Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa introduced new legislation Monday which would make the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy (DOE) set their headquarters’ thermostats to no lower than 78 degrees.
The Lead By Example Act would require the EPA and DOE to set their headquarters’ thermostats to at least 78 degrees, in alignment with recommendations supported by the EPA and DOE. Energy Star, an EPA-backed program that issues energy efficiency recommendations, suggests that Americans should keep summertime ambient temperatures in their homes between 78 and 85 degrees in order to save energy, according to CNN.
The DOE also urges Americans to “set (their) thermostat as high as comfortably possible in the summer,” according to a 2022 DOE report. “The greater the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the more energy it will take to maintain a comfortable temperature in your home,” the report also states.
“It’s time for the Biden administration to sweat out the radical agenda they’re pushing on the American people,” Ernst told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “I’m turning up the heat – to 78 degrees – on these Biden bureaucrats, so they think twice before imposing arbitrary rules on Americans,” she continued, adding that “if they can’t lead by example, it’s time to pull the plug on these ridiculous regulations.”
President Joe Biden issued an executive order in December 2021 which asserted that it is “the policy of my Administration for the Federal Government to lead by example” on green energy initiatives. (RELATED: ‘Squad’ Democrats Spent Thousands On Airfare Despite Demanding ‘Green New Deal,’ House Records Show)
Lead by Example Act by John Hugh DeMastri
Beyond establishing a minimum thermostat temperature in the headquarters buildings of both agencies, the bill would require both agencies to submit reports detailing their offices’ ambient temperatures since Jan. 20, 2021. Electricity prices surged by more than 14% nationwide in 2022, far outpacing the overall spike in prices Americans faced that year, according to UtilityDrive.
Ernst has previously targeted the Biden administration’s green agenda with legislation, introducing a bill in June that would preempt any potential attempt from Biden to invoke special emergency powers on the basis of a declared national climate emergency.
Ernst also requested a June Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which found that the State Department failed to track the emissions generated by fights that took delegates to United Nations climate change conferences in 2021 and 2022. That particular shortcoming stood at odds with the December 2021 Biden executive order, which also required federal agencies to track the emissions their activities generate.
Neither the EPA nor the DOE responded immediately to requests for comment.
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