Morgan Griffith on Blatantly Bogus "Energy Efficiency"

Editorial comment: Loud "Amen" from the choir. In fact this Newsletter could have said more. 

I just replaced a good old Comfort Zone space heater that's worked well for more than two years. (I''m working on a screen porch where I can see the wind blow past--and the rain and snow, too, but not into the actual work space--and I've found that the new little 250 and 300-watt heaters are quite enough to keep me and the computers warm in our cozy corner of the porch. I used the space heater mostly to boost the heat for cooking--which I do more often over a candle, so as to be able to cook while writing, rather than over an open fire outside. Y'might say I'm True Green, yes.) The new Comfort Zone heater was "updated" in such unappealing ways I wondered whether the company had inadvertently hired somebody from Microsoft. It's bulkier, a yucky shade of off-white that shows every spot (I liked black), and, oh no, "smartened" again. They tried that before and it was a feature people could do without, but they've brought it back--even worse. This one will start running on 600 watts, which is an improvement over starting on 1000 watts. But it wastes most of those 600 watts on a bigger, louder fan that makes the 600-watt setting feel as if it's blowing cold air. To activate the "efficiency" feature the designers obviously want people to crank the thing up to that 1500-watt setting that's so wasteful and dangerous, so they can feel the heat when they come in, chilled, and start heating a chilly room. 

Seriously? We need to be talking about the ways people really reduce heating costs. It starts with adjusting our internal thermostats to the seasons. Nature intended us to feel comfortable on these mellow 45-to-50-degree (Fahrenheit) afternoons most of the United States get at this time of year, to need only one coat or sweater and maybe socks when temperatures are in the refrigerator-cold range, to add a hat and keep moving back toward the cave when temperatures are below freezing. Temperatures don't need to be cranked up to 75 degrees. Heaters can make our hands tingle with delicious warmth, dry our hair, and warm up a can of beans in half an hour or less, on 200 watts. They don't even need to have that wasteful and dangerous 1500-watt setting if they're meant to warm one person in one room. I pull that 300-watt baby up close, when I come in, pull a shawl around my shoulders and a blanket up over my knees, open the tabs on my blog reading list (causing the laptop to heat up), and before I know it I'm pushing back the heater, dropping the shawl, and typing in a T-shirt. On the screen porch. Not even inside a room! We just have to realize that winter is not meant to feel like summer. The greedhead corporations' idea of "efficient heating," it seems, is to waste three times as much energy as a room heater needs while also creating a fire hazard. 

And then there's Google's latest "update." It greys out all the favicons on the tabs, so you can't see what you have opened, to make sure you know that it's not caching any pages you've opened for you to be able to read if the power blinks, "to save energy." Meanwhile what heats up the laptop and makes the little fan whine are the endless blasted :"updates" that allow Windows 10 or 11 with New Improved Connection Technology to run, on a good day...about as slowly as dial-up connections did with Windows 97. I still keep something to knit, or to type on a Net-free device, near the laptop, just as I did in 1989. Actual operating speed has never changed. We really need a law that, if any company installs on any web site anything that interrupts the computer's response to input from its owner, the company must PAY for that THEFT OF PAID TIME. The flow chart for those "updates" needs to ask the questions, "1. Did you pay for the computer that will be affected by this program? 2. Did you pay for the Internet connection that computer is using? 3. Are you paying the owner or operator of that computer to wait for the computer to 'update'? If the answer to any of these questions is not verifiably 'yes,' THE PROGRAM MUST ABORT." Microsoft launches another :update," Microsoft gets shut down until each affected computer Owner (they need to stop calling us users and start calling us Owners, clilcking their heels!) has received $100 in cash. Microsoft, or Google, or whatever else, is not entitled to waste one second of paid-for connection time. If they cut out all the malware they could keep all those windows cached for non-interactive offline reading, saving hours of energy-burning connection time, and the laptop would probably run on battery power for two hours or longer, too, if I could spare the cost of a new battery. 

Speaking of which...it's jolly high time someone cracked down on the computer builders. The original Toshiba Satellite, once disconnected from the Internet, ran flawlessly for close to twenty years. If the company had kept making batteries, it might be running yet. Its external surface survived a plane crash but finally cracked while it was sitting on a shelf...I can visualize exactly one way that was possible, and it involves my Professional Bad Neighbor. But between 1989, when it was new, and 2015, all it needed was a battery every year or two to keep it working better than most full-sized computers do. Now they claim laptop computers are more efficient, and laptop computers certainly come with more bells and whistles (most of which I immediately strip off mine) and do more tricks, but nobody even tries to keep them running for even five years. Google even advertised a model that was designed to be unusable after four years. Is this right? Computer manufacturers need to be brought to heel. Computers can be built to last a lifetime--a human lifetime--and, if they're not, considering how expensive they are, they probably should not be built at all. 

While phones...oh, never mind. Phones are obsolete anyway. 

Well, enough editorial comments. Back to the e-books I go. Here is Congressman Griffith's E-Newsletter, and a Happy New Year to him too:

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Some Things Never Change

 

If you thought 2024 would be any different than the first three years of the Biden Administration when it comes to overbearing energy regulations, you thought wrong. The Administration is still fully committed to their Green New Deal objectives, no matter the burden it places on everyday Americans.

 

Just a few days before the start of the new year, on December 29, the Biden Administration announced new regulations affecting multiple home and commercial appliances. The Department of Energy (DOE) said they have both finalized new energy efficiency standards on home refrigerators and freezers (which were proposed by the agency earlier this year) and have also proposed new standards for commercial fans and blowers.

 

As you may know, this is just the latest in new regulations on home appliances that the Biden Administration has implemented since the start of their tenure.

 

As I talked about in an August column, DOE has also announced new regulations for washing machines, gas stoves, dishwashers, air conditioners, electric water heaters, and light bulbs.

 

Talk about government overreach! Is there any appliance inside your own home the Administration won’t meddle with?

 

In a statement by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, she wrote that these new regulations are “a testament to the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to lowering utility costs for working families…”

 

But, according to DOE, when updating their refrigerator, Americans are projected to save just about $16 per year on their utility bill.

 

In many cases, because of the new regulations, new appliances will be more expensive. Really? Just to save $16 per year? 

 

There is also the question of effectiveness. Folks in the 9^th District who have updated some of their home appliances have complained to me about the effectiveness of their appliances. Like washing machines that now don’t use enough water to properly do the job, thus causing some loads to be washed twice. Or dishwashers that take twice as long to finish their cycles because of new standards.

 

It should be noted that according to DOE, regulations on refrigerators and freezers are to be implemented in five to six years, depending on the model and configuration of your new appliance.

 

If this Administration and their left-wing allies in Congress are still in power then, maybe energy prices will be so outrageously high that it may seem worth having an appliance that is less productive than today’s appliances.

 

There is also the manufacturing side. For example, when the Administration announced its new regulations on gas stoves, 18 energy and consumer advocacy organizations sent a letter to DOE saying the new regulation would negatively impact consumer choice and is therefore "arbitrary and capricious" while also having little effect on climate change.

 

Whatever the cost impact on manufacturers is, due to the new regulations announced on December 29, you can bet it will be passed on to the consumer, which drives prices higher. 

 

Additionally, when announcing the proposed new standards for commercial fans and blowers, the agency said the proposed regulations are the first-ever federal regulations for these appliances.

 

Why did they decide to regulate commercial fans and blowers for the first time?

 

Because they are following the direction of California, which has established standards for general fans.

 

While this move is unfortunate, it’s not surprising. It seems the Administration and many on the left, including in Virginia, are taking direction from California more and more these days (example: California banning the sale of new gas-powered cars and mandating the sale of new electric cars by 2035).

 

As O.H. Skinner, the Alliance For Consumers' executive director, rightfully put it, “…this administration isn't just tweaking regulations. They're doing things that effectively ban whole categories of things that exist on the market.”

 

Meaning, it’s not just a difference in price Americans will have to deal with, but also, choice. And that choice will be whatever the Biden Administration’s government decides is right.

 

It’s time to stop with the overbearing green agenda being pushed by the left, without consideration of the consequences.

 

As a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, I was proud to vote in favor of H.R. 6192, the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act at a December meeting. It would modify DOE’s energy efficient mandate to make sure that consumers actually save money on their utility bills in a reasonable timeframe. I will fight for policies that will protect the average American family’s interests. When creating new laws and regulations, we must weigh choices and costs on a similar footing with legitimate environmental concerns. 

 

If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office.  You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405 or my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at https://morgangriffith.house.gov/.

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