Posted on 09/17/2010 2:43:45 PM PDT by jazusamo
Assistant Secretary of Energy Cathy Zoi said Thursday that the U.S. Department of Energy has a mandate to issue regulations to determine what household appliances are available to Americans in the future.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the recently reestablished Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), Zoi pointed to four tactics the Obama administration intended use to advance the deployment of clean energy. The first three were government subsidies for private-sector green energy projects, special tax incentives for green energy projects and low-interest government-backed loans for green energy projects.
The fourth one, which the secretary and I love, said Zoi, is where we have a mandate. Where we can actually just issue regulations and do market transformation.
Zoi was referring to authority the department has under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 as amended by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. That law gives the DOE the power to set efficiency standards for energy-consuming products.
Thats an existing statute that this department of energy is going to make work really hard, Zoi said. Weve already issued appliance standards that are going to save the American public somewhere between $250 billion and $300 billion over the next 20 years just by getting the crummy stuff off the market.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who also spoke at the meeting, announced in April that the department had finalized five new higher energy efficiency standards for commercial clothes washers, small electric motors, water heaters, direct heating equipment and pool heaters.
Standards for 10 additional categories of products are expected to be finalized by the end of next year, according to a DOE spokeswoman. These will include new standards for refrigerators, microwave ovens, residential and mobile home furnaces, fluorescent light ballasts, residential clothes washers and dryers, room and central air conditioners, and battery chargers.
Were going to update [the standards] more frequently said Zoi. We have the power to do that in the statute.
Before becoming President Barack Obamas assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy, Zoi served as environmental adviser to President Bill Clinton and the founding CEO of former Vice President Al Gores Alliance for Climate Protection.
Zoi said that stricter federal energy efficiency standards will drive innovation and are cost effective.
As the secretary [Chu] says, Were going to make people save money for themselves, Zoi said. They havent dumped the dollar bills on the ground yet.
The SEAB was first chartered in the George H. W. Bush administration, but was disbanded by President George W. Bushs Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. Chu reestablished the board in August.
Jen Stutsman, an Energy Department spokeswoman, told CNSNews.com that energy efficiency regulations issued by the department are designed to help consumers and manufacturers.
Our goal is to develop standards that are both technically feasible and economically justified and that maximize the benefits to consumers while minimizing any negative impacts on manufacturers or others, Stutsman said.
At the first meeting of the reestablished board on Thursday, Chu said energy and science are vital to the countrys future, as is the work of the DOE.
We feel that beyond just energy, science is at the heart of what will keep America prosperous in the coming years, Chu said.
The 12-member board includes former government officials and corporate executives, including Clinton Director of Central Intelligence John Deutch; Clinton Defense Secretary William Perry and former Clinton Labor Secretary Alexis Herman; and former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine.
Kid found a new toy.
We've got too many damned "mandates" in this government. Just about any department seems to be able to make laws because idiot congress gave them the right. Time to shut this nonsense down!
Wow, that’s just incredible. Does anyone see anything resembling a private sector business in that 2nd to the last paragraph? They claim one, but I don’t see one.
Let me give a shining example of envirowackiness that has become so commonplace, that I doubt many make notice of it any more. Or else, there is something fundamental that I just don’t get.
Last weekend I picked up at a street fair a couple of thick promotional drink coasters of a local bank. Made of something that feels like hard cardboard. On them is printed the bank’s name and logo, and the assurance that they were made of “100% recyclable materials”. Fine. Turn them around and see a sign saying they were Made in China. In China? Why would the Chinese care to announce that these throwaway things were 100% recyclable? Well, because that was what the Americans specified in the manufacturing order, yes? To impress me. To ease my environmentally concerned conscience. But. Can we trust the Chinese that the statement is true? Who’s checking? Knowing what we know of Chinese manufacturing practices, I’d sooner bet that they were made of asbestos with a generous dose of DDT to glue it together and keep the moquitos away. Still, that’s a minor point.
The big point is the amount of energy expended to transport these things from China to the U.S., the environmental “damage” done to do it (big container ships polluting the oceans bringing containers filled with drink coasters, imagine), and all the “bad” things done to Mother Earth to give away such trinkets at a street fair, trinkets which could well have been made by hand or with simple tools by homeless persons right here where they live under the local freeway. But hey, we’re saving Mother Earth, let’s not think about it too much. Unexamined life is worth living in self-righteous bliss!
That is the whole thing about these collectivist apparatchiks. They have no clue what it means to offer, sell and then provide a product or service in a free market where others readily and voluntarily partake of your service or product, willingly parting with hard earned and scarce cash in exchange. They don't understand that a free market means that you also have the right to abstain from the market, you know, like a free market for health care.
You won't believe it when I tell you - ready - Jimmy Carter. Remember the gas embargo. He had a solution - shale oil - and voila the DOE. See how much shale oil we use now.
Before DOE we had Energy Research and Development Aministration (ERDA), which Nixon created - which was the AEC with some additional energy research missions, but without the energy regulatory or subsidy parts of the present DOE.
Yay! Then they can just raise our taxes by that much to make sure we don't pocket one penny of our "savings". Besides, unemployed people aren't going to be able to buy these new products. Did they factor the unemployment rate into the "savings"?
Uh, Ms. Meddling Tyrant, maam? Every time we use less of some utility such as water or electricity, they find that they're making less money, run to the oversight board, ramble on about how some of their costs are fixed so they want to raise the rates so they make the same money while providing US with less product.
So you're saddling us with more expensive, probably less reliable products with less robust designs, which will no doubt be difficult to impossible to service ourselves, in addition to STEALING our FREEDOM to make our own buying decisions, all in an effort to save us money you'll then allow the utility to confiscate from us in the form of increased rates????? And which even if we got to keep it would probably be less than the premium we'll now have no choice about paying up front? What would we ever do without you?
Thanks for the ping!
What is a secondary market?
Won't they ship? I live in Arizona. :-( OTOH, Mexico is an hour away, and I'll bet they have working ones too.
At the very least, we need to strip the energy dept, AND the EPA of these “powers” that they in truth DO NOT HAVE! But no one is stopping them, yet.
Yeah, Nix-on-Dick started it and Bush II elevated it to cabinet level! Oy! If we could just get some Pubbies in office we wouldn't have to deal with all this crap. Oh, wait...
Me too, Madame! Trying to pick away at getting the curtains done for fall cleaning. Linen curtains need HOT irons! Couple that with not being able to find many of the common product in stores (like starch) and having to order them online. Of course that means shipping charges, GRRRR I am not in a good mood after all the trouble just to do a routine chore!
You may be right. But I never expected the current ones to last so long, either.
Secondary market is sales of used merchandise at: estate sales, garage sales, Goodwill, or Ebay.
And it doesn’t have to be actually used to be listed as used. I’ve bought items on Ebay with the tags still attached - paid pennies on the dollar. $350 mens dress shoes, still in the box with unworn soles, selling for $30 - great deals do exist.
I have a Europro Iron that’s connected to a tank. The water is heated in this tank and fed to the iron through a hose. It is very hot and the steam can blast out about 2 - 3 feet. I love it.
Obama’s plan is to throw us over the edge, utilizing his policy makers as a weapon of mass destruction.
WE know what is best for you!
Watch the Stossel segment below and you'll see how Serious got some high profile endorsements from President Obama and Vice President Biden, which is suspicious because the company's vice president for policy is married to the overseer of President Obama's weatherization program, Cathy Zoi. Amazingly, Serious Materials was the only "green" window company to receive some recent tax credits from the federal government.Ms. Zoi may want to seek some legal counsel.
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