“Wartime” Climate Policy vs. Natural Gas: Biden Gets Desperate
By Mark Krebs -- November 27, 2023“While gas appliances may presently be losing some market share to electricity due to Green New Deal discrimination, there are also increasing indications that the public is both weary and wary of such ‘watermelon’ policies. It’s not about saving the planet from the ravages of fossil fuels; it’s about enslaving the planet by banning fossil fuels.”
Yes, the President of the United States has pulled out a Korean War authority (Defense Production Act) to fight against American energy that Americans prefer. It is an overreach that is being noted widely, as outlined below as well as here and here.
The American Gas Association (AGA) started this latest flurry with a press release November 17, 2023. The same day, Reuters and Fox News published their articles. Epoch Times published its article (and video) on November 20, 2023. The Reuters article most noteworthy contribution is that it names recipients of the Biden Administration’s [mis]appropriations of DPA funding. Both the Reuters article and Fox News article cite the AGA’s press release.
It is a good sign that news outlets are at least beginning to read AGA press releases.
- American Gas Association (11/17):
AGA responds to President Biden’s use of Defense Production Act powers to fund electric heat pumps - Reuters (11/17):
US aims to speed heat pump manufacturing using Cold War-era law - Fox News (11/17):
Biden invokes wartime powers to fund electric heaters as he cracks down on gas appliances - Epoch Times 11/20)
Biden Uses War Powers to Target Household Appliances - Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) Statistical information on HVACR equipment shipments:
Central Air Conditioners and Air-Source Heat Pumps Shipment Data
6. AHRI’s position on the inflation Reduction Act (includes background on DPA)
This May 09, 2022, article for RealClearEnergy 1) discussed DPA funding for electric heat pumps, 2) strongly refutes the inherently flawed “energy efficiency” claims still being made by DOE for electric heat pumps and 3) does not blindly adhere to LNG as the best use of our nation’s irreplaceable natural gas inheritance. It received nearly 200 comments.
Discussion:
The AHRI data clearly shows that gas appliances are losing at least some ground to electric equivalents as evidenced by the above graphs. Moreover, this trend appears to have accelerated under the Biden Administration. AHRI’s discussion of the IRA and DPA is non-committal advocacy (an oxymoron?).
The likely reason is that AHRI has members on both sides of these issues. As my good friend Ed Reid commented on today (Nov 21, 2023), there are many reasons to be thankful this holiday season. Unfortunately, the war of attrition against consumer choice for non-electric appliance may not be one of them. On the other hand, at least Biden hasn’t (yet) invoked the DPA in total in what his Administration continues to equate to the most existential threat to humanity of all; anthropogenic global warming.
And in other related news:
A consortium of the AGA, the Natural Propane Gas Association (NPGA) and the American Public Gas Association (APGA) has just issued what could be “a shot across the [DOE’s] bow” in the form of what they titled a “PETITIONERS’ NON-BINDING STATEMENT OF ISSUES TO BE RAISED.” (Click here for the for a PDF of an official copy.)
Footnote 1 to their “petition” indicates that it is aimed at a recently ended Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) titled “Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Water Heating Equipment.” However, there is no reason apparent (to me at least) why this petition could not equally apply to other recent DOE NOPR’s. For example. DOE’s recently ended NOPR for “Consumer Boilers” which I published an update on MasterResource dated October 24, 2023. Regardless, their petition clearly indicates that the retail distribution part of the “gas industry” intends to appeal a Final Rule that would eliminate at least one type of non-condensing gas appliances.
Since the body of that petition is relatively short, it is shown below (in italics) in its entirety:
- Did the Department of Energy (“DOE”) exceed its authority under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act by imposing new energy conservation standards for commercial water heaters without a separate class for non-condensing commercial water heaters?
- Did DOE exceed its authority under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act by imposing new energy conservation standards for commercial water heaters that will result in the unavailability of noncondensing gas-fired water heaters?
- Did DOE exceed or arbitrarily or capriciously exercise its authority under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act by failing to consider important “performance characteristics (including reliability, features, sizes, capacities and volumes” that are currently provided by non-condensing commercial water heaters, which will be made unavailable by the Final Rule?
- Did DOE lack “clear and convincing evidence” to justify new energy conservation standards for commercial water heaters that will result in the unavailability of noncondensing gas-fired water heaters?
- Was DOE’s decision to make non-condensing gas-fired commercial water heaters unavailable to consumers arbitrary and capricious?
- Was the DOE’s consideration and treatment of fuel switching contrary to its authority under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act?
- Did DOE act arbitrarily, capriciously, or contrary to law by failing to follow its own Procedures, Interpretations, and Policies for Consideration in New or Revised Energy Conservation Standards by, among other things, failing to consider the negative consequences of accelerating fuel switching from natural gas to electricity?
- Did DOE lack “clear and convincing evidence” to support its conclusion that the new standards for commercial water heaters in the Final Rule are economically justified?
- Was DOE’s determination that the new standards in the Final Rule are economically justified arbitrary and capricious?
Conclusions
While gas appliances may presently be losing some market share to electricity due to anticompetitive and counterproductive Green New Deal’s energy and environmental travesties under the Biden Administration, there are also increasing indications that the public is both weary and wary of such “watermelon” policies (green outside, red inside). It’s not about saving the planet from the ravages of fossil fuels; it’s about enslaving the planet by banning fossil fuels.
The eighteenth-century naval hero John Paul Jones was doing battle with a British ship when his own ship was badly damaged, and the British commander called over to ask whether Jones had surrendered. He answered, “I have not yet begun to fight.” He and his crew then captured the British ship. While regulatory capture of the “administrative state” appears to be the rule and not the exception at present, this bit of history should be remembered so we do repeat it and recapture a government “for the people” as our Founding Fathers intended.
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Mark Krebs, a mechanical engineer and energy policy consultant, has been involved with energy efficiency design and program evaluation for over thirty years. Mark has served as an expert witness in dozens of State energy efficiency proceedings, has been an advisor to DOE and has submitted scores of Federal energy-efficiency filings. His many MasterResource posts on natural gas vs. electricity and “Deep Decarbonization” federal policy can be found here.