Is the queenside bishop developed before your opponent plays e3? Sounds like the Colle System which you can look up.
Looking for lines against Queen's Gambit Declined + e3 instead of Nc3
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It's not the Colle if he's putting a pawn on c4.
3. e3 doesn't have a name because it's not a particularly good move, that said it's not some horrible mistake either. It's just a little bit questionable shutting the dark-squared bishop in for no reason. Because it's such a nondescript, somewhat passive move, there's nothing in particular to recommend against it. You can just go ahead and play whatever moves you were planning to play against Nc3.
I play the Colle...
3.e3 leads to interesting play if Black plays his c bishop to f5 or g4 (although if you play the Colle... there are a lot of bogus lines touted by snake oil salesmen in the past who cashed in on writing a Book on the Colle.... BEWARE!)
Playing the Colle, most of the time this line leads to the e3 Slav (a respectable main line, played my many a GM)
back to the OP
Sounds to me ... he just trying to get a jump on a queenside initiative
Interesting discussion so far, thank you!
"Is the queenside bishop developed before your opponent plays e3?"
Nope, he plays d4, c4, then e3 if pawn on c4 wasn't taken.
"It's just a little bit questionable shutting the dark-squared bishop in for no reason. Because it's such a nondescript, somewhat passive move, there's nothing in particular to recommend against it. You can just go ahead and play whatever moves you were planning to play against Nc3."
I'll see if I can get some ideas from that.
"he just trying to get a jump on a queenside initiative"
From reviewing his games, he seems very much like an active queen player, so that might be it.
There's nothing wrong with going e3 so early and you can't hope to refute the move but White's just cutting out some of his options and potentially getting a slightly worse version of something else depending on how both sides follow up.
For example if you consider the position after: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 c6 - White has to make a choice because now Black is legitimately looking at taking on c4 and then holding the pawn with some ideas such as ...b5 ...Bf8-b4 etc so 5.Bg5 would be a (well known) gambit, and cxd5 while being a decent enough move does allow Black's B on c8 to breathe a bit, so here white will often play 5.e3 to avoid all that.
In the situation you're giving, Black obviously has a lot more flexibility as to what set-up to adopt, personally I'd probably either just play ...Nf6 first followed by a quick ...c5 or aim for a line of the QGD where white not having Bg5 in will be more closely felt such as the Tartakower with ...Nf6 then ...b6.
But I would just play chess and not worry about his e3 move, it's not that critical either way.
I don't see Black's problem. White has showed his hand a bit early (no Bg5/Bf4), wich is nice, but nothing that you can expect to punish. You play 3...Nf6 and White will play Nc3 sooner or later leading to a position you know.
I'm trying to find some counters to a friend's white opening. He plays Queen's Gambit as white, and if it's declined, always follows it up with e3 as the third move regardless of what the opponent plays. Is there a name for this variation? Are there lines you can recommend? Most online resources focus on Knight to c3 as the third move, or white accepting the counter-gambit in case of Albin Counter Gambit.