A handful of House Democrats joined Republicans on legislation aimed at blocking new Biden administration energy efficiency standards for refrigerators and dishwashers.
The Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act by Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., and Refrigerator Freedom Act by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, passed along party lines Tuesday evening.
Seven House Democrats voted for each bill. The dishwasher standards legislation passed 214-192 with no GOP dissent. The refrigerator bill passed 212-192, with one Republican voting against it.
Both bills are aimed at prohibiting the Secretary of Energy from enacting and enforcing "energy efficiency standards for residential refrigerators, freezers and dishwashers that are not technologically feasible and economically justified," the House GOP has said.
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It would also block rules that did not result in "significant conservation of energy."
Langworthy accused the Biden DOE of a "relentless assault on efficient, affordable and reliable appliances for everyday Americans" during debate on the bill Tuesday.
The Department of Energy has said its new proposed rule on dishwashers would save Americans $652 million in utility payments and would cut the appliances’ water usage by more than a quarter.
But House Republicans argued "DOE's own analysis finds that efficiency mandates could increase the upfront cost by 28%, and it could take consumers 12 years to pay back the increased costs on a product that may only last 7-12 years."
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., claimed Republicans’ calculations were out of date and related to an earlier rule during debate on the bills, maintaining the payback time for dishwashers under the new standard was 3.9 years.
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The DOE’s new rules for residential refrigerators and freezers, proposed earlier this year, would save consumers more than $36 billion over 30 years, according to the Department.
But House Republicans similarly pointed to a DOE projection that "finds that efficiency mandates could increase the upfront costs by 25%, and it could take consumers 10 years to pay back the increased costs for a product that may only last 14-15 years."
It’s part of House Republicans’ wider legislative strategy to push back against the Department of Energy’s climate-friendly regulatory agenda under President Biden.
Debate on the dishwasher bill briefly got heated Monday afternoon when Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., and Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., got into a back-and-forth about their own familiarity with the appliance.
"This bill is ridiculous. It is Congress at its worst," Porter said during the lively debate. "A bunch of people who haven’t unloaded a dishwasher ever telling the American people … what kind of dishwasher they should or should not be able to buy. On behalf of every American woman who’s going to load and unload tonight and again tomorrow morning, I yield back."
Duncan responded, "To address the gentle lady … I do load and unload the dishwasher. And I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, that many times I have opened the dishwasher, loaded properly with the right among of dishwasher liquid or pod put in, that all the dishes are clean, rinsed off before they’re put it, and then run it again.
"Americans know they have to run the dishwasher ofttimes more than once. How is that a cost savings?" Duncan added, arguing the new standards would make them even less efficient.
"I’m not going to stand here and be lectured by someone who seems very pious about dishwashers … or loading a refrigerator properly."
