Tennessee Attorney General Again Pushes Back on Federal Government’s Campaign to Dictate Household Appliances
Nashville – Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has again filed a public comment opposing the Department of Energy’s (DOE) latest rule to set new efficiency standards for consumer water heaters. The proposed standards risk driving cost-effective models off the market and further straining the energy grid. General Skrmetti’s public comment highlights the legal flaws with DOE’s proposal and urges the department to abandon its misguided mission to remake the appliance market.
DOE has relied on flawed estimates of greenhouse-gas-emission costs to justify its position, even though there is no sound reason to conclude that the proposed efficiency standards’ effect on greenhouse gases will have a measurable economic impact. The proposed standards would transform swaths of the water-heater market, which is a hallmark of federal overreach.
The proposed standards would also negatively impact consumers’ ability to select cost-effective water heaters to fit the configurations of their homes. DOE ignored this harm to consumer-choice, contrary to its administrative-law duties to consider important effects of any proposed standards. The proposed water heater rule would further strain the energy grid by requiring a drastic push away from gas-fired and toward electric-powered heaters.
This latest DOE proposal is part of President Biden’s Administration’s campaign to dictate consumers’ use of household appliances. General Skrmetti, joined by a coalition of state attorneys general, has opposed this overreach regulation in a series of comment letters filed with DOE. In this latest comment letter, “Tennessee again requests that the Department cease and desist in its campaign to micromanage Americans’ access to effective and affordable appliances that are central to daily life.”
Read the consumer water heater public comment in its entirety here.
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