HARDI has joined a group suing to overturn the regional HVAC energy-efficiency standards approved by the Energy Department in 2011.

The Heating, Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Distributors International has partnered with Cause of Action, a non-partisan organization that it says fights government corruption, in filing a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals to stop the standards from being implemented.

“The Department of Energy is turning a deaf ear toward American businesses and choosing to enact rules with no regard for proper procedure,” said Dan Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action. “Cause of Action chose to intervene on behalf of HARDI and the thousands of Americans they represent against this act of government abuse of power. We urge the Court of Appeals to examine the unprecedented harm the Department of Energy is enacting on businesses and consumers around the country, and ask them to rein in this agency.”

HARDI officials said they had repeatedly voiced their concerns about the proposal to government officials, but the department ignored them.

“For years HARDI members have been discussing regional standards, then the consensus agreement, and now the potential impact of the Department of Energy’s direct final rule on our industry,” said HARDI President Bud Mingledorff. “Over the last several weeks alone, four individual votes were cast among varying levels of HARDI’s membership leaders, each of whom unanimously determined joining this litigation was the right thing to do.”

The coalition opposing the rules also includes the American Public Gas Association, which previously filed a petition with the court.