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Legal challenges have been brought against DOE in response to its recent final rules to amend the energy conservation standards for certain residential furnaces and residential direct heating equipment. The challenge to the residential furnaces rulemaking resulted in a settlement, and the challenge to the residential direct heating equipment rulemaking resulted in a court opinion. In each case, the relevant standards were vacated (either affirmatively or constructively), and the matter was remanded to DOE for further rulemaking. Consequently, on July 29, 2014, DOE published a final rule technical amendment in the Federal Register that amended the relevant portions of its regulations to reflect orders issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in response to these lawsuits. Specifically, in this final rule technical amendment, DOE amended its regulations to reflect the Court's order vacating the amended energy conservation standards for non-weatherized gas furnaces (including mobile home furnaces), which were adopted in the June 27, 2011, direct final rule for residential furnaces and residential central air conditioners and heat pumps. DOE has subsequently undertaken an energy conservation standards rulemaking for residential furnaces pursuant to terms of a March 2014 settlement agreement. Accordingly, DOE has agreed to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking within one year of issuance of the April 24, 2014 remand, including at least a ninety-day public comment period. DOE has also agreed to issue a final rule either within two years of the issuance of the remand or within one year of the issuance of the proposed rule. In the final rule technical amendment, DOE also amended the relevant portions of its regulations to reflect the Court's decision to vacate the regulatory definition of "vented hearth heater" (and by implication, the associated energy conservation standards), which were developed in the April 16, 2010, and November 18, 2011, final rules for residential direct heating equipment. Consequently, the standards established by the April 2010 final rule for vented gas hearth direct heating equipment will not go into effect, with the result being that there are no energy conservation standards for these products at this time. DOE has subsequently initiated a coverage determination as part of a separate rulemaking for hearth products.