Biden Tries to Slip New Eco Regs Targeting Fridges, Freezers Past Us on Holiday Weekend

If there was no other reason -- and there are plenty -- not to vote for Joe Biden, the fact that his administration has opened the door to more and more governmental control would be a great one.

Climate change is a big excuse to make all kinds of societal transformative change and control our actions--not to mention, destroying or building up industries with those controls and restrictions. Coal and oil are bad, electrical vehicles (except those from that evil Elon Musk) are good. Government shouldn't be in the business of picking winners and losers, yet that's what they doing with their attempts at control.

But it looks like they'd rather we not pay attention to what they're trying to do. Perhaps that might explain announcing new regulations about refrigerators and freezers on Friday, as we head into the holiday weekend. They also announced proposed standards for commercial fans and blowers.

Overall, the agency said the actions would eliminate 420 million metric tons of "dangerous carbon dioxide emissions" over the next three decades and save households and businesses $5 billion a year on utility bills.
"Today’s announcement is a testament to the Biden-Harris Administration's commitment to lowering utility costs for working families, which is helping to simultaneously strengthen energy independence and combat the climate crisis," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.

The updated standards will start being implemented between 2029 and 2030, and will follow the lead of similar versions in California. Oh, great. Following what Democrats do in California is a recipe for failure, While Granholm claims that this will lower utility costs, this move will take cheaper models off the market which will impact the people who can't afford to pay more.

Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, blasted the move.

Consumers are perfectly capable of making these decisions on their own, including consumers who want to buy extra efficient refrigerators or other models. What these standards do is they force that choice on everyone, whether it makes sense for them or not. And we know from history that, in some cases, these standards raise the upfront cost more than you're likely to earn back in the form of energy savings."

He warned not only are these standards likely going to make things cost more but that they could also impact performance, pointing to the new standards for dishwashers making them take twice as long to finish. He believes the standards for gas stoves that were proposed in February would result in an effective ban on half of the gas stoves on the market.

The Biden team proposed or finalized 30 such regulations in 2023 and plans on more in 2024.

In the months after DOE released its proposed stovetop regulations, it proposed regulations in February for clothes washers and refrigerators that it said would reduce emissions by 233 million metric tons; finalized standards for air conditioners in March; proposed regulations cracking down on dishwashers in May; issued a proposal targeting water heaters in July; and proposed standards for furnaces in September.

Is there anything they don't want to control? It doesn't look like it.

"They are trying to reshape the place that you live to make it look like the home they would like you to live in," O.H. Skinner, the Alliance For Consumers' executive director, told Fox News Digital in October. "They're really trying to impose what are progressive preferences from places in coastal enclaves and make it so that everyone has to live like that. And that affects you every day."
"What's crucial is to understand this administration isn't just tweaking regulations. They're doing things that effectively ban whole categories of things that exist on the market," Skinner continued. "Almost all of these decisions, as you work through it, are influenced by the overall climate agenda and the green agenda and the desire for us to change our lives."

And yet, they don't want to change their own lives, even as they want to control yours.

Kamala Harris posted a picture of what she was supposedly cooking for Christmas dinner. She cropped out the gas stove, but you could still see a little of it. They want to dictate the rules for you and me, but not for themselves.

Merry Christmas to all. May your day be filled with love, family, and good food.

P.S. We are making Christmas beef Wellington. pic.twitter.com/6QErBwprcS
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) December 25, 2023