A more efficient US? Energy agency prods only a bit.

The reason? The DOE said the more aggressive proposal crossed a legal line. The plan called for regional standards – a tough one for northern states, an easier one in southern states – while the law calls for a single nationwide standard, it argued.

"We have to follow our statutory requirements when evaluating where the current standards are," says David Rodgers, acting deputy assistant secretary for technology development in the DOE's energy efficiency office. "We propose the maximum technology that is feasible and economically justified."

The ACEEE is crying foul. "This is just letting an overly narrow view of the law get in the way of achieving the purpose of the act," says Steve Nadel, the group's executive director.

Some analysts say the department's choices may be the best possible given the pressure from industry and sniping from energy advocates.

"What plaintiffs in those [standards lawsuits] against DOE are still unwilling to accept is that it is really their own actions, along with those of industry, that are piling up legislation and rulemaking agreements," says Mr. Samuels, the Boston lawyer. With dozens of complex rulemakings, the DOE reached gridlock last year, he adds. "The resources were never close to handling the load."

Other analysts, however, note that it took the Bush administration six years to propose its first efficiency standard – for transformers, in August. Even there, the DOE sidestepped several tough standards that were much more energy and cost-effective than the one it proposed.

Executives of nine large electric utilities upbraided the department for not taking a tougher stand. "Given the energy challenges which face the nation, now is not the time to back away from energy savings shown by the DOE to be cost effective," they wrote Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman in a Sept. 26 letter. "We strongly urge you to strengthen the proposed ... transformer standard."

Utility executives were joined by New Mexico's two senators, Pete Domenici (R) and Jeff Bingaman (D), who sit on a committee that oversees the DOE. They chided the department in an Oct. 6 letter for passing over a stronger standard they say would have saved 50 percent more energy.

"At a time when improvements in energy efficiency are critical to our energy security, we believe it does not make sense to ignore these cost-effective energy savings," they wrote.

Frustrated by the DOE's pace, Congress itself rammed through efficiency standards on clothes washers, ceiling fans, and more than a dozen other appliances as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, observers say.

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