Environmental -- 2016



Lennox Int'l, Inc. v. U.S. Dep't of Energy   (5th Circuit)

Challenging Dept. of Energy efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and freezers

The NAM filed an amicus brief in a challenge to a new Department of Energy (DOE), energy-efficiency standard for walk-in coolers and freezers. The new standard used a calculation of the “social cost of carbon” when aggregating purported benefits of the standard but was, however, not subjected to peer review, thus calling into question the quality and accuracy of the data used. This issue is important to manufacturers because DOE violated established requirements that influential information used by federal agencies to inform public policy decisions be developed through a transparent process. The NAM’s brief argued that the “social cost of carbon” estimates were developed by an ad-hoc interagency working group operating behind closed doors and outside the purview of notice-and-comment rulemaking or other meaningful public scrutiny. The case settled and was dismissed in 2016.