Posted on 04/12/2016 4:45:24 PM PDT by PROCON
Congratulations portable air conditioner buyers and sellers. This product now qualifies for government regulation!
The Department of Energy (DOE) recently determined that portable air conditioners meet the criteria set under the Energy Policy Conservation Act (as amended) for efficiency mandates. Like all other efficiency regulations, mandated appliance standards removes choices from individuals and empowers Washington to override personal preferences.
DOE concluded that the average household use of electricity for portable air conditioners exceeds the limit to trigger consideration for regulation. The energy-use threshold for DOE bureaucrats to begin inspecting and testing an appliance is low.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
We pay for millions of these busy bodies who need to justify their generous pay checks by passing thousands of new regulators every year. We are no longer a free people because we let these federal agencies bully us. They should all be shut down for five years,and then only the most necessary ones should be reinstated and reformed.
“You never know how much ammo you might need?”
Exactly. I would state it this way: You never know how much ammo you might need to take from the fat-ass, jellyfish bureaucrats, but take all you can carry.
“Could there possibly be a lesson to learn here?”
Libyans demonstrate superior judgment when it comes to either air conditioners or bureaucrats.
Nanny state ping
The constitutional problem with the DOE making regulatory decisions is this imo. The Founding States had made the first numbered clauses in the Constitution's Sections 1-3 of Article I, evidently a good place to hide these clauses from Congress, to clarify that all federal legislative / regulatory powers are vested in the elected members of Congress, not in the executive or judicial branches, or in non-elected bureaucrats like those running the constitutionally undefined DOE, EPA and IRS. So Congress has a constitutionaly monopoly on federal legislative powers whether it wants it or not.
So by delegating federal regulatory powers to the non-elected bureaucrats who run regulatory agencies like the DOE, Congress is wrongly protecting such powers from the wrath of the voters in blatant defiance of Sections 1-3 mentioned above.
Next, I dont know if portable air conditioners are manufactured in the states. But if they have to be imported or are manufactured in only a few states, then Congress basically owns this issue through the Commerce Clause (1.8.3) imo.
On the other hand, regardless what FDRs state sovereignty-ignoring activist justices wanted citizens to think about the scope of Congresss Commerce powers, a previous generation of state sovereignty-respecting justices had clarified that Congress is prohibited from regulating INTRAstate commerce.
State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphases added]. Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
So if any state manufactures portable air conditioners then Congress cannot regulate those units that are sold when buyer and seller are domeciled in the same state that the units are manufactured in imo.
And theres also a question if the DOE and its unpopular regulations would exist if the ill-conceived 17th Amendment had never been ratified.
Insights, corrections welcome.
“Libyans demonstrate superior judgment when it comes to either air conditioners or bureaucrats.”
Responses like yours is why I love FR.
:)
My SUV has an air conditioner that makes icicles. It’s comfortable to sit in too.
1. Portable Air Conditioners regulated.
2. Prices become prohibitively expensive for seniors.
3. Seniors start dying of heat prostration in the summer.
4. Medicare and Obamacare expenses decrease
Mission Accomplished!
You forgot the libtards blaming it on globull warming.
Too bad the DOE is here and the Constitution left out by the curb.
Buying a 50 year supply, suckit big gov!
I had the water heater surprise recently. 50gal maximum for house. Want bigger buy two. Soon they will be heated by a heat pump apparatus at triple the cost.

Ducky...now there will be programs to swap out old air-conditioners for the newly regulated ones.
Low/No income, and government workers in the know, will get more vouchers paid for by taxpayers.
I wonder if the gubmint will issue 0bamaA/C's, like 0bamphones.
Phucque the Energy Department.
Nanny State PING!
1. Article about Gov’t overreach into AC units.
2. ?????
3. Go Trump!
...
Way to be relevant to the article.
Trump will stop government over reach, in my opinion. I will cite common core as an example. He hates it-— he will kill it dead. What is Washington doing in my community education System ? GET OUT!. He is for COAL!!! I want COAL . He will disembowel environmental crap.
Fixed that one for you. Surprized by the slip, though... < BG >
FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!
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