Yes, Democrats Are Coming For Your Favorite Appliances

Back in January, an official in the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission let slip that the Biden administration was coming after Americans’ gas stoves.

There was an immediate, huge public backlash. In response, Joe Biden and his lackeys took to the media circuit saying the claim was a lie, MAGA-created fake news – the administration had no intention to ban gas stoves. The media fawningly parroted Biden, et al.’s claims that Republicans were lying about gas stoves – take a chill pill, your gas stoves are safe, said the media.

Weeks later, events proved that it was Biden and the Democrats who were lying when, with little attention paid to it by the media, the administration published energy efficiency and emission rules that banned the sale of all but the most expensive gas stoves. And, going further, the Biden administration has allowed cities and states to impose their own bans on gas hook ups and appliances.

If only the White House had stopped there it would have been bad enough, but it didn’t!

In the run up to the gas stove ban, and subsequent to it, the Biden administration has unleased the biggest, most comprehensive, strictest regulatory onslaught ever on home appliances. As the Washington Times documents, “President Biden’s green energy goals have resulted in an array of new efficiency rules for a slew of household appliances,” including microwaves, air purifiers, and even toothbrush chargers. Also among the appliances soon to be regulated out of existence or fundamentally altered are, gas furnaces, air conditioners, lightbulbs, refrigerators, clothes washers, and gasoline- and diesel-powered cars.

How bad will the impact on consumer choice be? Only about 4% of stoves currently on the market would remain for sale under Biden’s new rules. And, the new washing machine regulations would remove 98% of existing top loading machines from the market. Do you like your microwave to have an internal light and a clock? Too bad, because those features use too much energy according to Biden’s “ban ’em-all” cronies at the U.S. Department of Energy. Pick your favorite appliance and watch it disappear from the market under Biden’s new rules.

Biden appointees, and the bureaucrats at the agencies they run, claim these rules will save the world from climate change while saving consumers money. They lie!

All of these rules will have so little impact on future temperatures, even the most sensitive thermometers are unable to measure it. Every molecule of carbon dioxide and methane prevented by Biden’s appliance restrictions will be replaced multiple times over by emissions from developing countries, especially China and India, as they increase coal and natural gas use, and their burgeoning, increasingly wealthy populations expand their use of appliances hooked to gas lines and the electric grid.

If the past is any guide, it is likely that many of the new appliances forced into the market by Biden’s appliance regulations will not work as effectively as the appliances they are replacing, leaving dishes and clothes dirtier, necessitating multiple cycles, and forcing homeowners to turn thermostats higher or lower than normal to reach the same comfort level.

“Rather than innovating features sought by consumers, the ramped-up regulations for appliances are forcing manufacturers to go backward,” the Washington Times reported Jill Notini, a spokeswoman for the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, as saying.

“They are literally going to have to redesign products that will look closer to the 1950s than they do to 2020,” Notini told the Washington Times.

Many people will likely keep their old appliances and vehicles in running order longer than they would have absent the rules, repairing them rather than replacing them when their effectiveness declines or they break in order to avoid having to use “Biden approved” appliances.

Nor will these rules save the public any money. The federal government estimates that the gas stove ban will save homeowners approximately $1.50 per year on energy costs for the life of the stove. With that minimal savings, the stoves will never pay off their initial up-front costs because the qualifying stoves are much more expensive than existing stoves on the market.

Manufacturers estimate Biden’s washing machine rule will add at least $200 to the price of a new machine, but the government estimates it will only save homeowners $8 per year in energy costs. Want to take a bet that the new washing machines break long before they ever pay back the initial price increase? All told, estimates are that the Biden administration’s appliance regulations will save homeowners approximately $100 in total per year.

In the end, it’s none of the government’s business how much energy you use.

I’ll close with this question: Do Biden and the elites in Washington, D.C., really know what appliances and vehicles best suit your personal needs and desires, what features you want, and what price range fits your budget? Do you really think they even care what you want? If not, it’s time to raise some hell!

H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., (hsburnett@heartland.org) is the director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at the Heartland Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit research organization based in Arlington Heights, Illinois.