House Democrats and GOP Join Forces to Defend Our Appliances from Biden’s Crazed Energy Department
House backs bills to roll back energy efficiency standards for refrigerators, dishwashers.
Since the beginning of his administration, Biden has waged a seemingly endless war on America’s appliances.
So far, the Biden administration goons at the Energy Department have come after our:
Let’s not forget the attack 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. That was a rare bipartisan move supported by more than two dozen Democrats.
Now comes even more bipartisan opposition to Biden’s energy rules. Several Democrats in the House of Representatives joined Republicans on legislation blocking new Biden administration energy efficiency standards for refrigerators and dishwashers.
The Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act by Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., and Refrigerator Freedom Act by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, passed along party lines Tuesday evening.
Seven House Democrats voted for each bill. The dishwasher standards legislation passed 214-192 with no GOP dissent. The refrigerator bill passed 212-192, with one Republican voting against it.
Both bills are aimed at prohibiting the Secretary of Energy from enacting and enforcing “energy efficiency standards for residential refrigerators, freezers and dishwashers that are not technologically feasible and economically justified,” the House GOP has said.
One bill offered by Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa would curtail Energy Department rules on refrigerators. The second measure was put forth by New York Republican Rep. Nick Langworthy and bars the administration from implementing or enforcing new efficiency rules if they are not “cost-effective or technologically feasible.”
Langworthy said his bill, the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards, or SUDS Act, would “put the brakes on the Biden administration’s relentless assault on efficient, affordable and reliable appliances for everyday Americans through overbearing regulations.’’
The Energy Department and other agencies have “abused and twisted” a 1970s-era law aimed at energy conservation in order “to serve the radical, woke, environmental agenda of the far left,’’ Langworthy said during debate on the House floor. “Why should Americans who are putting their groceries on credit cards be forced to deal with more out-of-touch expensive regulations?’’
Miller-Meeks used similar language, saying the Biden administration has implemented “outrageous regulations that only serve to limit consumer choice, increase energy prices and control everything Americans are able to do on a day-to-day basis.’’
Meanwhile, Congress is now targeting the Biden administration’s new energy efficiency standards for home construction..citing concerns about inflation.
In late May, the Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and Department of Agriculture enacted updated energy efficiency standards for new home construction that reflect 2021 International Energy Efficiency Conservation Code (IECC) parameters for federally-financed homes.
The pushback comes after nearly 20 lawmakers sent a recent letter demanding the president halt adoption of the new efficiency standards, set to be enforced, citing affordability and inflationary concerns.
…In their letter, more than a dozen House lawmakers led by Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., warned Biden the adoption of 2021-IECC standards would exacerbate the housing affordability crisis and price some households out of the market altogether.
Cline’s letter, co-signed by Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, Dan Meuser, R-Pa., and 15 other lawmakers, said 44 states thus far declined to adopt the 2021-IECC standards themselves because they understand the market ramifications.
Here’s hoping even more of the Biden administration’s inanity gets rolled back, even before he leaves office.
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Comments
A win-win would be to eliminate both appliances and require low-skill illegals to work as dish washers and ice men.
you’d think a sarc label should be unnecessary, but not everyone has the humor gene
My work is related to the residential construction industry. When I look at house plans, some of the “efficiency” (and other) code requirements are so intrusive and downright silly it leaves me scratching my head. Certain cities are control freaks with their own “special” codes which go even further.
I swear the true purpose of all this nonsense is to line someone’s pockets at nearly every stage of the construction process, and the everyday homeowner is the one who’s getting ripped off.
Somebody could make a fortune reconditioning old toilets, refrigerators and especially dishwashers.
They don’t make them like they use to. All Plastic parts and out dated electronics which can’t be replaced or if it can it’s always on back order.. It’s become a ‘use and throw away’ of both large and small appliances. In fact I’m of the belief they install an electronic ‘kill switch’ which activates within 2 weeks past the warranty.
Adding to Nordic’s comment – Efficiency standards have forced appliance manufacturers to add far too many parts to meet the efficiency standards. Too many parts that make repairs extremely time consuming and ineffective.
For example, the filter on my dishwasher clogged up and needed the regular cleaning – ” Regular cleaning” I spent nearly 3 hours disassembly the assembly just to access the filter,
A second example is my washing machine sprung a leak in a 1/4 rubber tube. A rubber tube that was only 3 inches long. It required disassembly of nearly the entire machine just to access the space to replace the rubber tube.
Again adding further to Nordic’s comment – The lifespan of the appliances is greatly shortened, such that the solid waste disposal is often greater than the savings in water and electricity used over the life of the appliance.
And “efficient” in the case of a new refrigerator we got a couple of years ago, means “it takes a lot longer to chill things now.” Our old 80s clunker did a better job and lasted forever.
We had an old Montgomery Wards upright freezer gifted to us a number of years ago by a neighbor who had passed away. The thing must have been from the 70s but it was solid and still going strong. Would love to still have it, but we had to leave it behind when we escaped Illinois, and we simply had no room to haul it on a thousand-mile move. It wasn’t “frost-free,” but I’d still take it over any modern stand alone freezer any day.
I have one appliance which is used when needed….a washing machine purchased in 1996. It’s working great with only 2 service calls,,both on electronic set dials. I was informed after the last service call it would no longer be serviced as there is no manufacturer where he could get a replacement. Even the one out places like ‘washing machine junk yards’ only take your name and contact you if a part comes in. This machine was under $600. A new one $2000.
One very much needed element is the ‘right to repair’ along with some common sense by manufacturers to stop designing to make repairs so difficult as to become unfeasible. Maybe a good way to create the incentive for manufacturers to stop the ‘disposable, throw it out buy another one’ mindset is to require them to fund a landfill and take possession of junked
products. A single landfill for each separate product line and an escrow account to cover 50 years of maintaining that landfill and the costs to haul away junked appliances would probably do it. One important caveat; a landfill in each State for that States junk…no more hauling it out of State and putting trash/junk from X State into Y State…’for the environment’.
Or, just remove barriers to entry so that people can make new products and not face an enormous uphill climb. If somebody could just make functional, attractive, repairable items, then they would dominate. But nobody does.
True, though it does leave the problem of what to do with all the currently installed junk. Personally I would prefer a simple solution; each congressional district gotta take care of its own trash and landfill needs. I’d settle for no shipments of trash or junk out of State to a landfill.
Not a new concept. Sears, Montgomery Wards, and all appliance stores including TV’s up until the early 70’s serviced what they sold. I do have a 1966 blender that I was able to get a new blade on line. It still works as new. Great for Daiquiri’s.
Loius Rossmann on youtube: he’s been big on right to repair for a long time and your comment about not making stuff so complicated goes right along with much of what he says.
In my case, the problem is not the complexity, it was simply designing the machine so parts could be accessed. 6 hours to access the part, replace it etc, , makes it cheaper just to replace to 800 unit.
puchased meile dishwasher because the filter could be accessed with one knob.
purchased the base model speed queen because I could do repairs myself
Making the wear parts accessible for repair has been an issue for a long time. I recall 1960’s cars where a couple of the spark plugs could not be reached except by either hoisting the engine out of the car or cutting a hole through the inside of the fender. It only got worse in the 1970’s as pollution-control parts and a mile of wires and tubing was added under the hood. But I think most such cases involved a huge V-8 crammed into an engine compartment designed for a small straight-6; to properly fit that engine they’d have had to stretch the chassis a foot and change all the sheet metal forward of the driver and passenger doors.
OTOH, there was my Chevy Chevette, with the smallest straight-4 engine. Lots of room around it. The starter torque was fading, and I’d eliminated the solenoid and all the electrical connections as the culprit. I got out the Chilton’s manual, and it told me that the first step in changing the starter was to remove the master brake cylinder! Whoa, I’m much too much of an amateur mechanic to mess with the brake hydraulics. I looked, and there’s the starter with plenty of room to swing a wrench on all sides – but when I got it loose, there were no openings big enough to slide it through and get it out of the car.
After about 15 minutes of trying every which way, I changed the goal. I went to the parts store and bought a rebuild kit for the starter, for much less than a new starter. There was plenty of room to rebuild it without removing it. The starting system worked fine for several more years, until the car was about 15 years old and I retired it because it was so rusty the unibody might break in half going over a bump at highway speeds.
Disposing of electronics has become virtually impossible. Best Buy will take some things for disposal, but they won’t take any TV over 50″. Another major problem is that manufacturers of things like microwaves have taken to using screws that prevent you from taking the backs off to replace a fuse, so you have to buy new.
Planned obsolesence strikes again.
We can add those to the list for a unique landfill and a company haul away.
might want to add automobiles to this
OTOH, it would be nice if builders in FL were required to put at least 6 inches of insulation in outside walls. I am almost certain that the total cost of ownership would be significantly lower.
Anyone who owns a (reasonably sized) boat or RV understands that dishwashers use WAY less water than washing by hand. It’s not even close. If people in government weren’t morons, they would be figuring out a way to encourage dishwasher purchases and use. Making them ridiculously expensive by regulating the hell of of them isn’t going to do that.
How about “low flow” toilets that require two or three flushes to get rid of floaters and big dumps, or “low flow” faucets and shower heads that make it necessary to spend four times as long in the shower because there’s just not enough water coming out to do a decent job?
A LOT of women have had experience with those “low flow” toilets — it’s called urinary tract infections. Those toilets don’t flush clean, and there’s such a thing called “urine splash back” that transmits to contents of the bowl to a lady’s vulnerable parts.
UTIs are very painful, and just about completely preventable by, get this — flushing twice. That is, once before and once after she uses the toilet. Low flow toilets are a hideous appliance and completely inappropriate.
there’s a good cure for this:
it’s called a guillotine
to be employed on the politicians and unelected bureaucrats who pushed these inefficient aggravations on an unsuspecting populace
Low flow toilets cause sewage system blockages.
https://plumbers911.com/the-problems-with-low-flow-toilets-how-to-avoid-stinky-sewage-backup/
As others have noted
Low flow toilets create at lease two problems
1 in sufficient water to flush the turt into to home sewer line
2 insufficient water to move the turt through the home sewer line into the city se
Had to replace our very good Kitchenaid after 20 years (quiet, top controls, and half as much as Bosch, but the board fried itself one day). Bought the newest version on special. Installed it, then to check I ran a cycle. Well, great unit, except I had no idea cycle times went from roughly an hour to 3 hours. Here I am waiting for hours for it to drain so I could check the lines. Didn’t know a 3x cycle time is what constitutes “energy efficient”. But the machine uses less [well] water with less going into the septic than the older one. Very good machine…but yes to your point, make them affordable and not so overly regulated that does nothing but add cost (supply and demand is self-regulating, meaning zero need for government ninny’s to be involved in private industry).
That’s because the relevant government regulations don’t measure efficiency aka work done per unit of resources, they measure total water and energy used.
It gets even worse when you have the high efficiency appliances that try to use very little water and therefore you have to run them multiple Cycles to have any confidence that they did the job.
If the Administration and the clowns at EPA were really interested in energy efficiency and saving money they would subsidize the removal of electric water heaters and replacement with on demand gas water heaters. I replaced mine as well as the electric stove with propane and removed the central furnace switching to wall mount room propane heaters and low energy Envi electric. Electric bill hits $100 in mid summer because of air conditioning use but the rest of the year it averages $50-60.
Same here I changed my electric water heater to On Demand propane and it cut my electric bill in half and I have all the hot water I need
To be fair, they ARE subsidizing flash hot water heaters. I got $100, from the manufacturer, $250 from my gas company, and should get a tax rebate from the Feds of $600.
There should be no subsidies from government (more meddling by agenda, which means someone is getting a payout)…but if there are, might as well take advantage.
A good thing about all gas appliances is that they keep or remove loads from our wheezing electrical grid.
you raise an excellent point – ie best not to put all your energy needs into one basket.
Imagine how many dead if Texas heating was all electric during the feb 2021 freeze
Imagine how many dead if Texas heating was all electric and all renewable electric generation during the Feb 2021 freeze.
Imagine all the dead across the north american continent if heating was all electric and all renewable electric generation during the texas freeze.
Those subsidies don’t go to you, not really. They go to the manufacturer, other than the manufacturer’s rebate. If the manufacturer knows that their item gets $850 in discounts from others you can be certain they have raised their prices by $850 to capture those discounts for themselves.
Time to remove “government” (aka. meddlers, nudges, control freaks, grifters…etc) from the supply chain and manufacturing. You can’t directly regulate consumer supply and demand, when you do then this is the garbage we get, like the lousy fuel can. And always under the guise for “the environment, health & safety, or [fill in the blank]. Government thinks they know better than actual engineers and manufacturers (building codes/Permits anyone?). In short they hamstring every industry to control everything while lining their pockets from their pals along K-Street (which should be leveled and turned into a park…no more grifter “lobbyists”.)
Our newish LG front loader washer and dryer set (not cheap, even on sale) was next to useless in comparison to our original 20+ year-old Kenmore very basic stacked unit (that we gave away because it still worked). The new washer actually molded around the gasket and in the drum unless you wiped it out and left the door ajar. It was (by yet another useless outfit) EPA required to use so little water that it never washed clothes that well. (uh, kinda need adequate water to clean clothes) Same program with the Meddlers; get less for more cash when government sticks its arrogant nose in things. The old W/D unit actually washed clothes, this one…with its 2-3 hour wash cycles and special pods…never got the clothes clean, even with extra rinses. The dryer’s special sensors always got weirded out and needed extra time to dry. Yeah – way to go you bums – not the least bit “energy efficient” (“flush twice = run twice”). Gave the set away (told our friends how to increase the water supply by adjusting the inlet valve – never did that because my wife ultimately hated the machine). Just this year we bought the new Electrolux all-in-one stacked unit, 45 minute wash cycles, made in USA, and actually cleans and dries clothes….gee, what a concept. (Almost bought the exceptional Speed Queen set because they told the government to go scratch, but those units are a lot more expensive, altho worth every penny.)
Time For A Reset ™
How are Speed Queen and Electrolux able to disregard Federal “efficiency” regulations that screw up washer and dryers? For reference, what models were you looking at?
I can never get my head on straight….. They keep trying to twist it to the left until it hurts…. but let me try:
1. We need to save electricity from dishwashers and refrigerators because we don’t have enough electricity.
2. Every new car must be electric within 10 years.
Have I got this right? May have I have my bugs for breakfast now, please, Masters?
That’s known as opposing agenda’s that only The Galactically Stupid could conjure up as being good and righteous (the right hand has no clue what the left hand is doing at any one moment). And they do it all the time, failing to understand basic physics coupled to infrastructure needs…otherwise they’d embrace a proper robust grid with SMR power sources, not adult pinwheels and thousands of acres of solar panels that fail after 5 years.
consider this as a diagnosis:
the leftist politicians and bureaucrats are trying (very effectively) to destroy our country.
I leave it to you to figure out the best medications to relieve this situation
can you believe this is what our government has devolved into!!?!!
what appliances cars toilets etc etc we use
THE NANNY STATE IS STRONG
you are weak
Just imagine the pickle we would be in if the founders had not taken steps to restrict government; Three co-equal branches, delimited powers of Congress, etc. Those guys understood the natural propensity of governments and took steps to curtail it. Without those we would have been the soviet states of America a long time ago.
But the Dems joining forces with gop is FOR A DIFFERENT REASON
dems: we use gas stoves for different vreasons
Far left wing affirmative action hires hoping to do as much damage as possible to the country before November, when the normal people take over again and they are back to making jewelry and quilting.
Congress should also be working to eliminate the Department of Energy’s rule/regulation-making powers.
We need to end Regulation Without Representation, and return the legislative powers and obligations to Congress.
recent scotus addressed that
still not enough
the people must be heard regarding the states rights vs the feds
Not nearly enough. We need to get to a point where the agencies have no rule or regulation creation ability at all. The recent SCOTUS decision merely aided the ability to challenge such rules and regulations.
Like joies “super friends” they don’t give money to the campaign because they’re high minded civic virtue folks, they expect to make at least $100 for every dollar invested in THEIR politician.
This appliance revolt needs to be quelled ASAP.
Would be nice to roll back crap (pun intended) like the toilet regulations. That only the latest regulatory overreach is being considered for repeal, keeping the old ones in place, shows this to be a bankrupt endeavor.