McCuskey eyes delay, reversal of furnace, water heater rules

By Chris Dickerson | Legal Newsline
The Center Square

West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey has submitted a formal comment letter to U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright urging the department to amend the compliance dates for two Biden-era rules that he claims will harm households and businesses.

The rules govern commercial water heating equipment and consumer furnaces.

The May 27 comment letter supports the department’s proposed amendment delaying compliance to January 1, 2030, while calling on DOE to go further and revoke the rules to permanently protect consumers from avoidable hardship.

“West Virginians should have a choice when it comes to the appliances for their homes. However, these Biden-era rules take away that choice,” McCuskey said. “Households will be forced to take on costly and unneeded renovations to comply.

“They could even be faced with abandoning the natural gas appliances that they rely on and can afford. That is why we are urging DOE to act now to protect consumers.”

If left in place on their original schedule, McCuskey says the rules would make it illegal to manufacture popular non-condensing natural gas commercial water heaters as early as October 2026 and residential furnaces by December 2028.

“The Biden Era Rules impose significant costs and hardships on consumers,” McCuskey wrote in the letter. “If the compliance dates are unchanged, millions of homeowners and businesses will be left with a stark choice: incur substantial, unanticipated expenses or forgo access to natural gas appliances that remain affordable for their homes and buildings.

“Given the federal government’s acknowledgment that the Biden Era Rules are factually and legally flawed, DOE should not require consumers, businesses, manufacturers, distributors, contractors, and building owners to proceed toward compliance on the current schedule.”

More than 335,000 West Virginia households use natural gas for heating. However, McCuskey says a requirement to retrofit a home’s heating system or purchase an alternative appliance would create an economic burden for many households in West Virginia and the rest of the nation.

McCuskey also led a 21-state coalition in the Supreme Court case challenging the D.C. Circuit’s November ruling that upheld the restrictions. The coalition argues that regulators exceed their statutory authority when they impose standards that eliminate products with distinct performance characteristics.