Attest:
Clerk. 118
TH
CONGRESS
2
D
S
ESSION
H. R. 6192
AN ACT
To amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act
to prohibit the Secretary of Energy from pre-
scribing any new or amended energy conservation
standard for a product that is not technologically
feasible and economically justified, and for other
purposes.