Biden goes after water heaters as days in office wind down

Boston Herald, Boston Herald on Jan 8, 2025

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As President Joe Biden’s White House tenure winds down, he continues to put progressive policies before people.

His administration’s latest move is to ban certain natural gas water heaters from the market as an anti-climate change strategy. Critics have blasted the move, saying it will spike energy costs for low-income and senior households.

As Fox Business reported, the action takes non-condensing, natural gas-fired water heaters off the shelves by 2029 in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The new rules will require new tankless gas water heaters to use about 13% less energy than models on the market today.

Biden’s rules hike efficiency requirements to a threshold that only condensing models can meet. This effectively bans the cheaper but less efficient non-condensing models, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

Why this matters: Consumers will be forced to buy more expensive models or cheaper non-instantaneous storage tank water heaters, which are less efficient than the models being banned by the DOE.

And “more expensive” means “almost double the cost.” Rinnai America is the only company that produces tankless water heaters in the U.S. Its tankless, non-condensing natural gas water heater sells for about $1,000 at Home Depot, compared to $1,800 for a condensing 75-gallon tank.

For those who thought Biden’s push for electric vehicles was a great idea as they could afford to purchase them, this new rule is a winner. For those who are just getting by, it’s one more signal from Dems that the concerns of low-income voters carry little weight.

Biden’s been ignoring the voices of Americans outside the Beltway and progressive circles a lot lately. His December clemency free-for-all commuted the sentences of opioid traffickers, which he followed up by taking 37 out of 40 inmates off Death Row and giving them life sentences instead.

As reported, Biden’s move spared the lives of people convicted in killings, including the slayings of police and military officers, people involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities.

Progressives cheered, and in Biden World, that’s what matters.

On Saturday, he doubled down by including George Soros and Hillary Clinton in the 19 people awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Soros is a Democratic megadonor, so the big “thanks for all the checks, buddy” gesture isn’t all that surprising.

Biden was called out.

“George Soros spent millions electing soft-on-crime politicians that let criminals wreak havoc in our major cities,” Montana Senator Tim Sheehy told The New York Post. “Hillary Clinton abandoned our Navy SEALs in Libya.”

There are millions who think defunding the police and security lapses in Benghazi are deplorable. That’s why they voted for Donald Trump. But Biden and his D.C. cronies are determined to throw as many spike strips in the road as they can before the inauguration. Pardons, new regulations and shiny gold pats on the back are just the latest.

There are two weeks left until Trump returns to the White House. We can only hope someone suggests Biden takes it as PTO.

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