President Biden invoked a Cold War-era law in a surprising move Friday to pour taxpayer funds into domestic manufacturing of electric heat pumps, an alternative to gas-powered residential furnaces.<\/p>\n
In a joint announcement with the White House, the Department of Energy (DOE) said the federal government would award a “historic” $169 million for nine projects across 15 sites nationwide in an effort to accelerate electric heat pump manufacturing. The significant level of funding was made possible after Biden utilized the 1950 Defense Production Act (DPA) to increase domestic production of green energy technologies.<\/p>\n
“Getting more American-made electric heat pumps on the market will help families and businesses save money with efficient heating and cooling technology,” said\u00a0Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm<\/a>. “These investments will create thousands of high-quality, good-paying manufacturing jobs and strengthen America\u2019s energy supply chain, while creating healthier indoor spaces through home-grown clean energy technologies.”<\/p>\n “Today\u2019s Defense Production Act funds for heat pump manufacturing show that President Biden is treating climate change as the crisis it is,”\u00a0added John Podesta<\/a>, the White House clean energy czar. “These awards will grow domestic manufacturing, create good-paying jobs, and boost American competitiveness in industries of the future.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And Ali Zaidi, who serves as Biden’s national climate advisor<\/a>, said the president was “using his wartime emergency powers under the Defense Production Act to turbocharge U.S. manufacturing of clean technologies and strengthen our energy security.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Under the actions announced Friday, the DOE will send millions of dollars to companies like Copeland, Honeywell International, Mitsubishi Electric and York International Corporation, all of which are billion-dollar multinational corporations. The projects will advance manufacturing of industrial, commercial and residential heat pump technology.<\/p>\n “This is absolutely shameful corporate welfare. But we’re to believe that, because it’s for the sake of climate change, all is well. I think that’s ridiculous,” Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital in an interview.<\/p>\n “Of all the Biden administration’s claimed climate emergency declarations, this may be the craziest of them all,” Lieberman continued. “There is no shortage of heat pumps \u2014 it’s just that not every homeowner wants them. Consumers ought to decide for themselves. The government has no role in tilting the balance in favor of one energy source over another. That’s clearly what’s happening here.”<\/p>\n The action Friday comes less than two months after the DOE\u00a0issued new regulations targeting<\/a>\u00a0traditional home gas-powered furnaces as part of its climate agenda and broad effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n DOE’s finalized regulations<\/u><\/a>, which are slated to go into effect in 2028, specifically require furnaces to achieve an annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) of 95%, meaning manufacturers would only be allowed to sell furnaces that convert at least 95% of fuel into heat within six years. The current market standard AFUE for a residential furnace is 80%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Because of the stringent AFUE requirements, the regulations would largely take non-condensing gas furnaces \u2014 which are generally less efficient, but cheaper \u2014 off the market. But consumers who replace their non-condensing furnace with a condensing furnace after the rule is implemented face hefty installation costs.<\/p>\n “Energy security is a top priority for AGA,” American Gas Association President and CEO Karen Harbert told Fox News Digital on Friday. “We are deeply disappointed to see the Defense Production Act, which is intended as a vital tool for advancing national security against serious outside threats, being used as an instrument to advance a policy agenda contradictory to our nation\u2019s strong energy position.”<\/p>\n “Increased use of natural gas has been responsible for sixty percent of the electrical grid\u2019s CO2 emissions reductions,” she continued. “This vital tool for emissions reductions and energy system resilience should not be unfairly undermined through misuse of the Defense Production Act.”<\/p>\n Biden previously invoked the DPA to accelerate domestic critical mineral production and to\u00a0pause tariffs on Chinese solar panel imports<\/a>, claiming that climate change is a national emergency.<\/p>\n In addition to consumer furnaces, over the last several months, the\u00a0DOE has unveiled new standards<\/a>\u00a0for a wide variety of other appliances including gas stoves, clothes washers, refrigerators and air conditioners. According to the DOE, its past and planned appliance regulations will save Americans $570 billion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 2.4 billion metric tons over the next 30 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Puppet SloJoe is merely doing what his puppetmasters (the real people running the goobermint) have told him to do to make living more difficult. Now, to be honest. If I built a new house, it would be 100% electric. I can power a house with a large enough generator and, properly equipped, all I need … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,50,74,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crap-for-brains","category-goobermint","category-scratch-a-lib-find-a-tyrant","category-you-cant-make-this-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97844,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97843\/revisions\/97844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"placeholder\"](\"\/\/static.foxnews.com\/static\/v\/all\/img\/clear.gif\")
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