Water Heaters, the Green Jobs Myth, and the CARE Act

Water Heaters

The EPA recommends setting your water heater temperature to 120 degrees, but OSHA recommends 140 degrees.

Warren Brookes Fellow Ryan Young explains that the EPA is trying to encourage people to use less energy by setting a lower temperature; however, 120 degrees is not hot enough to kill Legionella pneumophila bacteria.

“EPA and OSHA are free to publish all the recommendations they want. But hopefully they won’t impose one standard or other on the entire country. One is expensive; the other would kill people. Fortunately, you are still free to set your water heater how you choose. If you place a high value on saving money and energy, and you have your health, 120 degrees is the way to go. But if you are elderly or infirm, or you have children in your household, 140 degrees is probably better for you. When it comes to your water heater, you know best.”

The Green Jobs Myth

Dan Froomkin at The Huffington Post claims that “gearing up for climate change” will create American jobs.

Vice President Iain Murray debunks the “green jobs fantasy” touted by the Obama administration and the media.

“Green jobs, it would seem, are a magic bullet for the administration, solving the problems of unemployment, poverty, com¬munity degradation (and therefore crime, presumably), class struggles, public health, terrorism, and global warming at a stroke. What could possibly lead anyone to object to them? The answer is — as ever, for a conserv¬ative — real-world experience. Germany and Spain went down the green-jobs road many years ago, for much the same reasons as the ad¬ministration. They saw it as a way to make their countries world leaders in coming technologies, provide good jobs to replace decaying industries, and insulate against energy shocks originating overseas. It didn’t work out that way.”

The CARE Act

The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow on the Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness (CARE) Act of 2010, which seeks to bar wine and beer producers from selling directly to consumers.

Earlier this year, Director of Risk and Environmental Safety Angela Logomasini spearheaded a coalition letter urging Congress to reject the CARE Act.

“This bill would harm consumers while serving only one special interest: wholesalers who support protectionist laws to protect their role as middlemen.”