ARLINGTON, Va. – The Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) issued the following statement regarding the Environmental Protect Agency’s (EPA) proposed rule to ensure that Agency actions are based on publicly available research:

“ACCA welcomes the EPA’s proposal to ensure the Agency uses publicly available research when considering regulatory actions. ACCA leads the HVAC industry’s standard development process and believes that the federal government should utilize the HVAC industry’s consensus standards. This proposal is in line with the HVAC Industry Alliance’s priority for government agencies to follow the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-119, which directs federal agencies to use voluntary consensus standards in lieu of government- unique standards,” said Barton James, ACCA senior vice president of government relations.

“By shifting the focus to the use of publicly available science in rulemakings, EPA can finally get serious about promoting realized energy efficiency programs,” continued James. “Until now, most energy efficiency programs have been based on lab-tested efficiencies, instead of the realized or installed efficiency, which is significantly less in most HVACR systems.”