Progressives get upset when critics accuse the Biden administration of trying to ban gas appliances. They would have a much better case if the Biden administration didn’t keep banning gas appliances.
Late last month, the Department of Energy issued new regulations on residential furnaces. By 2028, non-weatherized gas furnaces and those used in mobile homes must have an “annual fuel utilization efficiency of 95%.” The move would effectively ban new non-condensing gas furnaces. The American Gas Association estimates that this rule would eliminate 60% of the residential furnaces currently on the market.
To justify this regulatory intrusion, the department claims this will “cumulatively save consumers $24.8 billion on their energy bills over 30 years.”
That sounds like a big number. It’s not. That’s an annual savings of around $825 million. In a country of 335 million people, that’s a per-capita savings of less than $2.50 a year. Keep in mind that government estimates such as this represent the best-case scenario. In reality, bureaucratic projections rarely come true. Remember when officials promised Obamacare would save families money and lower the deficit?
The DOE makes a second claim that sheds more light on the new rule. It says the changes will “cut harmful carbon and methane emissions that fuel the climate crisis.” There it is. You must sacrifice your gas furnace in the name of climate purity. The supposed payoff for this is never quite explained, especially because countries such as China and India continue to build coal power plants.
But the costs will be much more apparent. Non-condensing gas furnaces are cheaper, though they may have higher energy costs in the long-run. Individual consumers should be allowed to weigh these options. It gets worse. Millions of homes already have a non-condensing gas furnace. When they go to replace it in the future, they can’t just swap out it out for a condensing gas furnace.
“They’re going to have to, in many cases, install new equipment to exhaust gas out of their home,” Richard Meyer, the vice president of energy markets, analysis and standards at the American Gas Association said in an interview with Fox News Digital. He continued, “This rule would require additional retrofits for a lot of consumers. And those retrofits can be extremely cost prohibitive.”
It’s safe to assume it will cost a homeowner much more than the $2.50 the government expects in annual per capita savings.
This is just one of many gas appliances that leftist climate extremists seek to ban. The Biden administration is also targeting gas stoves and gas-powered generators.
The American public isn’t supportive of these regulations. So the left tries to gaslight you into pretending they aren’t happening. They are.
Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service
