The Hill reports:
conservative legal group wants the Energy Department (DOE) to withdraw microwave oven efficiency rules because the DOE didn’t seek public comment on its increased estimate of damage from carbon emissions.
The Landmark Legal Foundation’s formal petition opens the latest front in the battle over the administration’s recent increase in the “social cost of carbon,” a metric of pollution’s toll that agencies use when crafting regulations.
The DOE will publish a notice in Friday’s Federal Register seeking comment on the conservative group’s July petition for reconsideration of the rule.
We once had an EPA too. Till about 5 yrs ago a realistic government came to power and virtually scrapped it. Also undid quite a few of the more idiotic rules and regulations. Just hope your fellow countrymen vote a bit more sanely next time.
I rented a house from a family posturing as eco-friendly. They had a normal washing machine with a condensing dryer next to it. I never touched the dryer (don’t get me started on how viciously stupid the condensing dryer is). Their washing machine was totally fouled up and clogged by mould. It was eating through gaskets and even the plastic window was damaged. I had never seen anything like it. I cleaned and sanitised the machine and had no problems with it for many months that I lived there. But I wondered how one gets to that point.
Later I found a note from them in the house papers: “For the sake of the Planet, please do not run the washing machine hot. Use only liquid soap without bleach!”
Yuck.
There is no definable, quantifiable “social cost of carbon” in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. None. Zero. It doesn’t exist.
There are social costs of pollution, the real kind, but pollution occurs at many points. Increasing the consumer efficiency of microwaves (washing machines, cars, blow dryers) may lower the life-cycle efficiency of the product and produce a net loss in environmental affects. In fact, it’s likely to do so.