Biden administration imposing costly new rule on home appliances amid rising inflation

For many consumers already facing inflation, everyday life has become more expensive thanks to a new rule from the Biden Administration enacted to meet its liberal climate agenda.

In particular, the new mandate being enforced by the U.S. Department of Energy limits the ability of Americans to buy and operate a functional and cost efficient washing machine increasing their already substantial financial burden.

Many across the country are skeptical of the policy.

“Congress passed a law that regulated the water use of some kinds of appliances, like showerheads and toilets, and the Department of Energy ultimately responded with a rule that regulated the water use of other kinds of appliances like clothes washers and dishwashers,” Dan Greenberg, Competitive Enterprise Institute General Counsel, explained to FOX Business in a recent interview.

“The way they did that was by capping the water use that the appliances use – they capped the water use of appliances for each cycle that washing machines and dishwashers ran through. This is why you have to run things through modern dishwashers and modern clothes washers two or three times in order to get things clean.”

“The caps on water that are supposed to save energy, actually waste energy.”

Despite a ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals smashing the DOE rule, the agency has continued to enforce the policy, something Greenberg has a major issue with.

“This is a case about a court that told the federal government ‘you absolutely cannot do this, this is illegal, you have to stop,’ and it’s also about a court that responded by saying ‘I don’t care, I know you told me it’s illegal, but we’re going to keep doing it as long as we can.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall and a group of 24 state attorneys general are fighting against the controversial mandate.

In a notice to United States Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the attorneys general advised the administration to abandon the rule or allow comment rulemaking on it.

“Whether it is your car, kitchen, or laundry room, the Biden-Harris administration is going to find ways to hike our bills in the name of the radical left’s climate agenda,” said Attorney General Marshall. “Too often ‘high efficiency’ just means the machine is terrible at washing clothes. If consumers want to choose a more expensive and less effective washing machine, let them. However, we believe the White House should not be making those decisions for all of us.”

“People are having a hard enough time affording the basics in this economy, yet this administration keeps piling on the costs.”

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten