Minutes of meeting

Tuesday, November, 14, 2006

Attending:

Whirlpool

Tom Catania, Vice President, Government Affairs

Sarah Bovim, Whirlpool Government Affairs

DOE:

Alexander Karsner, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy,

David Rodgers, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Technology Development

Francine Pinto, Program Counsel, Office of General Counsel

The meeting commenced at 4:15pm

1. Mr. Catania introduced himself and his colleague. Mr. Catania indicated he was

originally scheduled to meet with Undersecretary David Garman, but the meeting had

been delegated to Mr. Karsner.

2. Mr. Karsner inquired about Whirlpool's product line, worldwide sales, and service

strategies.

3. Mr. Catania provided a snapshot of Whirlpool's products and major retail partners,

including Sears, Lowes, the HomeDepot, Best Buy and others.

4. Mr. Catania indicated that Whirlpool's worldwide sales were about $20 billion.

5. Mr. Catania expressed Whirlpool's long-standing preference for National appliance

standards over State standards.

a. By way of example, Mr. Catania indicated that Whirlpool was of the position

that the Department should deny a petition from the State of California for

pre-emption from the Department's clothes washer standards. He urged as

timely as resolution as possible by the agency.

b. Mr. Catania gave another example, urging the Department to support National

standards in its Furnace and Boiler rulemaking.

6. Mr. Rodgers indicated that the Department's would be responding to the California

petition according to our published schedule to be completed by the end of the year.

7. Mr. Rodgers indicated the comment period for the Department's Furnace and Boiler

rulemaking is still open and urged Whirlpool to submit formal comments.

8. Mr. Catania extensively summarized the budding effort by stakeholders to present to

the Department proposed consensus standards for a broad collection of home

appliances. He indicated that stakeholders plan to hold a kickoff meeting on

December 7th, 2006, likely to involve energy efficiency stakeholders and

manufacturers from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM).

The event is timed to coincide with an AHAM meeting. Mr. Catania invited Mr.

Karsner to speak at the December 7th event.

9. Mr. Karsner reported that he and General Counsel David Hill had previously met with

AHAM and stakeholder representatives and that the Department was strongly

supportive of voluntary stakeholder efforts to submit proposed consensus standards

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within the limits of our statutory requirements. Mr. Karsner, indicated he may be on

travel but would investigate providing a video taped speech for the event.

10. Mr. Catania described an upcoming Global Energy Forum, to be held November 17,

2007, at the DC Convention Center and invited Mr. Karsner to attend.

11. Mr. Catania indicated that Whirlpool is very concerned about appropriate application

of test procedures by other manufacturers, especially for refrigerators. Mr. Catania

referred to a recent Consumer Reports article on refrigerators and test procedures. He

urged the Department to evaluate an AHAM proposal for proper interpretation of test

procedures.

12. Mr. Rodgers reported that the Department was very concerned about the proper

application of all test procedures, and that in addition, it was investigating whether

the voluntary ENERGY STAR refrigerator program could adopt reforms to ensure

proper test procedure application.

13. Mr. Catania expressed support for the incentives for energy efficient appliances found

in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and reported that they have been very effective for

promoting consumer adoption of energy efficient products.

The meeting adjourned at 4:45pm

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