This isn't just about your dishwasher, but individual liberty and economic freedom
Democrats had a busy year declaring war on appliances: Kennedy
'The Five' panelists weigh in on Vice President Harris facing criticism after sharing a picture posing next to a gas stove despite the Biden admin's proposal earlier this year to limit its use.
Joe Biden wants to make your life harder and more expensive. Whether we’re talking about threatening your job with his federal vaccine mandates, or your pocketbook with his illogical climate agenda, or your safety with his open-border policy, the Biden administration is demanding total control over American liberty in favor of central federal control.
Now is the time to push back, and push back hard, to protect our states and local communities from bureaucratic agencies, unelected officials, and federal overreach that threatens not just our pocketbooks but also our way of life.
If you’re still on the fence, thinking this bureaucratic squeeze will eventually relent, I invite you to consider this: with inflation skyrocketing, insurance rates at an all-time high, climbing mortgage rates, and the cost of materials and home maintenance consistently rising, do you want to pay $2,800 more for a water heater?
By forcing Americans to adopt expensive (and inefficient) technologies to appease climate activists, President Biden's administration is simultaneously costing you liberty. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Or $3,250 more for a gas stove (if you are even permitted to buy one)? When the summer heat hits, do you want to pay $1,100 more for an air conditioner? Or $500 more for a furnace next freeze?
Well, maybe, if it’s better quality, or more efficient. But it’s not. In the landmark case Louisiana vs. DOE, I challenged Biden’s Department of Energy and its attempt to repeal a Trump-era rule that exempted dishwashers and washing machines from strict water-use standards.
This rule incentivized more efficient products and expanded consumer choice. By repealing it, Americans have dirtier clothes and dishes, forcing us to run a second cycle or wash our clothes by hand – while blowing the family budget.
As a working mother of four boys, I know firsthand this is the opposite of energy efficient. It’s a colossal waste of time, energy and water. Unsurprisingly, the court unequivocally sided with Louisiana and 11 other states, deeming the DOE’s repeal of the Trump-era rule "arbitrary and capricious."
The ruling also highlighted the DOE's failure to consider crucial factors such as appliance performance, substitution effects, and evidence revealing that the department's conservation standards were, in fact, causing increased energy and water usage among Americans.
CONSUMER GROUP EXPOSES COSTS OF BIDEN ADMIN'S WAR ON HOME APPLIANCES
And despite our win, that same DOE mindset is being applied to all other household appliances to suit Biden’s agenda.
In other words, Joe Biden wants you to pay more for less efficiency while removing any other options that might make more sense for your family and your budget. Even more concerning is the focus Washington, D.C., maintains over household economics by micromanaging your precious time and money.
And by forcing Americans to adopt expensive (and inefficient) technologies to appease climate activists, this administration is simultaneously costing you liberty. In that particular battle, the states are our last line of defense, using the judicial system as a safeguard against tyranny, even if that tyranny reveals itself in dirty dishes, smelly clothes and more time-consuming household duties.
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It is imperative that we push back against this administration and enforce the boundaries of the law – even when it’s about air conditioning and refrigerators. That is how we lose ground in this fight: by giving up inch after inch, assuming the climate police will eventually be satisfied or see reason. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The more we surrender, the more power they gain at the expense of our families and our freedom.
State attorneys general must persist in the fight to safeguard individual liberty and economic freedom. It’s not just about your dishwasher.
Liz Murrill, a Republican, is the attorney general of Louisiana.
