The law suit on behalf of HARDI and ACCA says the U.S. Department of Energy exceeded
its authority and circumvented the public-comment period when it issued the
rule authorizing regional HVAC standards last year.
A brief was recently filed on
behalf of HARDI and ACCA in the groups’ lawsuit to overturn the regional
HVAC energy-efficiency standards approved by the federal Energy Department in
2011.
The brief was filed with the Washington, D.C., U.S. Court of
Appeals May 29 by Cause of Action, a
non-partisan organization that says it fights government corruption. It is working with the Heating,
Airconditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International, and the Air
Conditioning Contractors of America to stop the standards from going into
effect.
The suit says the Department of
Energy exceeded its authority and circumvented the public-comment period when
it issued the rule last year.
“This is the first time a direct final rule has been challenged in court,
even though agencies have issued hundreds, if not thousands, of direct final
rules over the past twenty-plus years,” said Dan Epstein, Cause of Action
executive director. “This is also the first time of note that an agency has so
blatantly ignored both procedure and the public, creating a huge accountability
problem that has led us to join in this lawsuit.”
Cause of Action said more than 30 negative public comments were submitted by
HVAC professionals on the proposal.
“By refusing to withdraw a highly controversial, major direct final rule
establishing energy-conservation standards, DOE radically broke with
established federal agency practice and the Administrative Procedure Act’s
general requirement for notice-and-comment rulemaking for regulations,” Epstein
added. “Apparently 30 objections were not enough to hold this rogue agency
accountable, so we have turned to the court to defend the interest of the
thousands affected by this type of arbitrary decision-making and regulatory
overreach.”
