Department of Energy December 20, 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act as amended prescribes energy conservation standards for certain commercial and industrial equipment, and requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to administer an energy conservation program for the equipment, including the development of labeling requirements. In this notice, DOE requests information from interested parties regarding the potential for establishing labeling requirements for covered commercial and industrial equipment, including information about the technical and economic feasibility of labeling such equipment, the extent to which labeling would assist consumers in making purchasing decisions, the potential for significant energy savings resulting from labeling, the potential content and format of prospective labels for each type of equipment, the ideal location of placement for any such labels, and prospective burdens on manufacturers associated with labeling of covered equipment. Additional input and suggestions relevant to labeling of commercial and industrial equipment are also welcome.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) gives notice of the decision and order (Case No. RF-021) that grants to Samsung Electronics America, Inc. (Samsung) a waiver from the DOE electric refrigerator and refrigerator-freezer test procedures for the basic models set forth in its petition for waiver in Case RF-021. In its petition, Samsung provides an alternate test procedure that is the same as the test procedure DOE published in a final rule dated January 25, 2012 (77 FR 3559). Under today's decision and order, Samsung shall be required to test and rate these refrigerator-freezers using an alternate test procedure as adopted in DOE's final rule dated January 25, 2012 (77 FR 3559) that takes multiple defrost cycles into account when measuring energy consumption.