Biden’s Energy Regulatory Onslaught Shifts Into High Gear

With the 2024 presidential campaign starting to heat up, the various bureaucracies of the Biden administration kicked off a new regulatory onslaught targeting energy and appliances in early May, with major actions coming from three separate departments, and the promise of many more on the way.

They Aren’t Coming For Your Gas Stoves, But…

Biden officials like Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm swear they aren’t trying to ban gas stoves, yet they have already issued one proposed rule that would certainly restrict their make and use, and Democratic officials at the local and state levels are urging another agency to crack down even further.

E&E News reported in February that the new efficiency rule sought by the Department of Energy (DOE) could outlaw as much as 50% of current gas stove models on the market. Just last week, a collection of 9 Democratic state attorneys general joined with the cities of New York and Washington, DC in calling on the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC
PSC
) to address “health hazards associated with gas stoves.”

This, of course, plays into the agenda of CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka, Jr., who made it clear early in the year that he plans to pursue such a regulation this year. The appearance of high demand from various states and cities with Democratic governors and mayors will likely be used by CPSC as a motivating factor whenever the regulation is proposed.

They Aren’t Coming for Your Dishwashers Either, But…

Not content to limit their new appliance standards to gas stoves, regulators at DOE issued new proposed efficiency and water use standards related to dishwashers, along with washers, dryers and refrigerators. DOE estimates the new rules will “save” consumers $652 million in utility bills in the coming decade, but it fails to estimate how much the rules will cost those same consumers in higher prices for the appliances themselves, or how much additional water use the rules will cause by rendering dishwashers and washing machines less able to clean dishes and clothes.

The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal raised this concern in a May 13 editorial, saying, “Another lament was dishwashers that make a visit to the DMV feel speedy. Machines can only meet much higher efficiency standards by recirculating water in longer cycles, meaning run times of two or three hours. Yet if the dishes aren’t clean, owners run them again, undermining the argument about conservation.”

But the regulations of these appliances are coming regardless, if for no reason other than they allow DOE to check off a box with the climate change lobby amid its increasing influence over everything this administration does.

They Also Aren’t Coming After Gas-Fired Power Plants, But…

Never wanting to be left out of a regulatory scatter-gun approach, regulators at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposed new limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants last Thursday in an obvious attempt to kill off the last vestiges of cheap and reliable coal-fired plants in the U.S. The regulation would require most coal and natural gas power plants to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040, a draconian requirement for which no technological solution currently exists.

Critics point out the new rules will also make it more costly and difficult to build new natural gas-fired plants as well. Michelle Bloodworth, President and CEO of America’s Power, a trade group representing operators of dispatchable generation facilities, said, “One of the consequences of prematurely retiring coal plants is to exacerbate the risk of power outages. It makes no sense for EPA to propose a rule to shut down more coal plants one week after all four commissioners from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) testified before the Senate Energy Committee that coal plants are needed to maintain grid reliability.”

Advocates of the rules point out that generators can solve the problem by mounting expensive carbon capture projects, while simultaneously questioning whether carbon capture really works as advertised. Regardless, the new rules will without doubt lead to higher costs that will be passed onto consumers’ utility bills in one way or another, as well as inhibiting the building of new, reliable, 24/7 thermal capacity that enables grid stability and reliability.

The Bottom Line

All these actions build on the EPA’s April move to issue new tailpipe emission standards designed to force adoption of electric vehicles on a public that is thus far reluctant to bear their higher prices. With the prospect of the 2024 elections looming just 18 months in the future, what we see happening here is the beginnings of the same kind of regulatory onslaught that took place during the final two years of the Barack Obama administration.

Everyone in the business community should make preparations to deal with much more to come, as these departments and agencies try to force through as many new rules as possible in case the voters decide to move in a different direction next year.