2023 was an unusually bad year for appliance regulations, and future years won’t be much better unless Congress finds a way to stop the nonsense.
It all started last January when Richard Trumka Jr., a commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), announced an investigation into the safety of natural gas stoves and boasted that a ban on them was “a real possibility.”
That sparked a powerful consumer backlash, followed up by strong denials from the Biden administration that any such ban was in the works.
But CPSC has still gone ahead with its inquiry, and in February, Team Biden launched a second regulatory attack on stoves, this time in the form of a new Department of Energy (DOE) efficiency standard.
A careful read of the proposal reveals that it is much tougher on gas stoves than electric versions — part of the administration’s multipronged attack on natural gas use that it justifies on climate grounds.
It isn’t just gas stoves; Biden regulators have launched proposed regulations for other appliances that are likely to be as bad or even worse.
As with the rest of the Biden administration’s energy agenda, these regulations put the climate change agenda ahead of the best interests of consumers:
1. Dishwashers
Dishwashers may already be the most over-regulated appliance, having been subjected to four rounds of successively tighter limits on the amount of energy and water they can use.
These DOE regulations are the reason dishwashers now take two hours or more to clean a load of dishes, up from about one hour for models predating the federal standards.
Cleaning performance has also suffered. Many consumers report having to rinse their dishes by hand before or after running them in the dishwasher, which is not only an inconvenience but also undercuts the energy and water-saving rationale behind the rules.
But having learned nothing, DOE now proposes to make the requirements more stringent, insisting that doing so will benefit consumers and help fight ‘climate change‘.
2. Air Conditioners
Residential central air conditioners are being hit by regulations from both DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the cumulative impact is large and still growing.
A new DOE efficiency standard that took effect in 2023 is boosting the installed cost of a new unit by $1,000 or more.
And climate change measures coming from the EPA in 2024 will raise the cost of refrigerants needed to repair existing systems while further increasing prices for new models.
Adding insult to injury, the new climate-friendly air conditioners about to be introduced come with increased flammability risks.
3. Washing Machines
Like dishwashers, washing machines have endured tighter and tighter water and energy use limits in 1994, 2004, 2007, 2015, and 2018.
They now use so little water that homeowners have had to improvise to get clothes clean. Some have learned to add a bucket or two of water midcycle to improve performance, while others risk voiding the warranty by tinkering with their machines to increase the flow.
Mold accumulation — which was never a problem before Washington regulators got involved with washing machines — is now common and can cause bad odors and staining of clothes.
A sensible government agency would be looking at ways to fix these problems, but the Biden administration’s DOE is proposing to exacerbate them with tougher energy and water limits.
4. Furnaces
No two homes are exactly alike, which is why it makes sense to allow a wide variety of furnaces on the market. But DOE doesn’t see it that way, and its recently finalized efficiency standard for furnaces effectively outlaws the kind of natural gas furnaces that make the most sense for millions of homeowners.
Specifically, the rule eliminates the option of non-condensing gas furnaces in favor of condensing versions.
Condensing furnaces are more efficient and thus comply with the rule, but they are more expensive and not easily compatible with the venting systems in many homes that currently have non-condensing furnaces.
The biggest victims of such one-size-fits-all standards will be the disproportionately low-income owners of older and smaller homes for which the replacement of an old non-condensing furnace with a new condensing model will prove very difficult and costly.
The only good news is that Congress is starting to fight back. The House of Representatives has passed bills preemptively rescinding any stove regulations and is considering doing the same for other appliances.
It won’t be easy — any repeal bills would have to pass both the House and Senate and be signed into law by a president who invariably refuses to admit regulatory mistakes and rarely if ever takes the side of homeowners over bureaucrats and climate activists.
But commencing the fight for appliance sanity now will set the stage for corrective measures if and when the political winds change enough to make them possible.
https://principia-scientific.com/biden-wants-americans-to-be-cold-and-dirty/
*********************************************Chevron Tells California Why They’re Losing Jobs And Investment: Anti-Energy Policies
Congratulations to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is succeeding at his goal of driving away fossil fuel investment and jobs, even while failing to reduce global CO2 emissions.
See Chevron’s announcement Tuesday that it is writing down its upstream assets in the Golden State owing to “continuing regulatory challenges.”
Chevron’s write-down acknowledges what the company has been telling California lawmakers for some time: Their energy policies are making the state uninvestable.
These include the state’s cap-and-trade program, low-carbon fuel standard, penalty on “excessive” refiner margins, and a 2022 law limiting new drilling within 3,200 feet of homes and schools.
California policies have made it “riskier than investing in other states, with projects being lower in quality and higher in cost,” Chevron’s Americas Products business president Andy Walz wrote last month in a filing with the California Energy Commission.
“Chevron alone has reduced spending in California by hundreds of millions of dollars since 2022.”
“We have rejected capital projects” and canceled some “due to permitting challenges,” Mr. Walz noted, adding that California’s “arbitrary attacks on a disfavored industry … signal to every industry, entrepreneur, manufacturer, and employer that California is closed for business.”
They’ve gotten that signal. Employment in California has declined by 77,700 over the last year.
In California’s oil-rich Kern County around Bakersfield, unemployment is 7.8%—more than two times the national average.
California’s policies aren’t reducing oil production or CO2 emissions in the U.S. or around the world. They are merely driving oil jobs and investment elsewhere.
Chevron is increasing investment in U.S. shale and offshore Guyana with its $53 billion acquisition of Hess.
U.S. oil production has surged to a record 13.2 million barrels a day despite higher interest rates and President Biden’s best efforts to crush the industry.
One reason is that shale fracking is predominantly occurring on private and state land in places like Texas and North Dakota.
The courts helped by blocking Mr. Biden’s moratorium on oil and gas leasing on federal land.
Oil production in the Permian basin in the Southwest exceeds its pre-pandemic peak by about one million barrels a day, which has more than offset the 100,000 barrels a day decline in California.
Over the last decade, production in California has fallen by nearly half amid increasing climate regulation while output from the Permian has quadrupled.
Mr. Biden has frackers and Republican-led states to thank for why gas prices nationwide aren’t $5 a gallon as they are in California.
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To Biden’s Dismay, Appeals Court Deals Death Blow To Berkeley’s Natural Gas Ban
A federal appeals court rejected a petition Tuesday to rehear a case related to a natural gas ban proposed by the City of Berkeley, California, which the panel ruled was illegal last year.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ultimately denied Berkeley’s petition for rehearing en banc — a motion that received support from the Biden administration, Democratic-led states, and environmentalists — after it failed to receive majority support from the court’s non-recused active judges
Berkeley filed the motion last year after the court in April that a Berkeley law banning natural gas pipes in new construction violated federal statute.
Following the panel’s filing Tuesday, the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI), which had argued Berkeley’s law was illegal, applauded the court for ensuring consumer choice.
“Naturally, AHRI and particularly our member companies that manufacture products and equipment that use natural gas, are very pleased that the full court denied Berkeley’s appeal, thereby allowing the residents of Berkeley, and likely elsewhere, to continue to have choices with respect to energy sources for home and water heating,” AHRI President and CEO Stephen Yurek said in a statement.
“We look forward to continuing to work with states and localities to formulate solutions that help them meet their energy conservation and emission reduction goals without unduly impacting consumer health, safety, comfort, and productivity,” Yurek added.
In July 2019, Berkeley’s city council passed the ban which was set to go into effect in January 2020, making the city the first in the nation to approve such a measure.
Berkeley Councilwoman Kate Harrison, who authored the legislation, said at the time that it was part of the city’s effort to take “more drastic action” on climate change and curb greenhouse gas emissions.
However, months after it was approved, the California Restaurant Association (CRA) filed a federal lawsuit challenging the city’s ability to pass a law banning new natural gas hookups.
After a lower court ruled in favor of Berkeley in July 2021, the CRA filed an appeal, leading to the Ninth Circuit ruling in April.
The Ninth Circuit concluded that Berkeley’s law violated the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) of 1975, which prevents local regulations from impacting the energy use of natural gas appliances.
“Instead of directly banning those appliances in new buildings, Berkeley took a more circuitous route to the same result,” Judge Patrick Bumatay wrote in the opinion of the court. “It enacted a building code that prohibits natural gas piping into those buildings, rendering the gas appliances useless.”
“In sum, Berkeley can’t bypass preemption by banning natural gas piping within buildings rather than banning natural gas products themselves,” he continued in the ruling. “EPCA thus preempts the Ordinance’s effect on covered products.”
CRA President and CEO Jot Condie said at the time that Berkeley’s attempt to ban natural gas hookups was “an overreaching measure beyond the scope of any city.”
After Berkeley then filed its petition for rehearing, the Department of Justice (DOJ) in June filed an amicus brief in support of the city’s gas hookup ban. …snip…
The case has drawn the attention of industry groups that supported CRA — including the American Gas Association and AHRI — and environmental groups and other jurisdictions across the country that supported Berkeley’s ordinance, including the National League of Cities, California, Maryland, New York, Oregon, Washington, D.C., and New York City.
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And finally: Germany to keep coal power longer than expected
The energy regulator, known as BNetzA, determined that “systematically relevant” coal plants need to be available as back-up power sources in the event of an emergency.
Two of Germany’s largest energy providers will keep some coal plants in service longer than previously expected, following a regulator’s decision to prohibit the closure of the facilities before March 2031.
Uniper SE and EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG had both sought to phase out units earlier than that date. Now, the plants may have to remain on standby at least.
The energy regulator, known as BNetzA, determined that “systematically relevant” coal plants need to be available as back-up power sources in the event of an emergency, newspaper Die Welt first reported Thursday. The agency later confirmed the move. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has relied more heavily on coal after Russia cut natural gas supplies and after shutting its last nuclear plants this year.
https://www.mining.com/web/germany-to-keep-some-coal-units-in-service-longer-than-expected/
***************************************My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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