For decades, the Department of Energy (DOE) has imposed stringent regulations and efficiency standards on home appliances. While promoted as consumer-friendly measures to reduce energy use and costs, these rules ultimately raise prices, limit consumer choice, and undermine appliance performance and longevity.
In CEI’s forthcoming report, Free the Appliances! Turn out the lights on federal efficiency standards, Senior Fellow Ben Lieberman explains how DOE appliance regulations hurt more than they help. He documents the post-war history of appliance regulation and examines rulemaking under both Presidents Biden and Trump. While the second Trump administration has begun rolling back Biden’s aggressive mandates, Lieberman concludes that only Congress can deliver lasting reform by sunsetting DOE’s appliance efficiency standards program or limiting the agency’s rulemaking authority. The report follows Lieberman’s testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee this past September.
To kick off the report’s release on December 15, please join CEI for a virtual briefing on efficiency standards reform featuring keynote remarks from Representative Rick Allen (GA-12) and Representative Gary Palmer (AL-6). The discussion will include a panel with CEI’s author Ben Lieberman and CFACT’s Donna Jackson, moderated by CEI President Kent Lassman.
When: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
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Rep. Rick Allen represents Georgia’s 12th Congressional District. He graduated from Auburn University’s School of Architecture and Fine Arts with a B.S. in Building Construction. At the age of 25, he founded R.W. Allen & Associates, a construction company that has contributed to economic development in Georgia. Allen currently serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and is the Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.
Rep. Gary Palmer represents Alabama’s 6th Congressional District. He earned a B.S. in Operations Management at the University of Alabama and worked with two major international engineering and construction companies. He started the Alabama Family Alliance, which later became the Alabama Policy Institute, and served as president for 24 years. Elected to the 114th Congress in 2014, Palmer currently serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment within the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Donna Jackson is a senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT). She earned a Bachelor of Accountancy from California State University San Marcos and has worked in accounting, auditing, and management roles, later serving as deputy controller for the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Before her accounting career, Jackson worked as a political operative in Arkansas. She currently serves on several advisory boards, including the Independent Women’s Forum, The Conservative Caucus, and Our America, and is a member of the Heritage Foundation African American Advisory Council.
Ben Lieberman is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in environmental policy. Before rejoining CEI in 2018, Ben served for seven years as a senior counsel on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Earlier in his career, Lieberman completed a decade-long stint at CEI as well as five years at the Heritage Foundation. Lieberman received his undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland and his law degree from the George Washington University School of Law.
Kent Lassman is the host of the online event series at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. As president and CEO, he leads a feisty team devoted to radical reforms of an unaccountable regulatory state. Lassman has interviewed guests, including leading academics Annie Duke, Casey Mulligan, Cass Sunstein, and Bart Wilson, government officials Senator Mike Lee, then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, and then-EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, as well as prominent authors such as Marian Tupy and Jonathan Rauch.