DOE Issues a Disappointing Federal Register Notice of Final Interpretive Rule Pertaining to Residential Furnaces and Commercial Water Heaters.
Last week, we reported on DOE issuing a “prepublication” of a “Notice of Final Interpretive Rule Pertaining to Residential Furnaces and Commercial Water Heaters” that reverses a previous interpretation supported by AGA and a number of other gas industry stakeholders that established separate product classes for non-condensing and condensing type vented gas appliances. Yesterday, DOE’s Final Interpretive Rule was published in the Federal Register that starts the clock running for any legal action that may be taken to challenge the DOE Final Interpretive Rule.  At this time, AGA and other organizations who oppose the DOE reversal will be assessing the possible legal challenge by a petition with the court of appeals of DOE’s reversal that can result in the loss of the availability of non-condensing type vented gas furnaces and water heaters if future DOE rulemakings on these types of products result in minimum efficiency requirements that essentially would prohibit the manufacturing of non-condensing type vented gas appliances.Petitions with the court of appeals are due 60 days after publication in the federal register, in this case Sunday, February 27, 2022, which would roll over to Monday, February 28. We will be providing updates on the discussions and actions on any potential legal action that may be taken to reverse this DOE Interpretive Rule.