U.S. sued over appliance energy standards

This past week, 15 states including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, along with New York City sued the U.S. Department of Energy for not making stronger standards for 22 common appliances. The suit was led by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer with the goal of saving some electricity, natural gas, and oil. The electricty savings would be between 13 and 42 large power plants if new standards were put into place. The main reason behind this lawsuit is that natural gas and home heating-oil prices have hit record highs. The Energy Department is 6-13 years behid schedule on writing new regulations. With the cost of oil and gasoline rising, it seems that the Energy Department should be doing everything they can in order to save energy.