Most Americans aren’t comfortable with the government – local, state or federal – controlling just about everything we do in our lives.
We may not be conformable with that, but it seems to be the direction we are going under the Biden administration. In fact, it started before Biden, but he is making it more encompassing.
What am I talking about? Consider: We now have restrictions on the kind of light bulbs we are “allowed” to buy and use. Never mind the price differences. Never mind the amount of light these bulbs produce. Never mind their safety. Whatever the government says we can use is what we are able to purchase for our homes and businesses. That’s it.
If you don’t like it. Tough! The government declares the rules, and we must obey!
But light bulbs are the least of it. Our government has declared “war” not only on the illumination we are allowed to have but now also on how we cook our food and how we heat and cool our homes and businesses.
There is a possible ban pending on the kinds of stoves we use to cook our food. The word is that the government plans to outlaw the use of natural gas for cooking. Some jurisdictions have already banned the installation of new gas lines in homes and businesses – though some of those rulings are being challenged in court. Restaurants are especially incensed about the ruling and are fighting it. How that transpires, remains to be seen.
But while that is being battled legally, we await a soon-expected new requirement for homeowners to install energy-efficient furnaces.
As reported by Fox News Digital, these adoptions would supposedly save consumers billions of dollars annually on their energy bills. Not to be omitted, the proposal assumes that such furnace replacements would also cut greenhouse gas emissions by 373 million metric tons over 30 years.
Gee, who can argue with that – even though it is simply a guess. Critics of the idea suggest that these reductions are based on faulty assumptions.
Under the government proposed rule, “non-weatherized gas furnaces and those used in mobile homes would be required to achieve an annual, fuel utilization efficiency of 95%” – which means that nearly all of the gas used by existing furnaces must be converted to heat. That is almost impossible with existing equipment and almost impossible for such equipment to be modified to accommodate the new regulations.
The proposed regulation would mean that upwards of 60% of all furnaces now on the market and in use would NOT be allowed, and the new, government-approved ones would be the only ones available for consumers. The upfront cost of installing new equipment would be high with no guarantee that there would be sufficient energy savings to be gained with their use.
According to Richard Meyer, vice president of Energy Markets, Analysis and Standards for the American Gas Association, this will present a problem. These new units will require substantial retrofits for their installation, canceling out any predicted energy savings. The cost of retrofits would be high, and even at that, many of them cannot be accommodated in existing homes. How that would be handled is not addressed by the feds.
Details, details!
The U.S. Energy Department is authorized by the Energy and Policy Conservation Act of 1975 to “set and periodically consider amending energy and water conservation standards for most home appliances, including furnaces.”
There are provisions in the act protecting consumers from excessively stringent standards.
According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, lower-income homeowners might be forced to switch furnaces to new ones that cost more to purchase and operate.
No word on any federal assistance on that.
According to Ben Liebermann, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the new standard is set to go into effect in 2029. After that, all older units would be illegal.
Not surprisingly, Biden’s energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, has claimed that the move is part of the Biden administration effort to save consumers money.
Of course.
Critics declare that is all nonsense – but what the administration wants, the administration gets, and the consumer/taxpayer be damned.
Thank you, Big Brother!
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