Department of Energy March 17, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces receipt of a petition for waiver from Felix Storch, Inc. (FSI) seeking an exemption from specified portions of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) test procedure for determining the energy consumption of certain electric refrigerators and refrigerator-freezers. FSI asks that it be permitted to use an alternate test procedure to account for the energy consumption of its specific models of its Keg Beer Coolers, Assisted Living Refrigerator-freezers and Ultra-Compact Hotel Refrigerators in place of the currently applicable DOE test procedure. DOE solicits comments, data, and information concerning FSI's petition and the suggested alternate test procedure. Today's notice also declines to grant FSI with an interim waiver from the electric refrigerator- freezers test procedure, for the reasons described in this notice. The waiver request pertains to the basic models set forth in FSI's petition.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA), as amended, prescribes energy conservation standards for various consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment, including automatic commercial ice makers (ACIM). EPCA also requires the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to determine whether more-stringent, amended standards would be technologically feasible and economically justified, and would save a significant amount of energy. In this notice, DOE proposes amended energy conservation standards for automatic commercial ice makers. The notice of proposed rulemaking also announces a public meeting to receive comment on these proposed standards and associated analyses and results.