AGA,  the American Public Gas Association (APGA), and National Propane Gas Association (NPGA) File Joint Comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Discussion Guide on a Revised Version of ENERGY STAR Levels for Clothes Dryers.

In the November 10, 2023 Update on End Use Codes and Standards, we reported that the  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  had released the ENERGY STAR Clothes Dryer Version 2.0 Specification Discussion Guide for comment.  According to the EPA announcement, “The purpose of this discussion guide is to engage with interested stakeholders to further inform an ENERGY STAR Version 2 specification for the clothes dryer product category.”   Stakeholders were asked to share feedback and data in response to this discussion guide by Thursday, December 14, 2023. Yesterday, AGA, APGA and NPGA filed timely comments (attached) in response to the Discussion Guide in support of the ENERGY STAR (ES) program continuation of including an ES level that recognizes gas clothes dryers. The recent announcements by the EPA ENERGY STAR programs for residential gas furnaces and boilers proposing to delete fossil fuel appliances from the program have caused concern that the Clothes Dryer Version 2.0 would exclude gas clothes dryers. The Discussion Guideline, while not specifically deleting gas clothes dryers from the ES program, appears to be absent of any coverage for gas clothes dryers and presents materials mainly targeted for ES levels only for electric clothes dryers. We will provide the EPA response to the joint comments when available.

State Codes Activity Update.

Attached is a weekly feature of the “Friday Update” covering state code calendar activities as presented by the online utility “Fiscal Note,” which is sponsored by APGA and AGA Code and Standards. Please review the update and determine if there are state code activities that impact your service territory or organization.