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Remember when Americans were told the gas-stove controversy was basically made up?The Fifth Circuit just provided a rather inconvenient receipt.A unanimous three-judge panel struck down a Biden-era Department of Energy rule setting efficiency standards for consumer stoves, cooktops and ovens. The reason was not that the federal government can never regulate appliance efficiency.It was how the Biden administration did it.DOE used something called a "direct final rule," a special fast-track process Congress designed for standards supported by a group fairly representative of the relevant points of view. Unlike normal rulemaking, the process can move without advance notice and a traditional pre-decisional comment period.That shortcut only works when the issue is genuinely suited to consensus.The Fifth Circuit said this one clearly was not.Seven states had challenged the rule. Similar stove-efficiency proposals had already generated heavy public controversy. Judge Andrew Oldham wrote that the administration could not simply treat support from industry groups, environmental organizations and several Democratic-led states as if the entire controversy had disappeared.The Energy Policy and Conservation Act has procedures for a reason. If DOE wants to impose national standards that can affect cost, reliability and consumer choice, it has to follow the law and deal with serious adverse comments.This ruling does not mean gas stoves can never be regulated. It means regulators cannot skip the hard part because public opposition is inconvenient.That is exactly how the administrative state is supposed to be restrained.Agencies have enormous power over products Americans buy every day. That power has to remain tied to statutes passed by Congress, procedural safeguards and a record that includes dissenting views, not just the voices the agency prefers.The result here is a victory for process, consumer choice and basic accountability.Source: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, State of Mississippi, et al. v. Department of Energy