Posted on 02/05/2009 2:45:23 PM PST by shielagolden
Obama Orders Costly Energy Standards on Appliances Thursday, February 5, 2009 12:56 PM WASHINGTON –
Eager to show action on the energy front, President Barack Obama ordered his government on Thursday to establish higher efficiency standards for everyday household appliances such as dishwashers, lamps and microwave ovens.
"This will save consumers money, this will spur innovation, and this will conserve tremendous amounts of energy," Obama declared during a visit to the Energy Department, where he touted his economic jobs plan.
Obama announced he had signed a presidential memorandum directing the Energy Department to get moving on energy standards for appliances, including a first batch he will order to be finalized by August.
The fact that Obama is getting directly involved in speeding up household appliance standards underscores how much he wants to show quick, clear progress on energy — part of a broader campaign promise to deal with economic and energy concerns all at once.
Laws on the books already require new efficiency standards for household and commercial appliances. But they have been backlogged in a tangle of missed deadlines, bureaucratic disputes and litigation. In essence, Obama's intent is to say that legal deadlines must be met, with priority being given to those standards that are likely to yield the best pocketbook savings for consumers.
Obama's memorandum orders final rules to be in place by August that require energy-efficiency standards for a series of products: residential dishwashers, lamps, ranges and ovens, microwave ovens, commercial air conditioning equipment, commercial boilers and beverage vending machines.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Just to spite these idiots I’m going to run the self cleaning function on my oven EVERY DAY before I leave.
this guy is such a Bozo. It would be funny, except that unfortunately, he is playing King right now.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Not some onerous, idiotic government regulation.
Making appliances more “energy-efficient” will cost us in Canada a lot of money, for little or no benefit. (Same applies to any cold region.) During heating season (7 months here — 9 or 10 months in the north); all of the energy used by indoor appliances is converted to useful heat.
Also, the low-lying fruit has already been picked. Efficiencies were improved a lot during the ‘70’s and 80’s — and we're now well into diminishing-returns territory.
Yes, right. Obama orders certainly seems un-American, monarchical is more like it.
Like mad King Canute turning back the tide our mad King Obama thinks you can conserve energy. You cannot conserve energy. It is an impossibility.
As an aside, I’d heard that most people found dead in the desert had canteens full of water. They were trying to conserve...
More energy is going to be wasted, not conserved. Number one, consumers will get a false sense of security and use the appliances more. Number two, the new standards are going to increase inefficiencies which will decrease the lifespan of the product. Looks like I’ll be bathing and washing my clothes in the Fox River here in Green Bay.
You are both brilliant and conservative. You don’t live in Chicago, proper. You can’t, really.
Environmentalists Press Democrats With ‘Non-Negotiable Demands’
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By Laura Litvan and Catherine Dodge
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Environmental groups are racking up a series of early wins thanks to expanded Democratic majorities in the U.S. Congress. But they aren’t satisfied, and the scope of their agenda may cause headaches for party leaders.
Environmentalists want Congress to cap greenhouse-gas emissions, a proposal meeting resistance from companies such as General Motors Corp. because of its cost. They’re pushing for laws to force public utilities to buy 15 percent of their power from renewable energy sources, an idea opposed by Southern Co. and American Electric Power Co. And they want tougher energy- efficiency standards for cars, buildings and appliances.
“They have high expectations and non-negotiable demands,” James Lucier, an energy analyst at Capital Alpha Partners LLC in Washington, said of the groups, which include the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and the League of Conservation Voters.
The tension will soon become apparent. More than 2,000 protesters are planning a March 2 sit-in at a coal-fired plant that produces power for the U.S. Capitol, as part of a drive to get support for climate-change legislation.
While organizations such as the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth are leading the charge, some new, more left-leaning partners are joining the fray.
The antiwar group Code Pink is training some of its ire on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.
“They keep saying, ‘We want more of a majority,’ so they’ve got a bigger majority now,” said Medea Benjamin, a co- founder of Code Pink. “We expect more concrete results.”
Passage by 2009
Reid and Pelosi say they want to move climate-change legislation through Congress this year. That goal may be more realistic now, with Barack Obama in the White House and Representative Henry Waxman heading the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Waxman, who backs stringent climate-change goals, replaced John Dingell of Michigan — the auto industry’s closest ally in Congress — as the panel’s chairman.
Pelosi last month praised Waxman’s plan for his committee to vote by Memorial Day, May 25.
“I share his sense of urgency,” she said in a statement.
That urgency is also felt by environmentalists. With Democrats holding 58 of 100 Senate seats and with a 77-seat advantage in the House of Representatives, they want to seize the moment. And they haven’t been placated by recent victories.
The Senate last month approved a $10 billion conservation plan setting aside more than 2 million acres of natural wilderness and protecting 1,000 miles of scenic rivers.
A portion of the spending in an $819 billion economic- stimulus measure approved by the House last week is geared toward renewable-energy projects, including $6.2 billion to weatherize low-income homes.
Obama Backs California
And Obama last week signed an executive order opening the way for California and other states to limit greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks, standards opposed by GM and Ford Motor Co. as too expensive, especially given the depth of the recession.
Lobbyists at environmental groups say they can build on that momentum to get climate-change legislation through before an international summit in December in Copenhagen with hopes of reaching a global accord. Obama has pledged to cut greenhouse gases by 80 percent from 1990 levels in 2050.
“We’re very hopeful about the prospect of climate-change legislation in 2009,” said Michael Goo, legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s climate change center.
Renewable Energy
The renewable energy requirement for power-producers also remains a top agenda item for the movement. Senate Democrats dropped the requirement for utilities from a broad-based energy bill in late 2007 to help ease its passage.
Electric utilities such as Atlanta-based Southern Co. and Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power lobbied to get the renewable-electricity standard removed. They said the South and Midwest don’t have enough wind and other renewable energy resources to meet the standard.
Analysts say the distressed economy might make many environmental goals unattainable. Gross domestic product contracted at a 3.8 percent annual rate from October through December, the biggest drop since 1982, the government reported on Jan. 30.
Fashioning a “cap-and-trade” system to reduce carbon emissions would come with high costs to manufacturers, said Kevin Book, a senior energy analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc. in Arlington, Virginia. Such a system would place limits on polluters and require them to obtain a permit for every ton of greenhouse gas pumped into the atmosphere. Those exceeding the limits would have to buy permits from emitters that cut their output of such gases.
‘Rich Man’s Game’
“There’s a real economic challenge to the environmental movement: It’s a rich man’s game,” Book said.
Add to that divisions within the Democratic Party, and passage of legislation this year will be a challenge, said John Fortier, a congressional analyst at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. Democrats from coal-producing or heavy industrial states are split with West Coast Democrats, who align more with stricter environmental standards, he said.
Environmental organizations also aren’t in complete agreement. Last month, the National Wildlife Federation withdrew from a coalition of groups that are fashioning ideas for cap-and-trade legislation. The federation said the ideas coming forward aren’t bold enough.
Republicans Needed
With those obstacles, Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who was a liaison between Congress and Obama’s presidential-transition team, said it’s too early to predict action this year.
“We’re going to need some Republican support,” Van Hollen said. Cap-and-trade is “an issue where you don’t only have party differences, they’re also regional.”
House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana said Democrats can’t bank on Republican votes.
“The overwhelming majority of Republicans would be very dubious about any global-warming legislation, particularly during such a difficult time for working Americans,” he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net; and Catherine Dodge in Washington, at Cdodge1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: February 3, 2009 00:01 EST
Cordio
I am going to have Elvis pick me up in the UFO. We’ll stay with the Loch Ness Monster until this administration passes away.
But, I will leave all my appliances running and lights on. Plus, I’ll run the heat on 90 - tropical, just like my president. Save energy!!!
They’ll just make it cheaper for me to “waste”!
We are seeing the manifestation of his nacissm: These are good policy because he says they are, economics or any other objective standard be damned.
Would I be considered racist for saying something trite like “well, he may not be able to save the economy but at least he can clean an oven?”
My furnace is a 90+ efficiency. How much more will he wring out of that?
I mean libs believe in perpetual motion. I was on Salon and read some woman who says every dollar of infrastructure spending = $1.59 of additional GDP (from some OMB study - did any one take math there?).
Why have private spending at all when you can generate near 60% returns through government spending. It worked for the Soviets and Michael Moore says Cuba is a workers paradise.
My furnace is a 90+ efficiency. How much more will he wring out of that?
I mean libs believe in perpetual motion. I was on Salon and read some woman who says every dollar of infrastructure spending = $1.59 of additional GDP (from some OMB study - did any one take math there?).
Why have private spending at all when you can generate near 60% returns through government spending. It worked for the Soviets and Michael Moore says Cuba is a workers paradise.
My furnace is a 90+ efficiency. How much more will he wring out of that?
I mean libs believe in perpetual motion. I was on Salon and read some woman who says every dollar of infrastructure spending = $1.59 of additional GDP (from some OMB study - did any one take math there?).
Why have private spending at all when you can generate near 60% returns through government spending. It worked for the Soviets and Michael Moore says Cuba is a workers paradise.
There are ads on radio and TV here in California similar to this.
Announcer voice: If everyone would replace their furnaces and air conditioners with energy efficient ones, well, it would be like taking 350,000 cars of our California roads.
Now I’m wondering how soon this replacing of large appliances will be required. They are just putting the idea out there to get us used to it. I’ll let you know when it becomes a requirement. Schwartzenegger and 0bama.....what a pair!
He is absolutely MAD!
Rule by fiat.
Hey, folks. This is such a good idea we have to force you to do it.
Don’t these idiots claim to love freedom and the rights of man?
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