Final Rule Challenge

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Zero Zone, Inc, et al v. United States Department of Energy, et al.,

Case No.: 14-2147; 14-2159; 14-2334

Officials: BAUER, RIPPLE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Final Rule Challenge  

Appellant petition to challenge substance and process of final rules promulgated by department of energy is denied. DOE took adequate considerations as related to small business when implementing rule.

“In any event, if a manufacturer wanted to determine the accuracy of the calculations in the engineering spreadsheet, it could have compared the spreadsheet’s results for a given type of refrigeration product to units of the same type and size in its own product line. See App. R.6, Admin. R.98. Moreover, if a manufacturer wished to go further and test the accuracy of DOE’s overall analysis, including the results that the analysis would produce for units of varying sizes, it could have looked to the actual energy efficiency standards provided by DOE in the notice of proposed rulemaking. See 78 Fed. Reg. at 55,892. If the manufacturer’s product, when altered to con‐ form to the energy standards proposed by DOE, could not reach those standards, the manufacturer would have cause to believe that DOE’s underlying computations on the hypothetical model could not be replicated in the real world or were otherwise faulty. Petitioners were provided with a sufficient opportunity to see and comment upon technical data. There is no basis here for our disturbing the agency’s decision.”

Petition Denied

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.