The Trump administration’s rescinding or delaying regulations has ‘saved the taxpayers nearly $24 billion,’ said Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has lifted regulations on decorative hearths and outdoor heaters that imposed “burdensome” energy conservation standards on these items, the agency said in a May 2 statement.
The Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) grants the DOE the authority to add consumer products to a list of “covered items,” said a department notice. Once they are added, the DOE can impose energy conservation standards and test procedures to regulate the devices.
In February 2023, the DOE finalized coverage for miscellaneous gas products (MGPs), which include decorative hearths and outdoor heaters.
On May 2, the DOE announced it was withdrawing miscellaneous gas products as a covered consumer product under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. As such, these items won’t be subjected to “a range of unnecessary regulations on their manufacture and sale,” it said in the statement.
The updated policy “will allow the market for these products to freely develop without needing to account for new conservation standards from DOE,” it said.
The department’s decision comes after President Donald Trump issued a presidential action on Jan. 31 titled “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation.”
The action aims to “alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens” on Americans. It asked agencies to identify at least 10 existing regulations to repeal for every newly proposed regulation.
Commenting on the DOE decision rescinding rules on miscellaneous gas products, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said that “under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Energy is returning to common sense—and that means giving the American people the ability to choose which heaters they use in their own backyards.”
“To date, rescinding or delaying unnecessary consumer regulations such as this has saved the taxpayers nearly $24 billion—and we’re just getting started,” he said.
The DOE said the rule was withdrawn after considering comments on the matter from various parties, according to the notice.
In an April 14 comment, the Hearth, Patio, and Barbecue Association said that it didn’t make sense to lump together different products under the category of MPGs.
The items are “a mishmash of materially different products that cannot reasonably be treated as a single product for purposes of regulatory analysis or coverage,” it said.
