Dive Brief: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) it says would "remove unnecessary obstacles" to setting appliance efficiency standards, in part by reversing changes to the "process rule" made by the Trump administration. The process rule helps determine how appliance efficiency standards are set and updated. Clean energy advocates say changes approved by President Donald Trump's DOE made the process more lengthy and complicated, and added "arbitrary" savings thresholds required to set standards. Appliance manufacturers argue the Trump-led changes ensured standards produced significant energy savings The new proposal, issued Wednesday, would revert the process rule to "nonbinding guidance status," allowing DOE some flexibility in its application, and would eliminate the minimum energy savings threshold for appliance standards. The agency will hold a webinar on April 23 to discuss the proposed rule changes.