State AGs’ Lawsuit Against Energy Dept. Dishwasher Rule Will Soak Consumers

In response to a lawsuit filed by 15 state attorneys general and the City of New York against the Department of Energy’s (DOE) final rule on energy efficiency standards for residential dishwashers, CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman said:

“Dishwashers are one of the worst examples of overregulated appliances. For years, they’ve gone up in price and down in performance as a result of increasingly stringent ‘efficiency’ standards that are worse than non-productive. The Department of Energy’s new dishwasher rule is a welcome step towards remedying this problem. Whatever goals the 15 state attorneys general might have in bringing this challenge to that rule, serving consumers is definitely not one of them.”

The Energy Department issued the rule in October to create a new category of dishwashers that could clean and dry dishes in one hour, rather than the two-and-one-half hours that the machines currently require. The move came as a result of a CEI petition that argued that dishwashers had lost much of their utility due to their slow speeds and poor performance, and that the responses of many consumers (such as pre-rinsing and handwashing) actually resulted in higher energy and water use.

> Related analysis by CEI’s Ben Lieberman: Department of Energy Grants Petition To Speed Up Dishwashers

> View the editorial by the Wall Street Journal, A Rule for Cleaner Dishes