Bill Would Protect Consumer Choice in Home Appliances | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Jon Sanders.

    In a recent post, I discussed the sudden war on gas-fired stoves and appliances being waged by environmental extremists in government, not just in the Biden administration but even in many cities and counties and some states, too.

    As I noted, they would include North Carolina if Gov. Roy Cooper were to get his way:

    Meanwhile, the governor of North Carolina released a "Deep Decarbonization" report that included "Building Decarbonization," which would require all new homes, apartments and businesses to be 100% electric (appliances, heating, water heaters) and explore retrofitting the rest.

    The governor of course offered no research to estimate any expected climate change mitigation from adopting these new restrictions. Nor would North Carolina's sympathetic political media even think to request them. They are of a mind that North Carolina could produce world-changing emissions reductions, even though it would be utterly impossible for an area as small as North Carolina with so relatively few emissions to cut, especially when compared with massive emissions increases by China and the rest of the world. (For further discussion of all those matters, see the research brief "North Carolina's CO2 Emissions Were Already Cut Nearly in Half Before the Carbon Plan.")

    They also seem to think that the massive expenses such North Carolina-specific restrictions would impose on North Carolinians would be worth it. If there's a price too high in their minds for us to pay to "fight climate change" by taking things away from people (reliable electricity, natural gas pipelines, gasoline-powered automobiles and trucks, gas-fired appliances, etc.) and forcing us to buy and try to work with their shoddier replacements, we've yet to hear it.

    Responsible leaders should try to keep North Carolinians from being subjected to such expensive, fantasy-based policymaking, whether from the governor or from local government activists going it alone.

    A bill before the General Assembly, House Bill 30, as introduced would prohibit cities and counties from adopting ordinances that would either ban or effectively ban certain consumer choices in home appliances based on what kind of energy source they need, regardless of whether "the energy source is derived from one or more of a variety of sources such as natural gas, renewable gas, hydrogen, liquified petroleum gas, renewable liquified petroleum gas, or other liquid petroleum products."

    Essentially, the bill would prevent cities and counties from outlawing gas-fired appliances for space heating, water heating, lighting, cooling, cooking, or conducting other operations around the home. It would recognize the very real expenses and hardships on people of taking working alternatives - market choices - away on a lark.

    That kind of thinking has already made rolling blackouts a North Carolina possibility rather than a California policy consequence. What could make blackouts worse? Not even being able to heat your home, cook for your family, or take a hot shower because the local government has outlawed nonelectric appliances.

    Regardless, a free society would not mind if some people choose home appliances powered by something other than electricity. H.B. 30 would protect consumer choice in their appliances.

poll#145
After one full year of the Biden /Harris Administration: Does Joe Biden have the intellectual capacity, and, or the energy to lead the United States of America through the mess that he predominately created ... in just one year?
  Yes
  No
  Unsure
1,042 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )




NC Pension Plan has “small exposures” in collapse of CA banks Statewide, John Locke Foundation Guest Editorial, Editorials, Government, Op-Ed & Politics, State and Federal January’s Jobs Report Shows Increased Unemployment Since Last Year


HbAD0

Latest State and Federal

“The world needs more fossil fuels,” according to Alex Epstein, founder of the Center for Industrial Progress. Epstein argues that the benefits of energy sources such as oil, coal, and natural gas far outweigh the costs.
Two recent news stories about educational institutions in our state illustrate the truth of that statement.
As lawmakers in the General Assembly are poised to consider a bill that would streamline the process of approving new charter schools, a statewide charter advocacy organization reports that more than 77,000 students remain on waitlists to join charter schools.
Even a supposed federal government watchdog has gone radically woke, prompting harsh criticism from conservatives.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Tuesday that he is sending more than 1,100 assets to Texas to assist Governor Greg Abbott in combatting the illegal immigration crisis that President Joe Biden caused on the southern border with his policies.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused the Pentagon of spying on Mexico’s government, vowing to safeguard classified military information to protect its national security after a spate of documents leaked in U.S. media.

HbAD1

America is in freefall. Cities are crumbling, with open drug abuse and homeless everywhere, overdose deaths are soaring, there’s a mental health epidemic, and then there are the crises, oh the crises: the border, the federal debt, lack of affordable housing, flat-out unaffordable health care.
On Tuesday, the House Health Committee will consider several bills that critics say are likely to raise insurance costs for consumers.
Refusing to look inward, opponents of school choice insist the only thing needed to improve public schools is more money
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will host a live Cafecito and Spanish-language tele-town hall on Wednesday, April 26, from 6 to 7 p.m.
Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr said during an interview this week that special counsel John Durham’s report on the origins of the FBI’s investigation into former President Donald Trump “vindicated” the former president and that Trump was right from the beginning
A woman arrested during an April 2020 ReOpenNC COVID shutdown protest is suing the governor, the city of Raleigh, and state and local law enforcement officials. She argues that defendants violated her constitutional rights.

HbAD2

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hit back at Donald Trump on Tuesday over a criticism the former president leveled at DeSantis’ decision to sign a six-week abortion ban into law.

HbAD3

 
Back to Top