West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey submitted a formal comment letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright urging the Department to amend the compliance dates for two Biden-era rules that will harm households and businesses. The rules govern commercial water heating equipment and consumer furnaces.
The comment letter supports the Department's proposed amendment delaying compliance to January 1, 2030, while calling on DOE to go further and revoke the rules to permanently protect consumers from avoidable hardship.
"West Virginians should have a choice when it comes to the appliances for their homes. However, these Biden-era rules take away that choice,” Attorney General JB McCuskey said. “Households will be forced to take on costly and unneeded renovations to comply. They could even be faced with abandoning the natural gas appliances that they rely on and can afford. That is why we are urging DOE to act now to protect consumers.”
If left in place on their original schedule, the rules would make it illegal to manufacture popular non-condensing natural gas commercial water heaters as early as October 2026 and residential furnaces by December 2028.
More than 335,000 West Virginia households use natural gas for heating. It’s a practical and affordable option. However, a requirement to retrofit a home’s heating system or purchase an expensive alternative appliance would create a substantial economic burden that many households in West Virginia, and the rest of the nation, simply cannot afford.
Attorney General McCuskey has been at the forefront of this issue, leading a 21-state coalition in the Supreme Court case challenging the D.C. Circuit's November ruling that upheld the restrictions. The coalition argues that regulators exceed their statutory authority when they impose standards that eliminate products with distinct performance characteristics.
Read a copy of the comment letter here.
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