Energy Conservation

The Department of Energy (DOE) is behind schedule in upgrading energy efficiency standards for household appliances, such as refrigerators, air conditioners, and heat pumps. This has happened because (1) the appliance program's budget has been cut and staffing has remained flat despite an increasing workload and (2) DOE officials generally review proposed standards sequentially, rather than using a faster concurrent review process. The upshot is that U.S. consumers, by continuing to buy less efficient appliances, will spend an estimated $1.7 billion more on energy costs through 2030 than they would have if DOE had upgraded the standards on time. The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) labeling program is intended to inform consumers about appliance energy use and costs. Despite concerns voiced by consumers and manufacturers about the accuracy of existing appliance labels, which do not take into account changing energy prices, FTC has not reviewed the format and information content of labels, calling into question the program's effectiveness. To promote compliance with federal efficiency standards and accuracy in labels, DOE and FTC rely largely on voluntary tests done by industry associations. GAO did not determine the extent to which appliances met efficiency standards, but it did discover instances in which pool heaters and refrigerator-freezers fell short of the energy efficiency claims on their labels or were less efficient than the standards required. DOE and FTC do not systematically monitor and investigate compliance with the standards.

GAO found that: (1) the Department of Energy (DOE) upgraded efficiency standards for five types of appliances more than 16 months past its required deadline, and will be over 2 years behind schedule in upgrading standards for another nine appliances; (2) the appliance program's workload has increased for upgrading standards, the program's budget has declined, and staffing levels have remained constant; (3) DOE use of sequential, rather than concurrent, reviews for notices of proposed and final standards may have contributed to the delay in upgrading appliance efficiency standards; (4) manufacturers, consumer groups, and others have expressed concern that appliance labels do not effectively inform consumers about appliance energy efficiency and costs; (5) in 1988, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began a voluntary review of the labeling rules and solicited suggestions for changing label formats and content, but the review has been delayed by increased workloads; and (6) DOE and FTC rely on manufacturing association programs that test appliance models at random and compare the energy efficiency of the tested models with manufacturers' energy efficiency claims to ensure compliance with federal efficiency standards and accurate appliance labeling.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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