Consumer group exposes costs of Biden admin's war on home appliances

A consumer advocacy organization released a new analysis highlighting how the Biden administration's climate agenda will burden Americans with higher costs for various home appliances and everyday items.

The Alliance For Consumers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting consumer protection policies, issued the analysis this past week showing that popular appliances like ceiling fans, gas stoves, dishwashers, water heaters and refrigerators will all increase in price in the coming years thanks in large part to a federal energy efficiency regulatory regime. The group labeled its analysis "Biden's Dream House" in reference to the impact of regulations on household expenses.

"They are trying to reshape the place that you live to make it look like the home they would like you to live in," O.H. Skinner, the Alliance For Consumers' executive director, told FOX Business in an interview. "They're really trying to impose what are progressive preferences from places in coastal enclaves and make it so that everyone has to live like that. And that affects you every day."

"What's crucial is to understand this administration isn't just tweaking regulations. They're doing things that effectively ban whole categories of things that exist on the market," Skinner continued. "Almost all of these decisions, as you work through it, are influenced by the overall climate agenda and the green agenda and the desire for us to change our lives."

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According to the analysis, recent energy regulations proposed or finalized by the Biden administration would, on average, make water heaters cost $2,800 more, gas stoves as much as $3,250 more expensive, air conditioners $1,100 more expensive, and gas furnaces nearly $500 more expensive. And the Alliance For Consumers added that more efficient products are often less effective than their predecessors. 

"That's basically what we're being told here: 'Pay more, get less, but don't worry, we're taking care of the climate on your behalf — we just didn't trust you to make any of these choices. We're going to handle the climate for you, but you'll bear the costs,'" Skinner told FOX Business.

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Overall, over the last several months, the Department of Energy has unveiled new standards for a wide variety of appliances including stovetops, water heaters, gas furnaces, clothes washers, dishwashers, refrigerators and air conditioners. 

And according to the current federal Unified Agenda, a government-wide, semiannual list that highlights regulations agencies plan to propose or finalize within the next 12 months, the Biden administration is additionally moving forward with rules impacting dozens more appliances, including pool pumps, battery chargers, ceiling fans and dehumidifiers.

Most recently, the administration issued regulations to accelerate an economy-wide transition to more advanced refrigeration and cooling technologies, a move that will lead to more expensive refrigerators and air conditioners, experts said. Those rules are set to go into effect in 2025.

"This is likely to raise the costs – it may raise it substantially – of your next new air conditioning system," Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, previously told Fox News Digital. "One of the issues is that the new refrigerants, the new eco-friendly refrigerants, are classified as flammable. So, there are all kinds of precautions that have to be taken when you have an air conditioning system with flammable refrigerants."

"This is putting the climate agenda above the best interests of consumers," he continued. "Anybody who wants the eco-friendly version is free to buy it regardless. The only thing that these regulations do is make the more expensive, but supposedly environmentally-friendly option, the only option. And that could only be bad news for prices, especially when you're restricting competition in this manner."

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The Biden administration boasted in December 2022 that it had taken 110 actions on energy efficiency rules last year alone as part of its climate agenda. The Energy Department said last month that, altogether, its past and planned appliance regulations will save Americans $570 billion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2.4 billion metric tons over the next 30 years.

However, consumer groups like the Alliance For Consumers and experts have criticized the administration over its aggressive energy efficiency campaign. They have argued the new regulations will reduce consumer choice and increase up front costs for Americans.