Gina McCarthy is in the news again. Remember her? She was the head of the EPA during the Obama administration, when they managed to pollute the Animas River in Colorado with millions of gallons of heavy metal contaminated water. It was a pristine river that was turned a puke colored brownish yellow after McCarthy and the EPA got done with it. Well, it seems she’s back, and working for President Gremlin as his Climate Activist Advisor. Whenever a government bureaucrat has the word “activist” in her title, it can’t be good for the public – and sure enough, given her announcement last week, it’s not.
McCarthy announced that the Harris/Biden administration is implementing over 100 new regulations on consumer appliances. With pride, she explained how our government is taking this step to protect mother Gaia. An alternative way to describe it would be that the Biden administration has decided to push the price of appliances up even more than inflation already has. Did you know that the COVID relief package passed last year directs the EPA to pursue these changes? This is the world we’ve entered where we pass bills before reading them.
Every regulation is in fact a hidden tax that is paid by consumers – via price increases on the products they buy. Trump understood this principle, which is why his administration was on a mission to reduce government regulations. President Trump imposed Executive Order 13771, which stipulated that 2 regulations be cut for every new regulation implemented, and that consumer costs for new regulations be offset by the savings from the eliminated regulations. He understood that this would lower consumer prices (thus fighting inflation) and spur economic development. But Joe doesn’t care about any of that, because he’s economically illiterate, and politically tone deaf – which I will explain in a bit. He revoked Order 13771 on his first day in office – because orange man bad.
Let’s take a look at the economic impact of those new planet saving regulations. A big part of the new regulations is a requirement to switch to new refrigerants (the cooling gas) in appliances like refrigerators and air conditioners to reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons. That means that chemical companies will need to tool up to produce the new refrigerants. They’ll need to buy new production plants, storage facilities, and transportation assets. They won’t be able to reuse existing assets, because the current refrigerants are still in use in old appliances. All of these costs will be passed on to the appliance companies.
The manufacturers of seals, such as gaskets and O-rings, will also need to make some investment. They’ll need to find materials that survive in the new chemical environment, and tool up to produce the new seals. Those costs will also be passed on to the appliance companies.
Of course, the new refrigerant will have different thermodynamic properties than the old refrigerant. The appliance companies will need to design new compressors, evaporators, condensers, and software for use in things like refrigerators. The companies will then need to convert their factories to the production of those new components, while still maintaining the ability to make the old components – because millions of in-service appliances still need spare parts.
Refrigerator companies will need to redesign the refrigerators and freezers to accommodate the new components. They will also need to train their production staffs to manufacture the new appliances.
But it’s not enough to make a refrigerator that complies with the new regulations. Appliance companies have to prove to the federal government that their products are in compliance. Hundreds of technicians and engineers will conduct thousands of hours of testing to prove compliance. Then an army of lawyers will go to work filing all of the required paperwork. All of this will be built into the final price of your new refrigerator too.
Keep that in mind when your refrigerator craps out unexpectedly on a weekend, and you need to make an emergency run to the appliance store before your food spoils – the food that cost twice as much this year than it did last year. As you fill your pickup’s tank with $5/gal gas for the mission, and discover that refrigerators have gone up a hundred bucks, know that it’s all because a Biden official had the word “activist” in her title.
And this is just what’s being done to refrigerators. They’re also rolling out new regulations for freezers, air conditioners, water heaters, light bulbs, and on and on and on. Remember all of this the next time Joe talks about the “Putin price hike.”
I promised to explain why this is as politically tone deaf as it is economically stupid. As we go into the 2022 election season, the number one thing concerning Americans is the economy. Inflation is at a forty-year high and there are signs of a looming recession. With that as a backdrop, functionaries in the government are proudly announcing that they’re doing everything possible to raise prices – which will also slow economic growth.
A few months ago, I predicted that inflation is here for as long as Biden (or his puppet master) is calling the shots. He has shown an obstinate disregard for the impact of his policies. It is inconceivable that he would alter course and stop doing the things that make inflation worse. I believe Gina McCarthy has just proven my point.
Author Bio: John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He currently writes at the American Free News Network and The Blue State Conservative. He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
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Anyone bought a refrigerator, lately? Or, has anyone bought one of those magnetic door gaskets for their older, but still quite capable refrigerator or freezer, lately? They were never cheap, and now they are to be less cheap. I have one freezer that has a tear in one part of the gasket on the door. It’s getting a piece of tape put on it because those gaskets start in the hundreds of bucks, and usually wear out in small patches around the folds of the material, but usually never go all the way to the cold part.
These people are crazy, and they just want to destroy everything in our economy, all at once.
I walk by the appliance area at Lowe’s and start laughing at the prices. I don’t know. Maybe I should be crying for the ones who have to buy that garbage.
For the record, Gina can wait a while longer to make this stack of regulations to affect me, because all our appliances are in perfect working order, except for that one gasket on a freezer. We still have our original washer and drier from 1981, when we got married. We just take good care of stuff like that. Because of the Ginas of the left trying to pick our pockets.
I saw where top loading washers are coming back. Because they clean better.
Oops! Wait until Gina hears about that.
McCarthy is just one on the long list of incompetents put in place by president Cockwomble. In her new position as activist, she is incapable of understanding that CO2 is plant food and as such we need more than the current 400 ppm in the atmosphere. The country is in danger of total economic collapse thanks to other idiots like her that populate this administration. It is not in danger from CO2 and there is no scientific evidence that indicates it is. I don’t even want to think what might be the next insane idea, via regulation, coming out of her mouth to further raise consumer prices and destroy the country. Is there any member of the power elite in Washington that references science in their policy making? Asking for a friend, as I’ve seen no such evidence since January 2021.