The Energy Department said on Monday that it was preparing to roll back energy and water conservation standards for a long list of electric and gas appliances, targeting 47 regulations that it said were “driving up costs and lowering quality of life for the American people.”
The moves follow an executive order last week from President Trump directing the Energy Department to “eliminate restrictive water pressure and efficiency rules that make household appliances less effective and more expensive.”
But energy-efficiency experts and climate advocates said the Energy Department’s moves would increase the cost of running household appliances like dehumidifiers and portable air-conditioners as well as air compressors used in industry.
“If this attack on consumers succeeds, President Trump would be raising costs dramatically for families as manufacturers dump energy- and water-wasting products into the market,” said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, a coalition of environmental and consumer groups, utilities and government agencies.
Mr. deLaski also said that the effort violated an anti-backsliding provision in a decades-old underlying statute, which prohibits the federal government from adopting standards that are more lenient than ones already on the books.
“It’s patently illegal, so hold your horses,” he said in a statement.
Like many other countries, the United States has for decades adopted standards that govern how much energy or water that appliances — including lightbulbs, dishwashers, water heaters and washing machines — can use.
