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Today, the Department of Energy announced that it has resolved the civil penalty action against Mackle Company for its failure to certify that refrigerators and refrigerator-freezers sold under the Avanti brand name meet federal energy efficiency standards.  These legally required certifications provide DOE with information critical to determining that American consumers are buying products that deliver significant energy and cost savings in accord with DOE’s regulations.  On June 14, 2010, the Department issued a Notice of Proposed Civil Penalty t

The Energy Department's new Office of Enforcement, part of the General Counsel's Office, announced today that it has now successfully resolved 26 of the 30 certification enforcement cases brought in September 2010 as part of the Department's ongoing enforcement initiative. 

The Department will continue aggressively enforcing its certification requirements, which generate information that allows the Department to verify if a company is complying with energy and water efficiency standards that deliver significant energy, water, and cost savings to the American public.    

As a part of DOE's continuing enforcement action against Westinghouse Lighting Corporation, the company must cease sales of two light bulb models - medium based CFL basic model 15GLOBE/65/2 (Westinghouse product code 3800400) and general service fluorescent lamp model F40T12/CWE (Westinghouse product code 07521000) - because they do not meet DOE's energy efficiency standards. 

DOE testing in support of the ENERGY STAR program has revealed that an Electrolux Gibson air conditioner (model GAH105Q2T1) and an Equator clothes washer (model EZ 3720 CEE), both of which claimed ENERGY STAR ratings, do not meet the ENERGY STAR requirements.  Specifically, the test results for the Electrolux Gibson model show that, when tested in accordance with DOE’s test procedures, it consumed 6.1 percent more energy than the Energy Star requirement.  Test results for the Equator model show that it exceeds Energy Star’s water factor requirements by 12.3 percent.

The Department has resolved three more of the 27 certification enforcement cases initiated three weeks ago and issued one additional penalty notice to Nordyne, LLC for failure to certify certain air conditioner and heat pump products.  These actions reflect the Department's continued aggressive efforts to enforce the Department’s certification requirement – which helps to ensure that appliance, plumbing, and lighting products meet the energy and water efficiency levels required by law. 

The Department has successfully resolved eight of the 27 enforcement cases brought just two weeks ago against companies for selling products without properly certifying their compliance with the Department's conservation standards.  The swift resolution of nearly one-third of these cases reflects the central goal of the Department’s enforcement effort – compliance with all aspects of the Department’s regulations to ensure that consumers have the information they need to buy energy and cost saving products. 

The Department has issued a Notice of Noncompliance Determination and Proposed Civil Penalty to Air-Con, International, requiring Air-Con to cease the sale of certain air-conditioning systems in the United States and proposing a civil penalty of $231,090 for sales of these products in violation of the applicable energy efficiency standards.  This action reflects the Department's continued commitment to act aggressively to remove unlawful products from the market.

Today, the Department of Energy formally closed its investigation into whether sales to recipients of the Department's Energy Efficiency Community Block Grants  by two California companies, US Lighting Tech and American Induction Technologies, Inc., complied with the Buy American provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The Department of Energy has closed its investigation into the energy efficiency of ASKO Appliance Inc.'s dishwasher model D5122XXLB. After testing this model, the Department has found the model to be compliant with federal energy conservation standards.

Today, the Department of Energy announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on proposed reforms designed to improve its energy efficiency certification and enforcement regulations.

“This rulemaking a key step in the Department’s renewed commitment to systematic and robust energy efficiency enforcement,” said DOE General Counsel Scott Blake Harris.  “Effective enforcement will conserve energy, save consumers money, and prevent manufacturers who break the law from having a competitive advantage over those that play by the rules.”