By Pixelmaniac pictures, via Wikimedia Commons
Electricalmarketing 1486 Tungsten Filament In An Incandescent Light 1
Electricalmarketing 1486 Tungsten Filament In An Incandescent Light 1
Electricalmarketing 1486 Tungsten Filament In An Incandescent Light 1
Electricalmarketing 1486 Tungsten Filament In An Incandescent Light 1
Electricalmarketing 1486 Tungsten Filament In An Incandescent Light 1

NEMA Seeks to Block New Lighting Laws Proposed by California Energy Commission

Aug. 10, 2017
NEMA’s action would stop the CEC from enforcing any regulatory action relative to general service lamps that conflicts with policy under development at the federal level such as by the DOE.

In the latest move in an ongoing dispute with the California Energy Commission (CEC) over regulation of general service lamps, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Arlington, VA, filed a declaratory judgment action with the United States District Court in Sacramento, CA, that seeks to block the CEC from enforcing state regulations on general service lamps that the association has opposed since they were approved in Jan. 2016.

Parts of the CEC’s Title 20 Appliance Efficiency Regulations have come under attack from many in the lighting industry. NEMA’s action would stop the CEC from enforcing any regulatory action relative to general service lamps that is in conflict with policy under development at the federal level such as by the US Department of Energy (DOE).

NEMA has been encouraging the DOE to complete its rulemaking begun in 2013 under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, most recently in a formal request last April. In that call to action, NEMA specifically asked DOE to rule on whether or not standards for general service incandescent lamps should be amended to be more stringent than the standards for those lamps that Congress enacted in EISA-2007. Nor did the rules address robust standards for light-emitting diode (LED) lamps that were originally proposed by DOE in 2016.

“In late 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) began a rulemaking to determine whether or not standards for light bulbs should be amended and whether new standards for certain unregulated light bulbs should be adopted,” said Kevin Cosgriff, president and CEO of NEMA, in a statement provided to Electrical Marketing. “That rulemaking is ongoing. In the course of that rulemaking, NEMA has supported robust new national energy efficiency standards for LED light bulbs, as well as new standards for other types of light bulbs. DOE proposed standards for LED light bulbs in this rulemaking.

“While that rulemaking was underway, the California Energy Commission (CEC) adopted energy efficiency standards for LED light bulbs that are different from what DOE has been considering. At the same time, CEC also proposed energy efficiency requirements for small diameter directional or reflector lamps that DOE has indicated it is regulating. This is exactly the kind of state regulation that Congress declared is not permissible.”