If you want to understand the impact this kind of energy rule had while in effect, read up on the Rosenfeld Effect[0].<p>Arthur Rosenfeld was the driving force behind California and US energy conservation regulations in the 1970's and early 1980's. His direct personal impact on energy cost savings in the US is unbelievable, even before you inflation convert it to modern dollars.<p>Disassembling an old refrigerator from before the days of those yellow stickers is a mind blowing experience. Refrigerators commonly had heater wires attached to their outer panels. Why? It was cheaper to manufacture refrigerators that had heaters on their outer panels than refrigerators that had adequate insulation (the heaters prevented the outside of the refrigerator from getting cold enough to cause water to condense on the outside of the refrigerator). It was cheaper to make them with heater wires, but unbelievably more expensive to run them that way. Consumers paid a huge price for that tiny reduction in manufacturing cost, and had no way of knowing that was happening. Those yellow stickers changed that.<p>Cutting waste, fraud, and abuse? Show me another individual who has come anywhere close to the direct financial savings that Rosenfeld, a PhD Physicist, delivered.<p>The article below primarily talks about his impact on reducing California's spending on energy, in large part because it's easier to quantify, but his impact nationally is undoubtedly much higher.<p>[0]<a href="https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/01/27/art-rosenfeld-californias-godfather-energy-efficiency-90/" rel="nofollow">https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/01/27/art-rosenfeld-californ...</a>
I’ve never read a press release by a US government agency before, so it may be the standard, but the language in it strikes me as petty and childish, especially the last piece; “sprinkler nozzles that just don’t work well”.<p>“The people, not the government, should be choosing the home appliances and products they want at prices they can afford.” - you still get to choose which appliance you have in your home, but the government is there to help ensure that appliance is reliable and efficient.
I hope this means a move away from standards that result in serious usability impacts for moderate improvements.<p>Examples I've personally experienced is that many/most driers now available require multiple attempts to get clothes actually try. Then there was the debacle of fedora enabling aggressive power saving in a difficult to disable way in updates, claiming it was mandated-- resulting in nonsense like remote hands incidents to unsuspend servers and users using TV as monitors perpetually needing to turn the TV on and off every use because TV's won't wake and the power saving functionality wasn't disclosed (if you could even figure out that this was WHY the screen kept failing-- and did so without sending a display to the landfill first).<p>Energy efficiency when it comes at no impact to functionality is good (at least if it pays for its own landfill burden-- many home devices have more embodied energy in their manufacture than they'll ever use) but when it has a usability impact it really ought to have a good justification or even just not happen at all because people are capable of choosing more efficient devices when it actually makes sense to do so.<p>(like the efficiency impact of a device run for 10 minutes a month is very very different from something that runs 24/7 and usually only the owner of the device knows the usage).<p>Intrusive requirements also set back environmental causes by enlisting opposition by members of the public that are harmed by them-- which could easily have a greater long term impact than the benefit of the standard. (and if it's argued that these changes have gone too far, then I'd say it's likely an example of exactly that).
My home appliances meet a number of international energy efficiency standards including those set by the EU. If the US wants that to be somebody else's responsibility that's ok; but China et el aren't going to invest in separate production lines without it just for the US.
"Someone" has a serious phobia regarding shower heads and gas stoves. My house came with a gas stove with three pilots that heat up the house on those 110 degree days and I can't find the shutoff (it's behind the stove somewhere) to shut the damn thing off without killing the furnace and water heater.<p>Consolation might be if I sell the abomination, some deranged (pun unintended) person may overpay for the nostalgia.<p>As for the alternative, PG&E more than doubled my electric rates, though I did get a stovetop Wolf oven, never having had an oven that was accurate. My former Breville quit one day after the warranty expired. I believe the cause was a 29 cent inline fuse buried between panels past about 30 screws holding the back on. I never found the fuse.<p>Can't win.
IMHO this is a good thing if it ends the now-common practice of chasing after tiny gains in efficiency at the cost of shortened lifespans and more difficult repair.<p><i>The list of specifications developed during the last administration have encouraged the sale of bathroom and kitchen faucets, residential toilets and sprinkler nozzles that just don’t work well.</i><p>I think that's been a problem since before the last administration...<p>Related:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20856036">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20856036</a><p><a href="http://www.freeexistence.org/highflow_toilet.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.freeexistence.org/highflow_toilet.html</a>
These press releases chill me to the bone with how 1984 speak they are. I’ve never seen whole agencies just completely gutted and replaced with nonsense like this before. The executive branch of the government was never meant to have this much power. We didn’t fight a war against a king so that we could just devolve to that again.
This announcement is written so poorly that it might be one of the rare cases where linking to the primary article is suboptimal.<p>> the Department of Energy will postpone the implementation of seven of the Biden-Harris administration’s restrictive mandates on home appliances.<p>> Today’s actions postpone the efficiency standards for the following home appliance rules:<p>I honestly don't know if they are suspending <i>new</i> fuel efficiency requirements or <i>all</i> requirements for the given appliances.
I'd be all in favor of removing thousands of individual regulations if they were replaced by a single rational carbon/pollution tax, but that is wishful thinking.
The title of the submission is nowhere in line with what the linked page even talks about. Flagging for out right lying.<p>Titled when I wrote this comment is: "US Energy Department ending appliance efficiency standards"<p>All the press release mentions is that they are not moving forward on new standards that Biden was pushing for while he was in office. Existing energy efficiency standards for appliances are still in effect.<p>From the link: "will postpone the implementation of seven of the Biden-Harris administration’s restrictive mandates on home appliances.'