We have been following Biden’s seemingly endless war on America’s appliances.
So far, the Biden administration eco-activists at the Energy Department have come after our:
But the climate cultists were most keen to crackdown on gas stoves, which led to the House of Representatives passing legislation to block the Department of Energy from implementing tough new energy conservation rules on gas stoves. It was a rare bipartisan move that more than two dozen Democrats supported.
The green energy goons from the Department of Energy went back to the drawing board, and released finalized energy efficiency regulations that dialed way back on the crackdown it was originally planning before the national outcry.
The Biden administration has published a rule aimed at requiring some gas and electric stoves to be more efficient — but, following immense political blowback, the requirements for gas stoves are significantly weaker than what it initially proposed.The Energy Department said in a press release that 97 percent of gas stoves and 77 percent of electric stoves on the market already meet the requirements it is proposing.This is down from the 50 percent of gas stoves on the market it estimated would be impacted by the rule last year.The actual efficiency requirement for the gas stoves is also weakened, now allowing stoves that use 1.77 million British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy per year, up from only allowing 1.204 million BTUs in its initial proposal.The rule only applies to new stoves being sold and would not force households whose stoves do not meet the standards to get rid of their existing appliances.
There must be a scientific reason for the substantial revision in requirements. The jump to 3% from 50% seems pretty significant.
And there is….based on political science. The Los Angeles Times took a break from their layoffs and woke drama to calm readers into not panicking because Trump is ahead of Biden in polling.
A little less than a year out from the election, and the headlines are preoccupied with the latest bad poll for the president. The New York Times even wonders whether the president is “toast” as hand-wringing spreads across the progressive community….Over the last several election cycles, polling has increasingly become a central focus of media reporting on campaigns, particularly presidential contests. And that’s unfortunate. Average voters should rarely see or hear about polling because it’s not particularly relevant or actionable for them.
All the Depart of Energy regulations do nothing more than make appliance more expensive and less efficient, and make it harder for small businesses to prosper.
…[T]he best reform is to sunset DOE’s standard setting authority entirely. Doing so would have no downside, only upside for small businesses. Any business owner who actually wants to use the kinds of appliances favored by DOE will always be free to do so, with or without these regulations. The only thing federal mandates do is force government’s particular preference on everyone. In the meantime, Congress should consider using its authority under the Congressional Review Act to take on each and every one of these rules that poses hardships on small businesses.
I suspect Biden and his bumbling bureaucrats will be backpedaling on so much more between now and November.
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