The House passed a bill on Tuesday aimed at blocking the Biden administration from banning everyday home appliances that run on natural gas.
The Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act, which passed 212 to 195, is one facet of a sweeping bill targeting the Department of Energy (DOE) introduced by Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz.
The bill would force the DOE to consider the cost-effectiveness of any new policy standards, including how any updates affecting home appliances would hit low-income families, and would mandate that the department factor in the full-life cycle costs of those appliances before issuing new guidance.
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“I am saddened that we would need such a bill,” Lesko told Fox News Digital in a statement. “However, as we have experienced under this administration, the Department of Energy has unleashed an avalanche of new regulations for household products, including stoves, dishwashers, washing machines, showers, toilets, water heaters, air conditioners, heat pumps, and furnaces.”
She added, “No government bureaucrat should ever scheme to take away Americans’ appliances in the name of a radical environmental agenda.”
House Republicans have pinned high energy costs under President Biden as a likely weak spot for Democrats in the November general elections.
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GOP lawmakers have blamed Biden’s climate agenda for those rising costs, teeing up a litany of bills aimed at stopping the DOE from pushing various restrictions that would affect products Americans rely on every day.
Last year, they passed Lesko’s Save Our Gas Stoves Act, though it’s not likely to get a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
She joined House GOP leaders at their weekly press conference on Tuesday morning, telling reporters, “My constituents in the north and northwest valley of Maricopa County, Arizona, do not want this government interference in their homes and lives. I know that millions of Americans around the country feel the same way.”
A proposed overhaul of energy efficiency standards issued by the DOE in February of last year would have taken up to 50% of gas stoves off the market after it was set to take effect in 2027.
The proposal earned widespread conservative backlash. It ultimately was not one of the finalized plans for updating energy efficiency standards announced by the Biden administration in January of this year.
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