SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s freeze on government regulations has caused the state to delay for the second time adopting guidelines for a law mandating water-efficient washing machines that would save California billions of gallons annually in water use.
The California Energy Commission Wednesday took the regulations off its business meeting agenda because the Schwarzenegger administration had not approved the rules, said Valerie Hall, a director at the agency.
“We’ve been under the impression that it would be any moment, but they have been busy,” Hall said.
The 2002 law that called for the rules said they were to be adopted by Dec. 31, 2003, but Schwarzenegger’s executive order delayed them as he wanted the agency to reevaluate the law’s impact on business.
On Dec. 16, the commission gave its report to Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman, who oversees the commission. They gave him more information on Dec. 31 and Jan. 16, Energy Commission spokeswoman Claudia Chandler said.
But the governor’s office had not finished its analysis of the first-in-the-nation guidelines in time for the meeting, Chandler said.
Continued delays could hurt the state’s attempt to gain a federal waiver allowing it to apply the water-use standards for washing machines, which exceed current federal appliance efficiency laws. The state needs the waiver before the law can go into effect.
“I’m concerned if the reason for the delay is not that they need more time, but is actually that they don’t like the legislation and aren’t moving forward with its implementation because they don’t like the policy,” said Jim Metropulos, who works on water issues for the Sierra Club.
The delay seems caused by confusion, said Steve Nadel, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, which worked on national standards for clothes washers.
“With this new governor the process has been a bit chaotic,” Nadel said. “They should work on ways of getting it more orderly.
“There are some significant water savings at stake for California,” Nadel noted.
“The standards are currently being analyzed,” said Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Ashley Snee. “We’re hopeful it will be on the commission’s agenda soon.”
The Energy Commission expects to have the standards back on the agenda for its Feb. 4 meeting, Hall said.
With California’s 35 million residents and perpetual water shortages, the stakes of the law are potentially huge. By targeting washing machines – which consume about 20 percent of a household’s annual water use – the state would save billions of gallons of water a year, according to the Energy Commission.
Passed and signed by former Gov. Gray Davis in 2002, the law creates a two-tier approach to increasing the water efficiency of washing machines.
By 2007, all washers sold in California must have a water factor of 8.5, which will save an estimated 3.6 billion gallons of water that year, the Energy Commission said. The water factor is calculated by dividing the total amount of water used to wash and rinse a load of laundry by the tub’s capacity in cubic feet.
In 2010, washers would have to have a water factor standard of 6, which would save an estimated 6.3 billion gallons of water that year.
From Star Telegram