On Feb. 5, President Obama ordered his Department of Energy to accelerate the development of efficiency standards for a wide variety of residential and commercial appliances, noting that the department had already missed numerous deadlines for doing so. The presidential memo ordered DOE to set five efficiency rules by August that would include residential dishwashers, ranges, ovens, and microwave ovens; and commercial air conditioning equipment, boilers and beverage vending machines. The directive requested DOE to meet all future deadlines for efficiency rules, and that it should prioritize the rulemaking projects according to which will have the most immediate effect on energy savings, saying establishment of those rules should be achieved ahead of schedule.

The complete statement follows ...