By Ben Jealous
(Trice Edney Wire) – The incoming Trump administration is supposedly interested in “efficiency.” It has a whole quasigovernmental department – the Elon Musk- and Vivek Ramaswamy-chaired Department of Government Efficiency – purportedly ready to take aim at government waste. So why are the very same people going to such extremes to make wasting energy one of their highest priorities?
Among the final acts of the MAGA-led House of Representatives to end this Congress was the passage of the absurdly named Liberty in Laundry Act. It prohibits the Secretary of Energy from setting or enforcing energy efficiency standards for clothes washers and dryers. It is but one of several legislative attacks on energy efficient home appliances, like dishwashers and refrigerators, advanced by the House’s Republican majority. While the bill may have no chance of passing in the Senate, this is a clear signal about the GOP’s backwards priorities in the next Congress.
Energy efficiency simply means an appliance uses less energy to do its job. It not only can save households hundreds of dollars a year, it is one of the best – and most readily accessible – ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from homes and buildings, and mitigate our impact on the climate. Not only that, it is an area where the product manufacturers, sellers, and climate advocates agree.
The Department of Energy (DOE) is required by law to regularly evaluate and set energy efficiency standards for a wide range of appliances. Yet every time the DOE wants to ensure we have options that meet at least a minimum standard, it seems there is an extremist politician or talking head ready to scaremonger about Big Government coming into your home to take your beloved appliances. In reality, energy efficiency standards simply provide consumers with better choices – more high-tech products that work even better than outdated inefficient models and will save households money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (a fifth of which in the US come from people’s homes).
Donald Trump has railed against water efficient toilets and showerheads, and against replacing inefficient lightbulbs that still use the same basic design from over a hundred years ago and waste up to 90% of the electricity powering them. After all, Thomas Edison’s invention was ground-breaking at the time, but technology has come a long way since then.
In 2023, far-right media and politicians tried to ignite a firestorm over gas stoves, peddling the falsehood that the Biden administration was trying to ban them. In reality, the DOE proposed improved efficiency standards for both gas and electric stoves that would not go into effect until 2027 and would help consumers save as much as an estimated $1.7 billion. This is part-in-parcel of the myths being used to stoke outrage about regulations that would protect consumers – both their wallets and their health (don’t forget that producing excess energy from fossil fuels adds to the climate crisis and the air and water pollution that kills and sickens millions of Americans every year).
While it seems utilities and energy companies might not mind consumers buying more of their product than they use or need, many electric utilities actually support efficiency measures. They bring down overall demand on their grids, reducing costs for them as well as their consumers.
Most news coverage of the issue highlights interest group opposition from homebuilders. However, it seems the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) may actually be inflating the upfront costs, while ignoring the savings on utility bills over time that more than make up for them. Those savings are especially important to low-income families, who carry a higher energy burden by spending a greater portion of their household income on energy bills. Low-income households are forced to spend as much as four times more on energy bills. And there is research that shows families that fall behind on their utility bills are at risk of the state taking their children away.
Of course, not all homebuilders subscribe to the NAHB’s rhetoric. They know that homes can be constructed to be more efficient, solar-ready, and in ways that cut costs and actually enhance quality of living. And for new construction of all-electric buildings, costs are even lower because there is no need to run a gas line, which saves tens of thousands of dollars.
But at the end of the day, opposition to energy efficiency standards is not just about doing the bidding of an industry group like NAHB. More than anything, based on the fallacious claims and outright distortions of what these regulations actually do, it seems to be simply about manipulating voters by making them angry. People do not like being told what to do. They do not like being told the products they like – or at least have no problems with – will be banned or taken from them. When framed in a way that means less choice – or “freedom” – for consumers, too many people are ready to take the bait and believe the lies. The truth is, these standards are simply about providing consumers with better choices on the shelf for when their existing appliances ultimately do need to be replaced.
In Washington and state capitals alike, lawmakers need to put their constituents first, and not traffic in lies and misinformation. No one benefits from wasted energy other than the fossil fuel industry executives whose bank accounts get fatter with the selling and burning of an unnecessary excess of their product. Well, them and the politicians who benefit from misleading voters about what energy efficiency actually means.
Ben Jealous is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club and a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
