MAGA Republicans say America is in crisis, the economy is collapsing and the country is being overrun by hordes of violent immigrants. wrong.
But if you believe that, you should focus on fighting the clear and present danger, right?
Instead, they focus on the threat of woke washing machines.
On Tuesday, 205 House Republicans (joined by seven Democrats) voted in favor of the Home Appliance Ban Act, which aims to limit the Department of Energy's power to set energy efficiency standards. Republicans had planned to vote on a series of more specific bills in April, including the Laundry Freedom Act and the Refrigerator Freedom Act. These votes have been delayed but may still occur.
All of this may sound silly, and that's because it is. But as I pointed out the other day regarding the movement against artificial meat, the deep stupidity of one of our major political parties is itself a serious problem. If you can get past this nonsense, there are also some substantive policy questions here. Should governments limit household energy consumption? If so, should they mandate efficiency in appliances or do so in other ways?
The case for reducing household energy consumption is simple and overwhelming. Power generation causes significant environmental damage. Not only do they emit greenhouse gases and increase the risk of climate change. It also has more immediate effects on air pollution, such as increasing levels of particulates and ozone, which have measurable negative effects on human health. As the transition to renewable energy progresses, these costs will come down, but we are still in the early stages of that transition. Therefore, using more electricity than necessary imposes real costs on others, including increased risk of death.
That being said, no one is encouraging Americans to give up the conveniences of modern life. Rather, the goal is to provide that convenience more efficiently, heating your home or washing your clothes and dishes while using slightly less energy.
How should that goal be achieved? Economics textbooks (including my own) generally say that governments should try to limit pollution by dictating the technology that businesses and households use. states that it is not. Takes a more flexible approach, typically by taxing emissions or requiring polluters to buy permits, providing financial incentives to limit pollution, and setting a price on it. It would be better to.
A classic example is the cap-and-trade program that helped control acid rain. Power plants were issued a limited number of permits to emit sulfur dioxide and were allowed to buy and sell these permits to each other. This provided an incentive to limit emissions, and was achieved at surprisingly low cost.
But when it comes to home appliances, there are good reasons to take a more hands-on approach. In particular, he would like to highlight two things.
First, attempts to encourage households to save electricity by raising electricity prices will not work politically. And there's no shame in considering political realities when formulating policy. Health and wellness writers always tell us that the best diet and exercise regimens are the ones you actually follow. Similarly, the best environmental policy may be one that can actually be implemented.
Second, people have lives to live and families to raise. It's completely unrealistic to expect detailed calculations on how much money you'll save by purchasing an energy-efficient refrigerator or dishwasher. Do you read EnergyGuide labels carefully when shopping for appliances? I don't. One might even say that regulations that ensure that the appliances provided are reasonably efficient would reduce people's cognitive burden and increase our freedom.
So why do Republicans oppose such regulations so vehemently? Part of that is certainly the influence of the fossil fuel industry, whose dollar contributions go overwhelmingly to Republicans. There is.
But perhaps more importantly, energy-efficient home appliances have been caught up in the culture wars and conspiracies that have engulfed American conservatism.
One good example of what the culture wars look like is a 2019 petition called “Make Dishwashers Great Again” distributed by FreedomWorks, a group associated with Koch. The petition claimed that “crazy environmentalist rules have drastically reduced the efficiency of dishwashers,” a claim disputed by the dishwasher manufacturers themselves.
But it was clear that what really troubled conservatives was the very suggestion that American consumers should consider the negative impact of their choices on other people. After all, that kind of consideration is probably what the right primarily means when they decry policies as “woke.”
And as usual, there's the conspiracy theory: No, the Biden administration isn't going to ban gas stoves.
Yeah, it's funny that Republicans are trying to pass something called the Freedom to Laundry Act. But that stupidity is a symptom of a political disease and is not funny at all.
