Judge Orders Trump’S DOE To Implement Efficiency Rules For Appliances

"A federal judge in San Francisco ordered President Trump’s administration on Thursday to end a one-year delay on rules developed by the Obama administration to combat climate change by tightening energy-efficiency standards for portable air conditioners, building heaters and other appliances.

The proposed rules were issued by President Barack Obama’s Energy Department in December 2016 and were due to take effect the following March. But Trump’s energy secretary, Rick Perry, has prevented their enforcement by declining to publish them in the Federal Register, and argued in court that his agency has no obligation to do so.

That refusal “is a violation of the department’s duties” under federal law, said U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, who ordered the department to publish the rules within 28 days."

Bob Egelko reports for the San Francisco Chronicle February 15, 2018.