The Biden administration is banning certain natural gas water heaters from the market as part of its climate change agenda, a move critics say will jack up energy costs for low-income and senior households.
The move in the final days of the administration will take non-condensing, natural gas-fired water heaters off the shelves by 2029 in a bid to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which climate change advocates and President Biden say cause global warming.
The new rules will require new tankless gas water heaters to use about 13% less energy than today’s least efficient tankless models.
The rules apply to both non-condensing and condensing gas water heaters, but the rules hike efficiency requirements to a threshold that only condensing models can meet, effectively banning the cheaper but less efficient non-condensing models, according to The Washington Free Beacon. Condensing technology wastes less heat.
Consumers will be forced to buy more expensive models or cheaper non-instantaneous storage tank water heaters, which are less efficient than the models being banned by the DOE.
Tankless technology is often used when space is at a premium, such as in apartment buildings and in smaller homes, Diana Furchtgott-Ruth, director of the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment, wrote in The Daily Signal.
For instance, Rinnai America is the only company that produces tankless water heaters in the United States. Its tankless, non-condensing natural gas water heater sells for about $1,000 at Home Depot, compared to $1,800 for a condensing 75-gallon tank.
The new rules were published by the Department of Energy (DOE) the day after Christmas, although the agency did not make a public announcement. Fox Business has reached out to the DOE for comment.
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Matthew Agen, the American Gas Association’s chief counsel for energy, blasted the move, labeling it "deeply concerning and irresponsible."
"The final rule is a violation of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), which prohibits DOE from promulgating a standard that renders a product with a distinct performance characteristic unavailable," Agen said in a statement before the rules were officially published.
To make matters worse, Agen said, the DOE’s own analysis claims the average life-cycle cost savings would amount to barely $112 over the entire 20-year average product life. He said the rule is unjustifiable on legal and practical grounds.
"Forcing low-income and senior customers to pay far more upfront is particularly concerning. DOE’s decision to go ahead with a flawed final rule is deeply disappointing."
Rinnai recently constructed a $70 million, 360,000-square-foot factory in Georgia to manufacture non-condensing gas water heaters for the American market, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
Frank Windsor, president of Rinnai America, told the outlet the move is a "bad deal."
He said the company undertook the construction in 2020 after President Trump’s efforts to boost American manufacturing, and it employs hundreds.
"When the rule goes into effect, all that manufacturing will basically be irrelevant," Windsor told the outlet. "A lot of the major equipment that we've invested in will basically have to be scrapped."
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However, the move was welcomed by the nonprofit Appliance Standards Awareness Project (ASAP), saying it will eliminate 32 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from water heaters sold over 30 years.
The group, which supports reducing energy and water usage in appliances, says it advocated the efficiency standards of the DOE.
"This is a commonsense step that will lower total household costs while reducing planet-warming emissions," said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the ASAP.
"These long-awaited standards will ensure more families save with proven energy-efficient technology already used in a majority of tankless units."
