The rush of the back-to-school season is here again. Homes across the United States are buzzing with all the tasks needed to get ready for a successful school day: washing and drying the perfect outfit, preparing lunch and storing it in the refrigerator, and quickly loading the dishwasher after breakfast.
While appliances are front-and-center in our homes as we move through the day, few people realize that the law governing appliances’ energy and water use, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, is now a half-century old. But the question of how this law should be modernized is back on the front burner in Congress, with a potentially generational chance to make changes that would impact every home.
EPCA determines, among other things, how and when federal energy conservation standards are developed. Those standards ultimately decide how much water clothes washers and dishwashers are allowed to use per cycle and how much energy other appliances — refrigerators, portable and room air conditioners, room air cleaners, and more — can use.
EPCA was signed into law by President Gerald Ford in 1975. Since the late 1980s, when the first federal energy conservation standards were issued under EPCA, home appliance manufacturers have worked closely with regulators to develop and implement energy standards that made sense for consumers and industry. With each subsequent tightening of standards, manufacturers have managed to maintain features while meeting increasingly strict limits on energy and water use.
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Manufacturers have achieved landmark efficiency gains while working within increasingly tighter standards. The average dishwasher manufactured today uses 50% less water and 37% less energy than models made in 1998. The average refrigerator made today uses nearly 58% less energy than refrigerators built in 1980, with nearly 32% greater capacity. Clothes washers built today use nearly 78% less energy than washers built in 1992 and have 60% greater capacity. To put the impact of the industry’s accomplishments into perspective, similar gains by the automotive industry over the past three decades would have produced minivans that get 80 miles to the gallon and have three extra seats.
But we have reached a tipping point. None of the standards issued during the most recent revision will save consumers more than a dollar a month. This is hardly worth the trade-offs that could come with tighter future standards: longer cleaning cycles, fewer features (imagine a kitchen range without a clock), and a narrower range of models available to consumers. But even with these significant sacrifices, appliance manufacturers will still be forced to invest tens of millions of dollars to meet standards that have little to no payoff in energy or cost savings.
EPCA is long overdue for upgrades that reflect today’s appliances and the incredible energy efficiency gains already achieved through a combination of federal standards and manufacturer-driven innovation. It is time to make EPCA as modern as the appliances it regulates.
So, what should the EPCA of the future look like? A bill introduced by Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA), which will be discussed during a Sept. 16 hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, would ensure that home appliance standards will only be changed when necessary, as opposed to the current practice of automatically tightening standards every few years. This is a step in the right direction to truly modernize EPCA.
Federal law must continue to prohibit states from setting their own energy and water standards for appliances. A strong, consistent set of federal standards will ensure that consumers in every state have access to a full range of products and models, while sparing manufacturers from the cost and confusion of complying with differing sets of standards.
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This is not the first time EPCA modernization has been considered. Appliances have been at the center of national energy policy discussions for the past several years. And now is the best opportunity to move from debate to action.
It is rare that legislation can make life better in every home in America. But Congress has the opportunity to do exactly that. Congress must take the steps necessary to modernize EPCA, bringing the law in line with the appliances it regulates, preserving consumer choice in appliances, and maintaining a national marketplace that works for consumers and manufacturers alike.
Kelly Mariotti is the president and CEO of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers
