It’s a typical morning over the holidays, the kids have been up since dawn, and you’re making a few pancakes on your gas stove. When they’ve finished eating, you want to pop those dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Sounds simple, and now it is. But thanks to President Joe Biden, your gas stove and your dishwasher (as well as your gas-fired boiler and water heater) might go the way of the dinosaur.
Just as former President Barack Obama took away your light bulbs, the Biden administration wants to take away your favorite appliances. One of President-elect Donald Trump’s first actions should be to get the government out of our kitchens in the same way that he gave us back our light bulbs in his first term.
This year, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Transportation have announced proposed rules that would take away your choice of appliances—and cars.
And it’s going to cost you. The DOE’s dishwasher rule would increase wash times and result in millions of dollars per year in increased product costs. Households would save less than $20 a year for some dishwasher models, and other models would result in no savings.
Under the DOE’s natural gas stove rule, 90% of new gas stoves sold would have to be redesigned, raising prices and lowering performance. Consumers would pay more than $30 million more for new stoves, and many households would have only small annual savings or even higher costs.
The object of these rules is to reduce consumption of natural gas, a goal of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, signed into law when America had to import oil and natural gas. Now, however, America is one of the world’s largest energy producers. The law is outdated and should be repealed.
Nevertheless, Biden has used his executive branch powers to regulate your household appliances because Congress, which answers to the people, refused to pass such restrictive laws.
Biden is after your car, too. In April, the EPA released a rule that would require 70% of new vehicle sales to be battery-powered electric or hybrid by 2032. The Department of Transportation released its companion rule in June.
The vehicle rules would limit choice, making cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks more expensive. Poor Americans, as well as farmers and small businesses who are most reliant on trucks, would be hurt most. New electric vehicles cost about $10,000 to $25,000 more than their gasoline-powered equivalents, and the time it takes to recharge them is inconvenient, especially on long road trips— especially trips with children.
Additional regulations to pressure investment companies and banks not to fund American energy have come from climate czars in the Council on Environmental Quality, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
In addition to the outdated 1975 law, the Biden administration has repeatedly called climate change an existential threat to the country as an alarmist excuse to limit the appliances that Americans can use.
Even getting rid of all American fossil fuel emissions would only reduce global temperatures by 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2100, according to government models, because increases in emissions are coming from China, Russia, India, Africa, and Latin America.
China has walked away from the Paris Climate Agreement, where it originally committed to reducing emissions after 2030. In contrast, this month, Biden announced that America would reduce emissions more than previously announced levels.
Under the rules put in place by the Biden administration, Americans would pay more for appliances, and without any environmental benefit. This makes no sense. With the Energy Star energy usage rating system, people know how much energy an appliance uses. They can choose whether to have a more costly appliance that saves energy or a less expensive one that uses more energy.
Trump has announced an end to the climate czars and the creation of a new National Energy Council. Let’s hope the new council prioritizes America having reliable, affordable, and abundant energy sources and gets the bureaucrats out of our kitchens.
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
