The Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration
Distributors International has partnered with Cause of Action in filing a motion with
the U.S. Court of Appeals to stop the standards from being implemented.
HARDI has joined a group suing to overturn the regional HVAC
energy-efficiency standards approved by the Energy Department in 2011.
The Heating, Air-conditioning
and Refrigeration Distributors International has partnered with Cause of
Action, a non-partisan organization that it says fights government corruption,
in filing a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals to stop the standards from
being implemented.
“The Department of Energy is
turning a deaf ear toward American businesses and choosing to enact rules with
no regard for proper procedure,” said Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause
of Action. “Cause of Action chose to intervene on behalf of HARDI and the
thousands of Americans they represent against this act of government abuse of
power. We urge the Court of Appeals to examine the unprecedented harm the
Department of Energy is enacting on businesses and consumers around the
country, and ask them to rein in this agency.”
HARDI officials said they had
repeatedly voiced their concerns about the proposal to government officials,
but the department ignored them.
“For years HARDI members have
been discussing regional standards, then the consensus agreement, and now the
potential impact of the Department of Energy’s direct final rule on our
industry,” said HARDI President Bud Mingledorff. “Over the last several weeks
alone, four individual votes were cast among varying levels of HARDI’s
membership leaders, each of whom unanimously determined joining this litigation
was the right thing to do.”
The coalition opposing the
rules also includes the American Public Gas Association, which previously filed
a petition with the court.
