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2023 was an unusually bad year for appliance regulations, and future years won’t be much better unless Congress finds a way to stop the nonsense. It all started last January when Richard Trumka Jr., a commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), announced an investigation into the safety of natural gas stoves and boasted that a ban on them was "a real possibility." That sparked a powerful consumer backlash, followed up by strong denials from the Biden administration that any such ban was in the works. But CPSC has still gone ahead with its inquiry, and in February, team...

PORTLAND, Ore — The triple-digit heat sent shoppers hunting for air conditioners in the Portland-metro area Tuesday. “It's hot," said Richard Porter, who bought an air conditioner. "I need some air conditioning." "Real hot," said Jamie Minkus, who also bought an air conditioner. "I was standing in my bedroom last night. I'm not doing anything but, just, like sweating. And then I tried to sleep, and there was just like it was sleepless, is insufferable. I have an older home, so I just need like a portable AC to kind of just help me through to the sleep." "Oh, last...

The Biden administration’s War on Modernity is death by a thousand regulations. It’s no secret that the Biden admin wants to ditch gas stoves as well as impose harsh regulations on washing machines, dishwashers, water heaters, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, and anything else they can think of under the guise of “saving the planet” from climate change. These regulations make things more expensive and people either shell out more of their hard-earned dollars for a basic necessity or do without because the appliance has been priced out of reach. It’s also a direct attack on the freedom of the consumer...

The Biden administration announced its latest home appliance regulations this week, targeting air conditioners in an action it said would reduce the nation's carbon emissions. The regulations, unveiled Thursday by the Department of Energy (DOE), finalize energy efficiency standards for home air conditioning units, or window air conditioners, and portable air cleaners. The DOE said the move would cut air pollution and push consumer costs down by billions of dollars via energy savings. "Today’s announcement builds on the historic actions President Biden took last year to strengthen outdated energy efficiency standards, which will help save on people’s energy bills and...

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Nearly 200 nations have reached a deal, announced Saturday morning after all-night negotiations, to limit the use of greenhouse gases far more powerful than carbon dioxide in a major effort to fight climate change. The talks on hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, were called the first test of global will since the historic Paris Agreement to cut carbon emissions was reached last year. HFCs are described as the world's fastest-growing climate pollutant and are used in air conditioners and refrigerators. Experts say cutting them is the fastest way to reduce global warming. President Barack Obama, in a statement...

More than 170 countries agreed early Saturday morning to limit emissions of key climate change-causing pollutants found in air conditioners, a significant step in the international effort to keep global warming from reaching catastrophic levels. The deal reached in Kigali, Rwanda, comes after years of wrangling over HFCs—short for hydrofluorocarbons—and could on its own prevent a 0.5°C (0.9°F) rise in temperature by 2100. Scientists say such an achievement could be crucial to the goal laid out in last year’s Paris Agreement of holding global temperature rise below 2°C (3.6°F) by 2100. (snip) “Adopting an ambitious amendment to phase down the...

Air conditioners and refrigerators are as big a threat to life as the threat of terrorism posed by groups like the Islamic State Secretary of State John Kerry recently said that air conditioners and refrigerators are as big a threat to life as the threat of terrorism posed by groups like the Islamic State. (1) Careerist folks in government parrot the party-line message. Kerry has heard it from the top-down and buys into it. President Obama has said that global warming, not the Islamic State was the real threat. (2)

An online petition to remove all air conditioning from Department of State property has gotten more than 1,800 signatures since it was posted online Sunday. A Change.org user named Hopalong Ginsberg created the petition in response to remarks made by Secretary of State John Kerry claiming air conditioning and refrigerants are as much of a threat to the world as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The petition garnered 1,869 signatures by Monday afternoon.

It is summer for sure. Colorado is experiencing 90-100 degree F days in the north east plains. Forest fires, high winds and dust complicate the time we can have the windows open as even at 80Deg in the house, the low humidity makes it comfy. The Carrier AC unit for this house (3,500+sq ft, 4BR, high ceilings) has had issues since I moved in. Refrigerant leaks and an electrical issue. Now, with the heat of the summer coming back, the AC unit can't keep up again. I've cleaned the unit outside, replaced the inside filter and am still getting some...

August 3, 2004 You had signed up during Operation Iraqi Freedom to adopt a soldier on my website (www.operationac.com) last year on 9/22/03. I am writing because I have more soldiers asking for a sponsor than I have Americans to write to them and send them care packages with powdered drink mixes and personal care items. There is still a large need for that as well as just providing a soldier or marine some support from home. I now have the soldier's email address to give to people who will adopt a soldier. They don't get to email very often,...

<p>This week, about 1,000 air conditioners will be airlifted to U.S. soldiers in Iraq, thanks to the efforts of Frankie Mayo and the generosity of Americans all across the country.</p> <p>Mrs. Mayo set up Operation Air Conditioner earlier this summer, with the purpose of providing as many cooling units as possible for the U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq. American civilians have responded by opening their hearts &#8212; and their wallets &#8212; to her call. According to Mrs. Mayo, she has received at least $200,000 in donations. Individuals in every state have given &#8212; Texas and California, Delaware and the District of Columbia. She has even received contributions from individuals in Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.</p>

<p>An agreement has been reached for planes from Dover Air Force Base to carry air conditioners collected by a Delaware woman to troops in Iraq, Sen. Joe Biden said Wednesday.</p> <p>The first shipment will be sent Sept. 4.</p> <p>Frankie Mayo of Bear started Operation AC to send air conditioners to troops after sending one to her son, who is serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq. She already had sent about 450 units and had about 520 more on hand when the U.S. Postal Service stopped taking her shipments about two weeks ago, citing international mail agreements that ban their coolants as hazardous.</p>

The oh so morally superior French kill tens of thousands of old folks by denying them air conditioners Let there be a few hundred deaths from dysentry somewhere in Africa or the International Red Cross announce “a humanitarian disaster” somewhere and Médecins Sans Frontiéres is scrambling across the tarmac and the French government is limbering up its press officers to come up with quotes about some failure on the part of the American government. On August 12, it was noted casually in the French newspapers that 50 elderly people had died from the searing heatwave that was enveloping the whole...

I waited and searched, but no threads about Rush's first hour today. So here goes.... You can donate to Operationac.org with PayPal. I did and it only took a few minutes. Don't worry about where the power comes from to run the air conditioners. Our troops are setting on pool of oil. Good Hunting... from Varmint Al

Air conditioner airlift delayed By SEAN O'SULLIVAN and ROBIN BROWNStaff reporters08/22/2003 The cool breeze provided to U.S. troops in Iraq through the Delaware-based Operation Air Conditioner has been switched off. Late last week, the U.S. Postal Service told Frankie Mayo of Bear - who has been sending soldiers air conditioners - that she no longer can ship them through the mail because the chemical coolant in the units is considered a hazardous substance. Tad Kelley, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said international law prohibits hazardous substances from being sent through the mail by any nation or postal service....

For some young American soldiers in Iraq, Frankie Mayo of Bear is one cool supporter. She has been sending them air conditioners. Fourteen as of Wednesday. Fourteen more go out today. And she's taking donations to send about 200 more. The first batch arrived Wednesday afternoon in Iraq at the undisclosed location of her son, Cpl. Christopher Tomlinson, 21, and other members of the U.S. Army's 300th Military Police Company. Soldiers hugged the boxes. Some started opening them. "I never expected this," First Lt. Jessica Murphy of Green Bay, Wis., told World Picture News photographer Matt Moyer. "We usually get...

<p>As this page reported on Tuesday, the U.S. Postal Service has managed to tie down a red-blooded patriot with red tape. Frankie Mayo, the founder of Operation Air Conditioner, had 300 donated air conditioners on a tractor-trailer and ready to be shipped to the heat-suffering U.S. soldiers in Iraq, when the Postal Service abruptly pulled the plug.</p>

WILMINGTON, DE (Talon News) -- A mother of a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq is unable to ship over 300 air conditioners to the troops serving in the arid, war-torn country because they are being held up by the United States Postal Service in Wilmington, Delaware. Mrs. Frankie Mayo, who came up with the idea to start Operation Air Conditioner, received word last Friday that the 302 brand new units she tried to send to the American soldiers could not be shipped because they contain Freon, a class 2 compressed gas. But the air conditioners that are waiting to be...

<p>Frankie Mayo has a mission — to cool the air for as many U.S. soldiers in Iraq as she can by sending them as many as air conditioners as she can lay her hands on. What started with a single air conditioner sent to her son at the end of June has grown into Operation Air Conditioner, with tons of units being sent to the troops. It is more than just providing them a touch of comfort or a taste of home, it is about helping them avoid heatstroke and providing them comfortable sleeping conditions. But, Mrs. Mayo had 302 new air conditioners waiting to go on Friday, when the U.S. Postal Service pulled the plug.     Local and regional postal representatives ducked our inquiries yesterday. But at 4:50 Friday afternoon, Mrs. Mayo was told by a bureaucrat in an air-conditioned office at Delaware's Wilmington Distribution Center that it would no longer ship the air conditioners because they contain freon, which is listed as a class 2 compressed gas.     Postmaster General John Potter ought to be alerted to this by phone (202/268-2020), fax (202/268-5211) or e-mail (www.usps.com/common/contact_us/ and click on consumer feedback).     The USPS is incredibly belated in its sudden discovery. After all, Mrs. Mayo had already sent 425 air conditioners to the long-suffering soldiers with nary a comment, much less a holdup. Neither the blue-suits in USPS headquarters in Washington nor the brass at the Pentagon had complained. In fact, soldiers have been deluging Mrs. Mayo with requests.     What might be passed off as bureaucratic bloody-mindedness appears even more malicious, since USPS freon shipping restrictions don't apply if either the machine or its components contain less than 12 kilograms of the compressed gas. That is the case with the small units being sent out by Operation Air Conditioner. According to Remie Danielson, president and owner of Logistics Inc., a Baltimore-based shipping company, he would be comfortable shipping the machines out under those regulations.     That USPS actions have kept troops suffering is bad enough. However, the USPS actions have had a chilling effect on anxious donors, too. Diane Anderson of Gladwin, Mich., whose son served in Operation Desert Storm, was attempting to round up eight air conditioners but has paused her plans until the shipping situation is resolved. "This is just crazy," she said.     Blessedly, Mr. Danielson has agreed to ship 400 of the units out next week at a reduced rate. That they are going out is a tribute to Mrs. Mayo's determination to get the air conditioners to Iraq regardless of rain, sleet, hail or the entire post office bureaucracy. As she wrote in an e-mail, "We must cut through any red tape to get them what they need. Period. No excuses or delays. Delays are costing American soldiers lives. I will not accept failure as it is not an option for me nor my family."</p>

PARIS - France's power company asked people to use less electricity Tuesday as some plants were forced to cut output during a Europe-wide heat wave that has fanned wildfires and killed dozens of people. One French medical expert said at least 100 Parisians have died of heat-related illnesses — a claim that if proven would quadruple the number of deaths blamed on the heat wave. With river temperatures hitting record highs, some plants that use water in production are cutting back, and six have stopped altogether. Plants are constrained by regulations limiting the amount of hot water they can discharge...