AG Ferguson to Trump: Drag feet on energy efficiency, we'll drag you to court

Attorney General Bob Ferguson: "The Trump administration has no legal right to stand in the way of these important efficiency standards. The benefits to consumers and the environment are too important to allow baseless delays." less Attorney General Bob Ferguson: "The Trump administration has no legal right to stand in the way of these important efficiency standards. The benefits to consumers and the environment are too important to ... more Photo: GENNA MARTIN/seattlepi.com Photo: GENNA MARTIN/seattlepi.com Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close AG Ferguson to Trump: Drag feet on energy efficiency, we'll drag you to court 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Washington and nine other states will haul the Trump Administration into court if it continues to drag its feet on new efficiency standards for a half-dozen major energy-consuming businesses and household appliances.

The states are filing a petition with the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to review Trump's delay in standards for ceiling fans. They have also served notice with the U.S. Department of Energy of their intent to sue over delays to five other products.

In the works since 2012, the Department of Energy published a final rule just before President Obama left office. It sets new standards for ceiling fans, walk-in coolers and freezers, power supplies, portable air conditioners, commercial broilers and compressors.

But the Trump Administration immediately delayed the effective date by 60 days.

Five days before the new March 20 effective date, it put off the standards until Sept. 30, claiming new U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry "has unable to accomplish the review" during the "original postponement."

"The Trump administration has no legal right to stand in the way of these important efficiency standards: The benefits to consumers and the environment are too important to allow baseless delays," said Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

Playing wing man to Ferguson, as he has in previous legal actions against Trump, Gov. Jay Inslee added: "We will do what we have to at the state level to ensure continued progress to reduce carbon pollution."

According to Energy Department estimates, in days when it was concerned with emissions, the standards would combine to eliminate emissions of 292 million tons of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, over a 30-year period.

Other stuff kept out of the atmosphere would be 734,000 tons of the pollution that creates soot and smog; 1.2 million tons of methane, a potent climate change pollutant; and more than 1,000 pounds of highly toxic mercury.

The new standards for appliances would cut electricity consumption by about 240 billion kilowatt hours over the next three decades -- the annual electricity use of about 19 million homes -- saving consumers at least $4.7 billion in energy costs.

The Energy Department's own website has said that standards already put in place "saved American consumers $63 billion on their utility bills in 2015, and cumulatively have helped the United States avoid 2.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions."

The states' latest legal challenge makes a wider point: Laws and requirements may bedevil the Trump Administration as it seeks to roll back initiatives in fields like pollution and energy conservation.

The new energy efficiency standards fall under the Energy Policy Conservation Act and the federal Administrative Procedure Act.

The new standards for walk-in coolers and freezers, power supplies, portable air conditioners commercial broilers and compressors were publicly posted by the Energy Department for error-correction review.

But the rules have not been submitted to the Federal Register for publication, despite the fact that the 45-day deadline for error correction has passed.

The states have pointed this out in their petition to the appellate court.

According to the Department's own rules, correctable errors do not encompass attempts to "revisit and re-argue issues that have already been addressed in the rule making process."

The states are giving the Trump Administration 60 days to publish the new standards, or the states will file suit over the Department's violation of the Energy Policy Conservation Act.

Washington is being joined in the legal action by New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Oregon and Vermont. Others in the case include the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection and New York City.

Maryland has joined the group in its 60-day notice to sue.