101 STAT. 114
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PUBLIC LAW 100-12—MAR. 17, 1987 amendment could have been in effect, except that in no case may an amended standard apply to products manufactured within 3 years (for refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, and freezers, room air conditioners, dishwashers, clothes washers, clothes dryers, and kitchen ranges and ovens) or 5 years (for central air conditioners and heat pumps, water heaters, pool heaters, direct heating equipment and furnaces) after publication of the final rule establishing a standard. "(1) CRITERIA FOR PRESCRIBING NEW OR AMENDED STANDARDS.—(1)
Federal Register, publication.
The Secretary may not prescribe any amended standard which increases the maximum allowable energy use, or decreases the minimum required energy efficiency, of a covered product. "(2)(A) Any new or amended energy conservation standard prescribed by the Secretary under this section for any type (or class) of covered product shall be designed to achieve the maximum improvement in energy efficiency which the Secretary determines is technologically feasible and economically justified. "(B)(i) In determining whether a standard is economically justified, the Secretary shall, after receiving views and comments furnished with respect to the proposed standard, determine whether the benefits of the standard exceed its burdens by, to the greatest extent practicable, considering— "(I) the economic impact of the standard on the manufacturers and on the consumers of the products subject to such standard; "(II) the savings in operating costs throughout the estimated average life of the covered product in the type (or class) compared to any increase in the price of, or in the initial charges for, or maintenance expenses of, the covered products which are likely to result from the imposition of the standard; "(III) the total projected amount of energy savings likely to result directly from the imposition of the standard; "(IV) any lessening of the utility or the performance of the covered products likely to result from the imposition of the standard; "(V) the impact of any lessening of competition, as determined in writing by the Attorney General, that is likely to result from the imposition of the standard; "(VI) the need for national energy conservation; and "(VII) other factors the Secretary considers relevant, "(ii) For purposes of clause (i)(V), the Attorney General shall make a determination of the impact, if any, of any lessening of competition likely to result from such standard and shall transmit such determination, not later than 60 days after the publication of a proposed rule prescribing or amending an energy conservation standard, in writing to the Secretary, together with an analysis of the nature and extent of such impact. Any such determination and analysis shall be published by the Secretary in the Federal Register. ..(iii) jf Yie Secretary finds that the additional cost to the consumer of purchasing a product complying with an energy conservation standard level will be less than three times the value of the energy savings during the first year that the consumer will receive as a result of the standard, as calculated under the applicable test procedure, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that such standard level is economically justified. A determination by the Secretary that such criterion is not met shall not be taken into
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