Refrigerator Freedom Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1341, I call up the bill (H.R. 7637) to prohibit the Secretary of Energy from prescribing or enforcing energy conservation standards for refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, and freezers that are not cost- effective or technologically feasible, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

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Mr. DUNCAN. 7637.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 7637, the Refrigerator Freedom Act, and I thank Congresswoman Miller-Meeks for leading these efforts.

Mr. Speaker, throughout this Congress, the Energy and Commerce Committee has heard time after time how this administration has prioritized a radical climate agenda over the needs of everyday Americans.

If you listen to the last debate, you will see a lot of that. The fact is, the American people cannot afford President Biden's energy policies. They are expensive, they are unreliable, and they are diminishing the quality of life for folks across the country.

House Republicans are tired of this administration trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people. We are tired of them putting the interests of the climate lobby over those of hardworking Americans.

The Biden administration's obsession with rationing our abundant energy is reducing the quality of life for Americans. They are making it more difficult and more expensive for you to cook your food, heat your homes, and all the other things that we talked about over the last number of debates on these issues.

With record-high inflation, out-of-control utility bills, and unaffordable home prices, the Biden administration's efficiency regulations will make household appliances more expensive. That is just the bottom line.

The Department of Energy's proposed standards for refrigerators and freezers yield nearly nonexistent savings. The life cycle cost savings for these products is only 3 cents over the course of 9.3 years.

Thanks to the Biden administration, Americans will spend 34 percent more on appliances today than they did just a decade ago. These appliances are not only more expensive, they are of lesser quality and include fewer features that Americans rely on, and they have a shorter lifespan.

These efficiency standards reflect just how out of touch the Biden administration is with everyday Americans who are struggling to make ends meet.

This legislation will prevent the DOE from enforcing standards for refrigerators and freezers unless they are: technologically feasible and economically justified; are not likely to result in additional cost to the consumer; and will result in a significant conservation of energy.

This bill will protect affordability, quality, and choice for Americans, for the refrigerators and freezers they buy. It puts the interests of Americans first.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 7637, the Refrigerator Freedom Act, and I thank Representative Miller-Meeks for leading this legislation.

I have a company in my district that makes refrigerators. The R&D, research and development, that go into designing a refrigerator is mind-boggling to me.

I thought refrigeration was pretty simple, but they optimize where the milk is stored and where the meat goes and hot spots in the refrigerator to make sure that temperatures are consistent and foods remain fresh for a longer period of time, not because some government mandate said that that refrigerators need to be more efficient but because the market demands it.

If the market demands it and they can provide that to meet the market challenge, then they will end up with more market share. That means more units sold, and this company rolls a new refrigerator off the line every 4 seconds. It is crazy.

Mr. VAN DREW. Mr. Speaker, some things never change.

I woke up today and thanked God the sky was blue. There was traffic, lots of traffic, in Washington, D.C., and once again, Democrats are trying to take away appliances from hardworking Americans.

They want to take away the things that hardworking Americans do want and shove on hardworking Americans the things they don't want.

This government's out-of-control spending by Democrats has already made everyone's life hell. Americans can hardly afford to stock their refrigerators with food, and now Democrats want to take the damn refrigerator away, as well.

The state of this country's energy infrastructure is already alarming. Gas prices are above $3.50 a gallon. Our electrical grid, sorry to say, still remains vulnerable to cyberattacks. We are draining our strategic stockpiles and relying on foreign sources for energy.

These are serious national concerns. Yet, what is President Biden and the Department of Energy focused on? Taking away the basic appliances that Americans want.

Terrorists are crossing our borders daily, China continues to grow more emboldened, and violent crime continues to plague our streets, but if you didn't know any better, if you thought about it, you would think that refrigerators and dishwashers and stoves were the greatest enemies of the United States of America. Maybe they are in the eyes of our Democratic colleagues.

Let's focus on the real threats this country faces. Democrats continue their war on the American consumer in the name of some Green New Deal agenda. If enacted, these supposed energy efficiency standards by the DOE would increase costs for every single American and would take more than a decade to pay back those costs.

It is not going to stop climate change. If the left were serious about climate change, they would be better served focusing on nuclear energy and modular power plants. They would be better focusing on any other means to save energy other than taking it away from the American public, sort of like solar panels. They make sense.

The kitchen is for the family, for memories, for gatherings, for good times. It is not time to have these folks meddling in your lives to further micromanage their families. Let's leave the appliance decisions, the appliances that men and women want to buy in this country--it is a basic principle--to those who use them, not to those who wish once again to overregulate them and force things down their throats they just don't want.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support these bills.

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Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, the funny thing is, if manufacturers wanted to make a more efficient appliance, they could, and I would tell them to go for it. The manufacturing alliance and all the trade groups that were mentioned don't need something from the government to tell them to do something more efficient. If they think there is a market for it or they think that they have some desire to be more efficient, they can do it. They don't need the government to tell them to do it.

The way government operates around here, especially under a Democratic administration, is that they are coming up with a solution that is looking for a problem. If a problem doesn't exist, they create one, and they create a regulation to manage it and grow government.

Ronald Reagan, talking about Democratic government, said that their solution is: ``I am from the government, and I am here to help.''

Democrats continue to want to throw more money at problems that they see. The gentlewoman from Florida went through a whole litany of things the Democrats would focus on, but do you know what, America? She left the border out of that. Over 16 million people have crossed the border. That wasn't on her list.

She wasn't talking about lowering interest rates on mortgages so people can actually buy their first home. Right now, they can't because it is out of reach. It is unaffordable.

She didn't talk about lowering prices at the grocery store or Walmart or anywhere else you shop because the Biden administration's inflationary practices have driven up costs everywhere on everything since day one of the administration, from energy costs to food and other items that you purchase.

I kind of chuckled at her little sign there, but I am reminded of Will Rogers. He was talking about government spending, I think, but he said that really the only time the taxpayer is safe is when Congress isn't in session because Congress seems to muck it up by growing government and wanting to tax to get money to feed that growing government. Will Rogers was probably right.
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Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional Members on our side of the aisle, and I am ready to close.

I will say it again. Enacted in 1975, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act provides specific criteria for DOE to follow in order to propose a new appliance efficiency standard. They may only propose a new standard if it results in a significant conservation of energy, is technologically feasible, and is economically justified.

The new regulations are not economically justified, they are not necessarily technologically feasible, and there is not a significant conservation of energy.

The Biden administration has consistently ignored these requirements by proposing and finalizing standards that violate this statute.

The gentleman from New Jersey is younger than I am, but I grew up during the seventies' energy crisis. I was being flattering. I don't know how old Frank is, but we both grew up during the seventies' energy crisis, and we did some things around the house that my dad mandated. They weren't government mandates.

When you left the house in the summertime, you turned the thermostat up so the air wouldn't run at whatever temperature you wanted it, 72, 70, whatever, when nobody was home.

We combined trips to the store so that you would go by the gas station and by the grocery store and other stops and make one trip versus going in and out.

He ingrained in me to cut the lights off, much to the chagrin of my children and what I have tried to teach them. When you leave the room, you flip the switch off, so the lights weren't on when you weren't there.

I will say this: The agencies in Washington, D.C., could learn a lesson from that. When I ride down Independence Avenue at night, all the lights are on at the Department of Energy, and I know most of the employees are gone.

In the wintertime, we turned the thermostat down, and we put something warmer on.

I grew up poor. Not poor poor; we lived on a mill hill, a textile community, when I was little. These were dad mandates. These weren't government mandates.

Now we see the government really becoming Big Brother. There are State governments, in most instances, which tell you where you can set your thermostat, when you can water your yard, and when you can charge your EV.

Big Brother is telling you to do more and more things, telling you what kind of car you can drive by really pushing EV mandates down on America when the consumer choice isn't that. We are seeing that kind of reverse trend in this country and the demand rise for traditional gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.

Here again, we see a government mandate telling manufacturers you have to create an appliance that is inefficient. It is going to cost the consumer more money on the front end, and it will take them a lot longer to pay it back for an appliance that is usually worn out before they have gotten the repayment back.

My dad taught us not to stand there with the refrigerator door open. In fact, smart refrigerators, I think, ding now if you hold the door open too long because it loses that coolness. It creates inefficiency. I don't think that was a government mandate either. I think that was technology the industry came up with.

We don't need more Big Government. We don't need more government regulation like this. It is going to cost the consumers more money and affect their quality of life.

This is simple legislation just to push back against this administration and the mandates that the American public does not need and will lower their quality of life, their standard of living, cost them more money, and will not yield the cost savings that will be mandated.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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