[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 79 (Tuesday, April 24, 2018)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17768-17777]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-08521]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

10 CFR Part 430


Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for 
Dishwashers, Notification of Petition for Rulemaking

AGENCY: Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of 
Energy.

ACTION: Notification of petition for rulemaking; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: On March 21, 2018, the Department of Energy (DOE) received a 
petition from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) to define a 
new product class under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) 
for residential dishwashers. The new product class would cover 
dishwashers with a cycle time of less than one hour from washing 
through drying. Through this notification, DOE seeks comment on the 
petition, as well as any data or information that could be used in 
DOE's determination whether to proceed with the petition.

DATES: Written comments and information are requested on or before June 
25, 2018.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are encouraged to submit comments, 
identified by ``Dishwasher Petition,'' by any of the following methods:
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the 
instructions for submitting comments.
    Mail: Appliance and Equipment Standards Program, U.S. Department of 
Energy, Building Technologies Office, Mailstop EE-5B, 1000 Independence 
Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121. If possible, please submit all 
items on a compact disc (CD), in which case it is not necessary to 
include printed copies.
    Hand Delivery/Courier: Appliance and Equipment Standards Program, 
U.S. Department of Energy, Building Technologies Office, 950 L'Enfant 
Plaza SW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20024. Telephone: (202) 586-6636. 
If possible, please submit all items on a CD, in which case it is not 
necessary to include printed copies.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents, or 
comments received, go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Kohl, U.S. Department of 
Energy, Office of the General Counsel, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, 
Washington, DC 20585. Email: [email protected]; 202-586-7796.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 
U.S.C. 551 et seq., provides among other things, that ``[e]ach agency 
shall give an interested person the right to petition for the issuance, 
amendment, or repeal of a rule.'' (5 U.S.C. 553(e)) Pursuant to this 
provision of the APA, CEI petitioned DOE for the issuance of a new 
rule, as described in this notification and set forth below, 
verbatim.\1\ In promulgating this petition for public comment, the 
Department of Energy is seeking views on whether it should grant the 
petition and undertake a rulemaking to consider the proposal contained 
in the petition. By seeking comment on whether to grant this petition, 
the Department of Energy takes no position at this time regarding the 
merits of the suggested rulemaking.
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    \1\ Attachments and data submitted by CEI with its petition for 
rulemaking are available in the docket at http://www.regulations.gov.
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    On March 21, 2018, CEI petitioned DOE to initiate a rulemaking to 
define a new product class under 42 U.S.C. 6295(q) for residential 
dishwashers. (The petition is presented at the end of this document.) 
The new product class would cover dishwashers with a cycle time of less 
than one hour from washing through drying. CEI did not suggest specific 
energy and water requirements for this new product class, stating that 
these details could be determined during the course of the rulemaking. 
CEI stated that dishwasher cycle times have become dramatically longer 
under existing DOE energy conservation standards, and that consumer 
satisfaction/utility has dropped as a result of these longer cycle 
times. CEI also provided data regarding the increase in dishwasher 
cycle time, including data that correlated increased cycle time with 
DOE's adoption of amended efficiency standards for dishwashers.
    CEI cites to section 6295(q) of EPCA as the authority for DOE to 
undertake the requested rulemaking. Section 6295(q) requires that DOE, 
for a rule prescribing an energy conservation standard for a type (or 
class) of covered products, specify a level of energy use or efficiency 
higher or lower than the level that applies (or would apply) to such 
type (or class) for any group of covered products that have the same 
function or intended use, if DOE determines that covered products 
within such group either: (1) Consume a different kind of energy from 
that consumed by other covered products within such type (or class); or 
(2) have a capacity or other performance-related feature that other 
products within such type (or class) do not have, and such feature 
justifies a higher or lower standard from that which applies (or will 
apply) to other products within such type (or class). In making a 
determination under paragraph (q) concerning whether a performance-
related feature justifies a higher or lower standard, DOE must consider 
such factors as the utility to the consumer of

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the feature, and other appropriate factors. In any rule prescribing a 
higher or lower level of energy use or efficiency, DOE must explain the 
basis on which the higher or lower level was established. CEI asserts 
that given the significant amount of consumer dissatisfaction with 
increased dishwasher cycle time, cycle time is a ``performance-related 
feature'' that provides substantial consumer utility, as required by 
EPCA for the establishment of a product class with a higher or lower 
energy use or efficiency standard that the standard applicable to other 
dishwasher product classes.
    CEI also cites to 42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(4), which prohibits DOE from 
prescribing a standard that interested person have established by a 
preponderance of the evidence would likely result in the unavailability 
in the United States in any covered product type (or class) of 
performance characteristics, features, sizes, capacities, and volumes 
that are substantially the same as those generally available in the 
United States at the time of DOE's finding. CEI states that despite 
this prohibition, it appears that dishwasher cycle time have been 
impaired by the DOE standards and that many machines with shorter cycle 
times are no longer available.
    In its petition, CEI proposes a cycle time of 1 hour as the 
defining characteristic for the suggested new product class, because 1 
hour is substantially below all current products on the market. CEI 
states that energy efficiency standards for current products would 
therefore not change with the addition of the new product class, and 
that no backsliding would occur for the energy standards already in 
place. Specifically, 42 U.S.C. 6295(o)(1) prohibits DOE from 
prescribing a standard that increases the maximum allowable energy use, 
or in the case of showerheads, faucets, water closets or urinals, water 
use, or decreases the minimum required energy efficiency, of a covered 
product.

Submission of Comments

    DOE invites all interested partied to submit in writing by June 25, 
2018 comments and information regarding this petition.
    Submitting comments via http://www.regulations.gov. The http://www.regulations.gov web page will require you to provide your name and 
contact information prior to submitting comments. Your contact 
information will be viewable to DOE Building Technologies staff only. 
Your contact information will not be publicly viewable except for your 
first and last names, organization name (if any), and submitter 
representative name (if any). If your comment is not processed properly 
because of technical difficulties, DOE will use this information to 
contact you. If DOE cannot read your comment due to technical 
difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, DOE may not be 
able to consider your comment.
    However, your contact information will be publicly viewable if you 
include it in the comment or in any documents attached to your comment. 
Any information that you do not want to be publicly viewable should not 
be included in your comment, nor in any document attached to your 
comment. Persons viewing comments will see only first and last names, 
organization names, correspondence containing comments, and any 
documents submitted with the comments.
    Do not submit to http://www.regulations.gov information for which 
disclosure is restricted by statute, such as trade secrets and 
commercial or financial information (hereinafter referred to as 
Confidential Business Information (CBI)). Comments submitted through 
http://www.regulations.gov cannot be claimed as CBI. Comments received 
through the website will waive any CBI claims for the information 
submitted. For information on submitting CBI, see the Confidential 
Business Information section.
    DOE processes submissions made through http://www.regulations.gov 
before posting. Normally, comments will be posted within a few days of 
being submitted. However, if large volumes of comments are being 
processed simultaneously, your comment may not be viewable for up to 
several weeks. Please keep the comment tracking number that http://www.regulations.gov provides after you have successfully uploaded your 
comment.
    Submitting comments via hand delivery, or mail. Comments and 
documents submitted via hand delivery or mail also will be posted to 
http://www.regulations.gov. If you do not want your personal contact 
information to be publicly viewable, do not include it in your comment 
or any accompanying documents. Instead, provide your contact 
information on a cover letter. Include your first and last names, email 
address, telephone number, and optional mailing address. The cover 
letter will not be publicly viewable as long as it does not include any 
comments.
    Include contact information in your cover letter each time you 
submit comments, data, documents, and other information to DOE. If you 
submit via mail or hand delivery, please provide all items on a CD, if 
feasible. It is not necessary to submit printed copies. No facsimiles 
(faxes) will be accepted.
    Comments, data, and other information submitted electronically 
should be provided in PDF (preferred), Microsoft Word or Excel, 
WordPerfect, or text (ASCII) file format. Provide documents that are 
not secured, written in English and free of any defects or viruses. 
Documents should not contain special characters or any form of 
encryption and, if possible, they should carry the electronic signature 
of the author.
    Campaign form letters. Please submit campaign form letters by the 
originating organization in batches of between 50 to 500 form letters 
per PDF or as one form letter with a list of supporters' names compiled 
into one or more PDFs. This reduces comment processing and posting 
time.
    Confidential Business Information. According to 10 CFR 1004.11, any 
person submitting information that he or she believes to be 
confidential and exempt by law from public disclosure should submit via 
email, postal mail, or hand delivery two well-marked copies: One copy 
of the document marked confidential including all the information 
believed to be confidential, and one copy of the document marked non-
confidential with the information believed to be confidential deleted. 
Submit these documents via email or on a CD, if feasible. DOE will make 
its own determination about the confidential status of the information 
and treat it according to its determination.

[[Page 17770]]

    Factors of interest to DOE when evaluating requests to treat 
submitted information as confidential include (1) a description of the 
items, (2) whether and why such items are customarily treated as 
confidential within the industry, (3) whether the information is 
generally known by or available from other sources, (4) whether the 
information has previously been made available to others without 
obligation concerning its confidentiality, (5) an explanation of the 
competitive injury to the submitting person which would result from 
public disclosure, (6) when such information might lose its 
confidential character due to the passage of time, and (7) why 
disclosure of the information would be contrary to the public interest.
    It is DOE's policy that all comments may be included in the public 
docket, without change and as received, including any personal 
information provided in the comments (except information deemed to be 
exempt from public disclosure).
    DOE considers public participation to be a very important part of 
its process for considering rulemaking petitions. DOE actively 
encourages the participation and interaction of the public during the 
comment period. Interactions with and between members of the public 
provide a balanced discussion of the issues and assist DOE in 
determining how to proceed with a petition. Anyone who wishes to be 
added to the DOE mailing list to receive future notices and information 
about this petition should contact Appliance and Equipment Standards 
Program staff at (202) 586-6636 or via email at 
[email protected].

Approval of the Office of the Secretary

    The Secretary of Energy has approved publication of this 
notification of petition for rulemaking.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on April 18, 2018.
Daniel R. Simmons,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Energy Efficiency and Renewable 
Energy.
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[FR Doc. 2018-08521 Filed 4-23-18; 8:45 am]
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