Litigation Seen As CE Option on California TV Energy Rules

The CE industry is awaiting the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) decision on California’s TV energy standards before finalizing further action on the regulations, said executives we spoke with. “There’s been some informal discussion” of a lawsuit, said one. Before the industry can “determine the future next steps,” it has to review the reasons given by the California Energy Commission (CEC) to the OAL to justify the regulations to “understand what was said and what was not said,” said Douglas Johnson, CEA vice president of technology policy. The commission submitted the regulations to OAL on July 21 for approval.

OAL can make changes to the regulations, and if that happens, the standards would be put out for comments again, said a TV executive. “We really have to wait until OAL finishes with that,” he said, noting that the agency would have to complete the review by Sept. 1. “Until that point I don’t know what our options are.” As industry weighs next steps after reviewing the commission’s final statement of reasons for the regulations, “there is no doubt that litigation is a possibility,” said a CE retail executive.

OAL has “30 working days from the submittal date, which includes furlough days, to approve or disapprove the rules package,” said Susan Garfield-Jones, CEC assistant executive director of media and communications. For the TV standards, the deadline is Sept. 1, she said. The OAL’s review is “limited to the record submitted to it, and to whether the Energy Commission has followed the necessary procedures for adopting the rules, and whether the rules satisfy the Administrative Procedure Act’s standards,” Garfield-Jones said. If the agency “disapproves the package” it would have to tell the commission why and “then we would have to follow any procedural or substantive changes to resolve that deficiency,” she said.

It’s uncertain what impact the California standards would have on other states if they take effect in January, the TV executive said. A few states had looked into adopting similar standards this year and “nobody took any action,” he said. “I am not sure what to read into that.” But the California standards could be a “floor” for the Department of Energy as it develops a federal TV energy standard, he said. “It will have a bearing on their decision,” even though the DOE’s process is different from California’s, he said.

"We can’t have 50 different rules for a product that is in interstate commerce,” said Christopher McLean, executive director of the CE Retailers Coalition. Even if all the states try to adopt California’s standards, “there’s going to be variations,” he said. “So at some point there is going to be need for legislative or regulatory action” at the federal level, he said. Referring to the DOE rulemaking on TV standards, he said the federal standards would have to preempt California’s.

As the switch to LED backlights is making TVs more energy efficient, the issue with state mandates would become “moot” as the sets meet the voluntary Energy Star specifications, said a TV executive who has supported the California regulations. “All of those who said it’s too hard to do are now saying we are already doing it,” he said of TV makers’ claims of energy efficient products. As LED components shortages ease, TVs will see their wattage go down significantly, he said. So the concerns about the California standard will “become a non event,” he said.