A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit against Department of Energy (DOE) regulations restricting water usage by washers and dishwashers.
The DOE issued the new standards in the spring of 2024 under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) of 1975. A nonprofit called the Competitive Enterprise Institute sued, alleging the DOE’s restrictions went beyond the agency’s authority.
The EPCA states that a challenger to a regulation “may … file a petition” with a U.S. appeals court.
That means the district courts do not have a role, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled.
“Here, ‘may’ means ‘must’ in the context of EPCA jurisdictional grants,” Kacsmaryk said in a 4-page decision dated Nov. 26….