The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently announced it has joined other environmental and consumer advocacy groups in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Energy’s rollback of energy-saving standards for general-service lamps currently in service in about half of the conventional sockets in the United States.
“It’s outrageous that the Department of Energy turned its back on the law passed by a bipartisan Congress and supported by industry more than 12 years ago to ensure our lighting is as energy efficient as possible,” said Kit Kennedy, senior director of NRDC’s Climate and Clean Energy Program. “It’s not only illegal to backtrack on energy efficiency standards, the United States will become the dumping ground for the inefficient incandescent and halogen models already banned in Europe and being phased out by countries around the world.”
The NRDC filed suit with Earthjustice (representing the Sierra Club, Consumer Federation of America, and Massachusetts Union of Public Housing Tenants); the U.S. Public Interest Research Group; and Environment America in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In addition, a group of 15 states (New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington) plus the city of New York and the District of Columbia filed a separate lawsuit in the same court.
The lawsuit contends DOE acted illegally in reversing its two-year-old rules expanding the types of lamps covered by general-service lamp standards. At issue are a variety of lamp types, including four categories of common lamps: three-way, flame- or candle-shaped, globe-shaped versions commonly used in bathroom vanities, and reflector models installed in recessed cans and track lighting.
Separately, DOE also has announced it does not plan to update the standards for general-service lamps already subject to energy standards. NRDC filed opposing comments with DOE, but that action is not part of this lawsuit.
