Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Energy Department Dishwasher Restrictions

A woman places items into a dishwasher in this undated file photograph. Under the Department of Energy's regulations, a standard dishwasher can use no more than 3.3 gallons of water per cycle. Andrey Popov/Shutterstock

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.

He sided with government lawyers, who said that the law precludes district court jurisdiction.

“The preclusion of district-court jurisdiction is particularly evident here: not only does EPCA vest review of final rules in circuit court, but it vests other causes of action in district court,” they said in a brief.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute had said appellate jurisdiction was “permissive, not mandatory.”

While it’s true that traditionally district courts review agency actions, that presumption “evaporates ‘when there is a specific statutory grant of jurisdiction to the court of appeals,’” Kacsmaryk said, quoting from an appeals court ruling in a separate case.

Some other statutes authorize concurrent review by district and appeals courts, but the EPCA’s plain text does not, he added later.

“When the EPCA confers jurisdiction to the district court, it does so for issues appropriate for that forum—namely, whether a state or local government in fact met its EPCA requirements,” the judge said. “But Plaintiffs challenge the underlying agency decisions themselves, which, as the foregoing authorities demonstrate, are more appropriate for appellate review in this limited EPCA context.”

The Competitive Enterprise Institute and the DOE did not respond to requests for comment.

The new regulations imposed stricter water efficiency standards. A standard dishwasher under the regulations, for example, can use no more than 3.3 gallons of water per cycle.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit could still rule in favor of the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

In January, the court struck down an earlier set of regulations, ruling that no part of the EPCA grants the DOE the authority to regulate water usage for energy-using appliances such as dishwashers.

“The plain text of the EPCA,” the court said at the time, “says that DOE only has power to amend energy-use standards for dishwashers and clothes washers.”