Energy efficiency is really stupid public policy. Doesn’t work as it just makes things cost more.
Politico reports:
President Barack Obama is preparing to bypass Congress on climate change and use his executive powers on everything from power plants to energy standards for appliances.
The president will soon outline the climate plan in a highly anticipated speech, and though official details are still under wraps, a top White House official said this week the president’s agenda will focus broadly on EPA regulations, energy efficiency and renewable power.
To make coffee in the morning, turn on your 60w kettle before going to bed.. 😉
Howdy Johan
That’s kind of my point. Let the industry offer a range of products they consider valuable as determined by the customers. Let the customers validate those decisions with their purchases. Let freedom ring and true efficiency follows.
You can’t even buy a decent gas can anymore. The spouts on the new ones are a nightmare and it’s difficult to use them without spilling and frankly they are dangerous.
GE also got a tax credit for every appliance they made which was millions of dollars.
No one ever mentions the stress on landfills and recyclers as people buy the new “energy-efficient” appliances and discard their old ones. If your appliance still works and you are just going for energy efficiency, you are discarding a good appliance and adding to the waste mess the US already has. The new appliances take tons of material and fuel to build and ship. If they are made in China, the factories bypass our pollution standards. So save the planet by polluting more and filling landfills. Go Greenies…….
I don’t know about appliances, but with such things as lawn mowers and string trimmers, the more “environmentally friendly” they become, the harder they are to to start, the more tempermental ,and the more time and fuel you have to waste just to keep them running.
He want EVERYTHING to cost more!
SO….. a GVT subsidy is required to buy or pay for anything. THEN… you’re all beholden to the hand that “feeds” you, GOVERNMENT!
Feudalism=Collectivism by another name
A customer is also going to consider any difference in price between a 1.6k and 1.8k machine. Also people only tend to consider buying a new machine when it has an obvious advantage over their existing one e.g. it’s failed and is BER.
When being “efficient” becomes a political goal you get the likes of bans and subsidies. Quite possibly with the actual result being highly inefficient and wasteful.
Geoff: You are mixing things up a bit. Making a vacuum cleaner as efficient using a 1600 W motor as one with a 1800 W motor is certainly OK. The problem is that the bureaucrats do not realise that the industry works the shirts off to accomplish that and similar goals without any dictatorial demands. My 2009 311 hp Cadillac CTS gives highway 27 mpg and my 1970 220 hp Ford Torino gave 16 mpg. What’s wrong with that?
Well, theoretically, he can’t. But Congress should be acting to remove whatever authority drives CAFE standards, the ban on incandescent bulbs, and whole piles of stuff that interfere with private decisions.
I’m not holding my breath. Americans proclaim our love of freedom and then vote for its least-devoted friends in legislatures.
Congress has passed Enabling Acts, much as the Reichstag did.
I didn’t realize the US President was Dictator. So, he can enact any edict he likes by claiming some executive power due to his bureaucratic leaderships.