First, they came for gasoline-powered cars and diesel trucks.
Then, they came for your gas stoves.
Now, Biden and his eco-extremist bureaucrats are coming for your air conditioning units.
The Biden administration announced its latest home appliance regulations this week, targeting air conditioners in an action it said would reduce the nation’s carbon emissions.The regulations, unveiled Thursday by the Department of Energy (DOE), finalize energy efficiency standards for home air conditioning units, or window air conditioners, and portable air cleaners. The DOE said the move would cut air pollution and push consumer costs down by billions of dollars via energy savings.”Today’s announcement builds on the historic actions President Biden took last year to strengthen outdated energy efficiency standards, which will help save on people’s energy bills and reduce our nation’s carbon footprint,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.”DOE will continue to engage with our public and private sector partners to finalize additional proposals like today’s that lower household energy costs and deliver the safer, healthier communities that every American deserves,” she continued.
The promises the Department of Energy is making are extravagant.
Window air conditioners — also known as room air conditioners — are smaller air conditioners that can be put into window frames. They are the main cooling source for 21.4 million U.S. households, according to the Energy Department.The new standards, shared first with The Hill, would save consumers a total of about $1.5 billion per year on their electricity bills, the Energy Department said. It also expects the standards to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 106 million metric tons over 30 years — the equivalent of the annual emissions of 13.4 million homes.Together, they are expected to cost manufacturers a total of about $82.1 million to comply with.
Biden and his misery-spreading minions have found the perfect legislation to target Florida, Louisiana, and all the rest of the Red State South.
[Air conditioning] enabled the sweeping postwar development of the South, where all new single-family homes today include central air. In automobiles, it made the commutes between air-conditioned homes and air-conditioned offices possible. In the Southwest, its arrival facilitated new methods of rapid construction, replacing traditional building designs that once naturally withstood the region’s desert climate.
The extra costs will surely help increase the rate of Bidenflation. The new rules will make these window air conditioning units more expensive, adversely impacting those on fixed incomes and the poor.
Subsequently, there will be “unintended consequences.” As Professor Glenn Reynolds notes, among the hardest hit by the new requirements are blacks and the elderly.
More than 80% of heat-related deaths in America are among people over 60.Many older people live in older buildings without central air. Their only prospect for staying cool during summer heat waves may be a room or window-unit air conditioner, which will see price hikes and quality drops under these new rules.(Ironically, one of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s top heat-related recommendations for older adults is to stay in air-conditioned spaces.)Black people are another group more likely to die from heat stress, with New York City blacks, for example, almost 2½ times more likely to die from the heat than whites.What’s more, CNN reports, “Health officials said many of the deaths directly caused by heat occurred at home and a significant number did not have an air conditioner or one was either not working or not in use.”
Reynolds asks: “Why do Jennifer Granholm and the Biden administration hate minorities and the elderly?”
Minorities and the elderly are just two of the numerous groups of freedom- and comfort-loving Americans hated by Biden and his administration.
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