Biden Cracks Down on Gas Stoves—and Much More

The administration’s climate-change crusade is also coming for dishwashers, furnaces and light bulbs.

By Ben Lieberman. Mr. Lieberman is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Excerpts:

"While LEDs are improving, they cost more than incandescent bulbs, don’t work well with most dimmers, and cast a light that some consumers consider unpleasant."

"natural gas is less than one-third as expensive as electricity on a per unit energy basis."

"complaints from consumers that washers don’t sufficiently clean clothes and often accumulate mold. “Costly repairs have become much more frequent because of these regulations,” says Mike Mannino, an appliance-repair technician from central Florida, who expects the proposed rule to make matters worse."

"It now takes at least two hours to do a load of dishes, twice as long as it did in pre-standards models. The department acknowledged several years ago that its regulations lead to consumer dissatisfaction, writing in a 2016 document: “To help compensate for the negative impact on cleaning performance associated with decreasing water use and water temperature, manufacturers will typically increase the cycle time.” The newly proposed rule—which among other things limits appliances to 3.3 gallons per cycle, down from the current limit of 5 gallons—may make dishwashers worse."

"A new Energy Department efficiency standard for central air conditioners took effect on Jan. 1 and, according to several installers, has raised the cost of a new system by up to $1,000."

"the Environmental Protection Agency proposed its own ban on the most affordable remaining air-conditioner models on grounds that they are insufficiently climate-friendly."

"the [Consumer Product Safety] commission is moving ahead with its information-gathering process on the risks of gas stoves. The public-comment period, which is typically the first step toward restrictions, ended Monday. To make matters worse, Energy Department regulators have proposed first-ever efficiency standards for residential stoves, motivated in part by the agency’s “need to confront the global climate crisis.” Not surprisingly, regulators are much tougher on gas models than the electric ones environmental activists favor."