Category: Fossile Fuels
GOP slams Biden administration’s proposal for home water heaters amid CO2 emission fears
BY BROOKE MALLORY
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
OAN’s Brooke Mallory
11:33 AM – Sunday, July 23, 2023
If a new Department of Energy plan that has been heavily opposed by Republican senators becomes law, water heaters might soon be subject to considerably stricter efficiency criteria.
The Biden administration is currently pushing towards requiring the majority of electric water heaters to adopt heat pump technology and gas-fired water heaters to utilize condensing technology in a draft regulation.
The proposal was released by the Department of Energy (DOE) on Friday.
It comes months after the Biden administration sparked a tempest over feared stovetop rules, with Albany, New York, lawmakers passing a contentious first-in-the-nation gas stove ban.
“Today’s actions, together with our industry partners and stakeholders, improve outdated efficiency standards for common household appliances, which is essential to slashing utility bills for American families and cutting harmful carbon emissions,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
The Biden administration reportedly claims that the regulation “plan,” which is slated to take effect in 2029, would save Americans $198 billion and reduce CO2 emissions by 501 million metric tons over the following 30 years. However, these proposed numbers and estimates have been disputed by many analysts from GOP think tanks.
Minimum efficiency criteria for oil-fired storage water heaters, gas-fired water heaters, and gas-fired instantaneous water heaters will be heavily raised by the department.
“This proposal reinforces the trajectory of consumer savings that forms the key pillar of Bidenomics and builds on the unprecedented actions already taken by this Administration to lower energy costs for working families across the nation,” Granholm continued.
According to the agency, water heating accounts for 23% of consumer utility expenses and yearly residential energy usage.
Congress compels the agency to develop efficiency criteria, and it claims to have last modified its water heater policy in 2010.
Thomas Massie, a Republican U.S. representative for Kentucky’s 4th congressional district since 2012, shared his thoughts on the new water-heating proposal on Twitter.
“Leave us alone. These products already exist in the free market. Consumers should decide whether the upfront cost of a heat-pump water heater is worth the possible long term savings. In many cases, the monthly savings never make up for the upfront cost of the equipment,” Massie said.
“From the people who want showers and faucets without enough water pressure, dishwashers that don’t fully clean, washers and dryers that fully wash or dry, etc., they now want water heaters that don’t fully and quickly heat. All in the name of ‘environmentalism’ or ‘climate change,’” said a separate social media user.
These new regulations would apply to new water heaters that enter the market in 2029.
The departments emphasized that President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act includes “tax credits, rebates, and other incentives” to help people save money on more efficient water heaters.
The new suggestion has already sparked debate among many notable online users.
“First they came for your gas stoves. Then they came for your dishwashers. Next, they came for your water heaters and air conditioners. Now the Biden apparatchiks are coming for your portable gas generators,” Forbes contributor David Blackmon asserted.
In recent months, the government has also taken steps to tighten requirements for a variety of domestic equipment, including air conditioners, washing machines, refrigerators, and others. A member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission sparked outrage earlier this year when he suggested that a widespread ban on gas stoves may be on the table.
The House voted last month to prevent the federal government from doing so in the future, and the Senate has not yet voted on that bill.
The Biden administration boasted in December of last year that it had taken 110 steps to boost efficiency regulations in 2022 to help its “climate change goals.”
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Not a Conspiracy Theory: Yes, the Government Will Be Coming for Your Gas Stove
BY RICK MORAN
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Last January, when Consumer Product Safety Commission member Richard Trumka Jr. suggested that the entire U.S. could follow the lead of Berkeley, Calif., and ban the use of gas stoves, conservatives lit into the CPSC and Trumka for even suggesting such a thing.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer called suggestions that the government wanted to end the use of gas stoves in residences a “MAGA conspiracy theory.” “Nobody is taking away your gas stove,” he said.
That may be true. But if you like cooking with gas or heating your house with gas, don’t try to relocate. The chances are good that if you want to move to a blue state in the next couple of years, you’re going to be forced to cook with electricity. That’s because it will soon be all the rage in blue states to ban the installation of gas stoves in all new construction.
The movement to rid the planet of gas stoves got a big boost on Wednesday when the New York legislature passed a bill that would ban gas stoves in new residences starting in 2026.
Why? Gas stoves are powered by natural gas — a fossil fuel. There have also been a couple of studies showing that cooking with gas can give your child asthma. Or something.
Steve Everley, writing in National Review in January, covered several flaws in the most recent studies finding serious health impacts from gas stoves. Experimental studies that found links between gas stoves and child asthma used airtight rooms without ventilation. The author of another much-touted meta-analysis finding a link between gas stoves and child asthma said their study “does not assume or estimate a causal relationship.” Masses of earlier studies, Everley notes, have found no health impacts from gas stoves.
In the short-term, mandated electrification of appliances is probably worse for the climate. On-site use of gas stoves and furnaces uses almost all the energy in the gas. Generating electricity from gas and then using that electricity to power appliances is much less efficient. Of New York’s 10 largest power plants, for instance, five are powered by natural gas.
Cherry-picking scientific studies to “prove” something is dangerous is dishonest and anti-science. But eco-fads like banning gas stoves wouldn’t be possible without climate hysterics driving the conversation and the media lapping it up like good little puppies.
Does it matter that people actually like their gas stoves?
“Most home chefs—and pretty much all professional chefs—will tell you that electric stoves take a long time to heat up and are far less responsive when changing heat levels. Induction stoves, which are actually quite fast to heat up, require different types of cookware and kitchen thermometers, in addition to being a lot more expensive than electric stoves,” wrote Reason‘s Liz Wolfe earlier this year.
This is a consequence of demonizing fossil fuels. The “devil’s breath” is not a hazard, nor does it contribute measurably to net carbon emissions. In fact, it wasn’t so long ago that greens were demanding the coal-fired plants be repurposed to burn natural gas.
As soon as I buy my “Mr. Fusion,” I’ll give up my gas stove.