Household Energy Efficiency Standards, Barr’s Flip-Flop on Ethanol, and the Pledge to America

Household Energy Efficiency Standards

In his first month of office, President Obama urged the Department of Energy to draft new energy regulations for household appliances. The DOE has readily complied.

Associate Fellow Ben Lieberman outlines the DOE’s new regulations for each room of the house, and explains why these regulations will have negatives consequences.

“If past experience is any guide, these regulations will raise the purchase price of appliances — in some cases more than is ever likely to be earned back in the form of energy savings. Worse, several may adversely impact product performance and reliability. There are potentially problematic regulations on the way for virtually every room in the house.”

Barr’s Flip-Flop on Ethanol

Last year Bob Barr called the ethanol subsidy program a scam. But last week, Barr wrote a piece for Huffington Post entitled, “Extending Ethanol Tax Credit Makes Sense.”

Research Associate Brian McGraw slams Barr’s ill-informed support of ethanol special interests.

“Barr cites a 2010 CBO report, “Using Biofuel Tax Credits to Achieve Energy and Environmental Policy Goals“ and concludes that evaluating the benefits of ethanol is daunting and un-objective. Confident that no one will actually find the report and read even the summary, Barr is able to completely misconstrue the conclusions of the report (and he talks of ethanol opponents being disingenuous).”

The Pledge to America

The GOP unveiled their “Pledge to America” last week.

Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau says that despite its vagueness, the Pledge contains some important principles worth following.

“The principle of ‘no regulation without representation’ is something Crews and others at CEI have been shouting from the hilltops for years, usually to deaf ears in Congress, even among Republicans. But it looks like with this pledge, lawmakers are at least hearing part of the message that the legislative branch needs a mechanism of accountability for costly and counterproductive regulations that stem from the laws Congress passes.”