The ‘Refrigerator Freedom Act’

Freedumb for your household appliances, brought to you by Republicans in the House of Representatives

Image created by the author using Gemini AI

Republicans have introduced six bills in the House of Representatives that give new meaning to the word “freedDumb.” These are:

The Refrigerator Freedom Act

Introduced in the House by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks from Iowa, this bill would prohibit the energy secretary from “prescribing or enforcing energy conservation standards for refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, and freezers that are not cost-effective or technologically feasible” and that will not result in a “significant conservation of energy.”

There are five problems with this bill:

1. No energy secretary would prescribe or enforce energy conservation standards unless they resulted in “significant” energy conservation. Why bother, otherwise?
2. No definition of “significant” is included in the bill. One old refrigerator in a home may use about 1,700 kWh of electricity each year while a new, similar-sized replacement may use only about 450 kWh. That’s a 1,250 kWh difference per frig, which is significant — per frig. However, considering that there are 153.3 million refrigerators in the U.S., it might be possible to reduce…