Gas industry trade groups on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court decision upholding Biden-era energy efficiency rules that they say ban the sale of non-condensing natural gas furnaces and other products.
The U.S. Department of Energy in 2023 and 2024 finalized stricter standards for consumer furnaces and commercial water heaters. But the tighter efficiency requirements would essentially block non-condensing versions of the products from the market, the gas groups say.
Traditional non-condensing water heaters and furnaces can reach efficiency rates of about 80%, while condensing appliances are typically 90% efficient or greater, according to DOE. Most of the greater efficiency comes from their conversion of excess heat to vapor that’s used for additional heating.
But non-condensing natural gas furnaces make up more than half of the U.S. market and cannot be replaced by other furnace types, the American Gas Association, American Public Gas Association and National Propane Gas Association said in a statement. “Their removal from the market would saddle families with costly renovations or eliminate gas as a home heating option all together,” the groups said.
The groups previously challenged the new rules, arguing that they violated the Energy Policy and Conservation Act by resulting in the removal of a product type or a class of performance characteristics. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit sided with DOE, concluding that the way heat is vented does not qualify as a performance characteristic of an appliance.
In its Supreme Court petition, the gas groups said the appeals court decision “reflects not only legal error but also practical folly.”
“These regulations eliminate non-condensing gas furnaces and commercial water heaters, which work with the chimneys and natural-draft venting already in millions of American homes and businesses,” the groups said. “The only alternative is abandoning gas appliances and switching to electric ones.”
This scenario “is why the law does not allow the government to use efficiency rulemakings to eliminate products that consumers need to be able to access,” AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert said in a statement. The Supreme Court “must take up this case and protect the American people from this unlawful regulation that would increase costs ... and ban an entire product class of appliances.”
Advocates for the stricter efficiency rules say furnace technology has advanced beyond existing standards, and the new rules can be met with proven energy-saving technologies.
The Supreme Court appeal is “a last-ditch push by gas utilities to keep the least efficient furnace types going into homes, locking families into higher bills,” said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project.
