Thread: Obama’s Costly Dishwasher Rules Could Make Americans Dishpan Handlers

July 21, 2015

by Michael Tennant

Having saddled Americans with toilets that don’t flush, the federal government is now preparing to force them to use dishwashers that don’t wash, a move that government and industry forecasts agree will harm both consumers and the dishwasher industry. Moreover, the new regulations could end up harming rather than helping the environment, the very opposite of their stated raison d’être.

This is actually the second round of dishwasher regulations issued by the Obama Department of Energy (DOE). The first, in 2012, added $44 to the cost of the average machine, according to DOE estimates. The new regulations, which would require energy usage to drop another 24 percent and water usage to fall 38 percent, will pile on an additional $99, the DOE says.

The Obama administration, naturally, claims that these regulations will benefit the environment and stave off the supposed threat of climate change. “When it released the proposal in December, the DOE estimated that it would save 240 billion gallons over a 30-year period and reduce energy consumption by 12 percent,” reported The Hill, adding that “the carbon savings alone would bring billions of dollars in environmental benefits, the administration argued.”

The people who actually make dishwashers, who say they were not even consulted about the proposed regulations, beg to differ. The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) calculates that the new rules would require a load of dishes to be washed in just 3.1 gallons of water, an amount that is simply insufficient to do the job. Some of the group’s members tried changing their existing models to meet the DOE’s new standards, then ran some dirty dishes through them. According to an AHAM press release, “The testing revealed a build-up of film, fats and grease on dishes at the end of the cycle.”

“They found some stuff that was pretty disgusting,” Rob McAver, AHAM’s head lobbyist, told The Hill.

Another thing consumers won’t like about their new Obama-approved dishwashers is that they will have a longer run cycle necessitated by decreases in “dishwashing temperatures and mechanics … to meet stringent energy conservation standards,” AHAM said in a March press release.

“As a result of the proposed standards, it is highly likely that consumers will pre-wash dishes or choose to repeat dishwasher cycles, thereby erasing any energy or water savings,” the group stated. Even hand-washing, the only other alternative, won’t help. “Individuals who forego purchasing a dishwasher because of higher upfront costs will use between 67 and 210 percent more energy and between 250 and 450 percent more water,” the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center found. Indeed, noted AHAM, “DOE’s forecasting models show water usage would actually increase by some 63 billion gallons due to product impact and altered consumer behavior." (Emphasis in original.)

The Obama administration argues that while its new rules would make dishwashers cost more initially, consumers will recoup those costs in the form of lower utility bills over the lifetime of the appliance.

“After accounting for the time value of money, its own calculations show that the typical consumer requires nine years to recoup the added cost in bill savings,” according to a U.S. News and World Report op-ed. “Over half — 53 percent — of all purchasers will never recover the higher upfront costs, and consumers save only $21 on average during the lifespan of a typical dishwasher.”

Senior citizens and the poor will bear the brunt of the higher costs, the article continued. “Senior-only households, whose dishwashers operate less frequently, can expect to wait more than 11 years to recoup the new cost premium in utility bill savings, two years more than average. Savings to these seniors average a meager $1, and 64 percent of these older customers can expect to spend more money on the dishwasher than they get back in lower energy bills. The corresponding figure for low-income users is 59 percent, as calculated by the Department of Energy.”

AHAM ‘s analysis indicates that it will actually take 20 years for a consumer to recover the additional cost, “longer than most consumers live in their home and longer than the expected life of the dishwasher.” The group claims that “over 70 percent of consumers could experience a net financial loss when purchasing a product that meets the proposed levels.”

The reduction in dishwasher purchases that is certain to occur as a result of the proposed regulations won’t just harm consumers by making them pay more or wash dishes by hand; it will also damage the dishwasher industry. The administration expects dishwasher manufacturers to lose up to 34.7 percent of their value under the new rules; AHAM forecasts the loss as high as 80 percent. Yet the DOE says it doesn’t foresee any significant plant closings or job losses in the industry.

“It’s an amazing industry that can lose over a third of its sales yet keep all its workers,” former Oklahoma Congressman Ernest Istook, president of Americans for Less Regulation, observed in a Washington Times piece.
On top of all that, by the administration’s own estimates, the regulations’ costs (which the DOE is probably underestimating) exceed their alleged environmental benefits (which are almost certainly overstated) by nearly $5 billion, U.S. News pointed out.

“The benefit to the environment does not justify the additional cost to consumers and manufacturers,” said AHAM.

The government may yet listen to the dishwasher industry, particularly after being given a firsthand look at the results of AHAM’s dishwasher tests by McAver, who “suspects the DOE is pushing the rules to try and [sic] meet President Obama’s greenhouse gas emissions goals under the Climate Action Plan, his second-term climate change initiative,” penned The Hill.

Giving ear to those most affected by the proposed rules would be a good thing. Better still would be abandoning these and all other unconstitutional regulations and letting consumers, not bureaucrats, decide which products to buy. Why should Americans — but not their dirty dishes — be soaked to satisfy politicians’ and bureaucrats’ pet agendas, most of which are all wet?

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/21292-obamas-costly-dishwasher-rules-could-make-americans-dishpan-handlers

July 21, 2015

Companies that make dishwashers are warning that the Obama administration’s latest efficiency standards for their industry would backfire.
The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers is accusing the Department of Energy (DOE) of a politically motivated drive to increase dishwasher efficiency standards, which are so bad that they would cause consumers to re-wash dishes, erasing any efficiency gains.

Rob McAver, the group’s head lobbyist, said regulators are going too far and the new rules will allow only 3.1 gallons to be used to wash each load of dishes.“At some point, they’re trying to squeeze blood from a stone that just doesn’t have any blood left in it,” McAver said.

Some of the group’s members, which include companies like GE Appliances & Lighting and Whirlpool Corp., tweaked their models to comply with the DOE’s December proposal to ratchet up standards.

They then ran standard tests with food stuck to dishes.

“They found some stuff that was pretty disgusting,” McAver said.

McAver brought DOE officials to his office recently to show them the results and released photos of it publicly this week.

He’s hoping that the disgusted reactions to the tests will spur DOE to go back to the drawing board for the standards and work more closely with the industry this time.

“The poor performance that would result would totally undercut and go backwards in terms of energy and water use, because of the need for running the dishwasher again, or pre-rinsing or hand-washing, which uses a lot of water,” he said.

McAver suspects the DOE is pushing the rules to try and meet President Obama’s greenhouse gas emissions goals under the Climate Action Plan, his second-term climate change initiative.

And while appliance makers are willing to work with the administration, they don’t want that to come at the expense of effective products.

When it released the proposal in December, the DOE estimated that it would save 240 billion gallons over a 30-year period and reduce energy consumption by 12 percent. That would shave $2 billion off consumers’ utility bills, the agency said.

It would also reduce the output of air pollutants that are common in the power generation sector, including carbon dioxide, methane, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury. The carbon savings alone would bring billions of dollars in environmental benefits, the administration argued.

Following the industry group’s announcement, DOE said it is listening and it hasn’t settled on the rules yet.

“The department has not put a fork in this rule, and has extended the comment period to work closely with manufacturers to test new products and ensure that consumers have the most efficient, highest performing products available,” an agency spokeswoman said.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/248385-industry-rails-against-obamas-dishwasher-rules

June 23, 2015

by Ernest Istook

It's a dirty shame what the bureaucrats are doing to our hands. They make people work harder as labor- and time-saving home appliances become too expensive. Millions more hands will be immersed frequently in dishwater after the Obama Administration's second attack on automatic home dishwashers.

It's all in the name of saving energy and thereby saving the planet. But who would want a planet filled with dirty dishes?

Dishwashers could use 6.5 gallons per cycle until 2012, when that limit was lowered to 5 gallons. The 2015 Department of Energy (DOE) proposal would drop it to 3.1 gallons per cycle.

Of the 2012 round, one writer said, “dishwasher manufacturers are not going to be allowed to make or sell a machine that works” because they are required to use less water. That was Jeffrey Tucker, publisher of Laissez Faire, who added “The reason that companies and consumers have not adopted the new standards on their own is that they are incompatible with clean dishes.”

Manufacturers cannot compensate for less water by pumping the water through higher-pressure nozzles because the energy use is also restricted. The 2012 regulation reduced energy usage to 307 kiloWatthour per year for a standard washer. The 2015 proposal drops that to 234 kWh/year.

Complying with 2012 regulations increased prices, which the Department of Energy (DOE) officially estimated as $44 per machine. Now their 2015 proposal will add another $99 by DOE's own admission.

They claim consumers will recoup the expense through energy savings during the lifetime of the product. But dishwashers typically only last half as long as the DOE know-it-alls say it will take to recapture the extra costs.

“Under the new standard, it would take consumers twenty years to recover added product cost through electric utility savings, longer than the estimated product life;” complains the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, “over 70 percent of consumers would actually experience a net financial loss.”

Angie's List estimates that a dishwasher typically lasts 8-10 years. The DOE expects them to last at least 20 years, so the supposed electricity savings could payback those higher purchase prices.

Water usage will increase, according to AHAM, because households would use extra water pre-rinsing, knowing that their machine would not clean dishes very well due to the mandatory reductions in water and electricity used. And as consumers run things through a second time, trying to get them clean, it means extra power is used.

Low-income and fixed-income households would be hit the hardest by the higher prices, as they often are by runaway regulations. Unable to afford the machines means more hand-washing of dishes. That also increases water usage. A great study by Sofie Miller at the George Washington University's Regulatory Studies Center shows that “individuals who forego purchasing a dishwasher because of higher upfront costs will use between 67 [percent] and 210 percent more energy and between 250 [percent] and 450 percent more water. “

It all means fewer units would be purchased, so manufacturers would need fewer workers. The trade group fears a 80 percent drop in the value of their industry. The Department of Energy officially estimates “only” a 34.7 percent decline. The proposed rule states, “DOE expects that manufacturers may lose up to 34.7 percent of their INPV, which is approximately $203.7 million.” For those who don't speak bureaucratese, INPV is Industry Net Present Value.

Incredibly, DOE claims, “DOE does not expect any plant closings or significant loss of employment.” It's an amazing industry that can lose over a third of its sales yet keep all its workers.

But according to the bureaucrats, the dishwasher regulations might single-handedly save the Earth. The DOE estimates the efficiency rules would reduce water consumption by 240 billion gallons over a 30-year period. They would also reduce energy consumption by 12 percent. The DOE estimates users of residential dishwashers could save more than $2 billion in utility bills. It sounds suspiciously like the glowing projections about the healthcare.gov website, which so far has cost more than $2 billion to create and still is incomplete.

Saving the planet won't depend solely upon the dishwashers, because DOE proposes new energy efficiency standards also for refrigerators, freezers, icemakers, air conditioners, water heaters, multiple types of lamps, clothes washers and dryers, ceiling fans, and just about every other helpful and labor-saving home appliance.
Perhaps the true agenda of the regulators is nostalgia. We could return to the days when family members would be impressed into kitchen duty, to scrape, rinse, soak, wash, rinse, and dry the dishes, silverware, pots and pans together, doing it all by hand. What a cozy picture, presuming nobody spoils it with squabbles over whose turn it is to wash and whose to dry.

We might even see a revival of the TV commercials about doing the dishes. For 27 years, from the 1960's into the 1990's, actress Jan Miner portrayed Madge the manicurist, who used Palmolive dish soap to soak customers' hands before doing their nails, to get rid of their “dishwater hands.” Jan is deceased, but thanks to DOE's red tape we may witness a new generation of those commercials, just as Star Trek has its own new generation.

What we won't see is a revival of commercials showing the lonely Maytag repairman. He'll still be lonely, but since nobody can afford the product, he's out of a job.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...dish/?page=all