SW Virginia News

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) has expressed alarm over the Biden administration's regulatory focus on household appliances. With concerns echoing from past experiences, Griffith said energy standards targeting washing machines, refrigerators, gas stoves, and light bulbs could lead to reduced performance, higher prices, and increased financial strain for American families.

“It seems that no appliance is safe from the Biden Administration,” Griffith said in his weekly report. “In fact, a new light bulb ban has just gone into effect. Under DOE (Department of Energy) regulations, manufacturers and retailers are no longer allowed to sell most incandescent light bulbs, which make up about 30 percent of light bulbs sold in the United States, in an effort to force Americans to use light-emitting diode, or LED, light bulbs. According to the Residential Energy Consumption Survey, this new regulation will particularly impact lower-income Americans as they prefer to use incandescent over LED.”

“Years back, a woman from Bluefield told me she was filling her washing machine with a hose because Obama-era water restrictions for washing machines wouldn’t allow for enough water to properly clean her clothes,” Griffith said in his weekly media report. Such restrictions could return under the Biden administration, he said.

Griffith said the DOE proposed new energy standards for washing machines and refrigerators earlier this year. While the Biden administration says new appliances under the proposed standards would save $425 on their utility bills over the average lifetime of the appliances, appliance manufacturers warn that the new standards will lead to reduced performance and much higher prices, he said. Also, the new regulations would require washing machines to use 25% less water, which is “similar to the crisis faced by the Bluefield, Va., woman several years ago,” he said in the newsletter.

A rule that was originally issued in 2007, rolled back during the Trump administration, and later updated by the Biden administration last year, has now been fully implemented as of Tuesday, August 1, resulting in the prohibition of the sale of common incandescent light bulbs. Enacted by President Biden's Department of Energy, this regulation required light bulbs to emit a minimum of 45 lumens per watt, effectively eliminating the production and sale of traditional incandescent bulbs, which were commonly screwed into the majority of household light sockets. CNN reported.

In January 2023, Richard Trumka Jr., a commissioner at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, sparked controversy when he said in a Bloomberg interview that gas stoves posed an unseen danger, implying that a ban might be considered. Trumka told CNN that the agency was exploring various options, including a ban on new gas stoves, while saying that existing ones would remain unaffected.

The Biden administration's focus on addressing climate change in American homes has now extended to over 18 common household appliances, the New York Sun reported a few weeks ago.

"This overregulation by the federal government hurts the working poor and middle class the most," Griffith said in his newsletter. “When a family has to replace their appliances, some Americans won’t be able to afford to do so. That is a heap of pain for little gain.”