A coalition of 19 consumer advocacy and industry groups are pushing back against the Biden administration’s latest war on household appliances: dishwashers.
In May 2023, the Biden Administration’s Department of Energy revealed that it was imposing tighter rules and regulations for home appliances to make them more compliant with its climate change agenda. Dishwashers, which have a current standard limit of five gallons of water per cycle, would be limited to just 3.2 gallons of water per cycle — sparking an outcry from consumer advocates and industry leaders.
Glad to join @ceidotorg in pushing back on the latest overreach- let’s get the government out of our kitchens! @IWF
Biden admin crackdown on dishwashers faces widespread opposition | Fox News Great hit @DanielTurnerPTF https://t.co/o8iOCYiodi
— Mandy Gunasekara (@MississippiMG) July 19, 2023
“The proposed rule would tighten the energy and water efficiency standards for residential dishwashers, despite the fact that the standards currently in effect are causing serious problems for consumers,” the coalition, led by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), argued.
“Those problems include cycle times an hour or more longer than were the norm before the standards went into effect, as well as other adverse impacts. The proposed rule would exacerbate these problems and thus further violate the consumer protections built into the law,” the statement continued.
In February, the Biden Administration proposed federal regulations that would require millions of gas stoves around the country to be modified for “energy efficiency,” leading to a backlash from Democrats and Republicans alike over a push for consumers to embrace electric stoves for their cooking needs. (RELATED: Biden Official Behind Gas Stove Crackdown Admits She Has No Clue What It Takes To Install An Electric Stove)
“Makes no sense whatsoever. They’re not going to take my gas stove away. My wife would throw me out of the house, first of all. And next of all, the majority of people like to cook on gas and we depend on gas heating our homes, all the things we depend on and it is a reliable clean energy. They want to get rid of everything,” Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said of the proposals.
“While each of the Biden administration’s recently-proposed appliance measures raises a unique set of risks for consumers, the proposed dishwasher rule at issue here is particularly harmful,” the coalition argued, stating that water and energy limits on the appliances are already stringent enough and that the proposal to tighten them further wouldn’t be worth the effort as it would generate “very little marginal savings.”