For all of President Joe Biden’s talk about wanting to “save democracy,” his administration keeps being dressed down in court for trying to evade democratic processes. On Jan. 8, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was the latest to send Biden’s agency machinations through the rinse cycle.
At issue were regulations by Biden appointees at the Department of Energy that imposed significant restrictions on washing machines and dishwashers. Both regulations limited the use of water per cycle while forcing the machines to run for much longer time periods to make up the difference. The court’s three-judge panel ruled unanimously that the department probably had no statutory authority to issue the restrictions at all, but that even if it did have that power, it used it in an illegally “arbitrary and capricious” manner.
The ruling was a major win for consumer groups who say the restrictions make the machines take too long and work less well. And, in a strong rebuke to the environmentalist performance artists who promulgated the regulations, the judges also said the “less water” edict probably causes more harm than good to the environment itself.
The court credited “ample evidence” that the Biden efficiency standards “make Americans use more energy and more water for the simple reason that purportedly ‘energy efficient’ appliances do not work. So Americans who want clean dishes or clothes may use more energy and more water to preclean, reclean, or handwash their stuff before, after, or in lieu of using DOE-regulated appliances.”
The department itself had previously noted this problem, but when rewriting the regulation, the Biden team “acknowledged the concern and moved on” without any analysis of why that concern no longer held water. “Stating that a factor was considered, however, is not a substitute for considering it,” the court wrote. The new rule, it wrote, “expressly confesses that it did not weigh the risks and benefits of eliminating short-cycle appliance classes” that may use more water per cycle but less water (and energy) overall.
Because the court found that the Biden team acted capriciously rather than following proper rulemaking procedures, it threw out the new regulation on that basis alone without reaching a definitive conclusion about whether the Department of Energy actually has any authority over water use by dishwashers and washing machines. It strongly suggested, however, that the department overstepped its bounds.
These regulations ordering the low-water-per-cycle machines came, remember, from the Department of Energy — not from the Environmental Protection Agency or some other outfit with responsibility for regulating water. According to the relevant law, the Department of Energy bureaucrats have authority only over the energy use of appliances, not over their water usage. The court wrote that “no part of [the law as passed by Congress] indicates Congress gave DOE power to regulate water use for energy-using appliances (like dishwashers and washing machines).”
The court indicated that the Biden team, while wanting to appear to be protecting the environment, actually (a) exceeded its statutory authority (b) in an arbitrary and capricious manner (c) with the real-world effects of hurting the environment, all while (d) depriving customers of machines they like more, that work faster, and that actually clean things better.
That’s quite a rebuke.
The dishwasher and washing machine regulations are only part of a Biden jihad against popular home appliances, with refrigerators, freezers, furnaces, gas stovetops, and water heaters all being targeted. For some of those other appliances, too, some consumer groups say the new rules not only would inconvenience customers and cost them more, but actually cause downstream results worse for the environment.
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Again and again, though, courts have blocked Biden from unlawful exertions of executive power. They struck down his attempts to forgive student loans, force social media companies to censor speech, ban deportations of illegal immigrants, set up a race-based relief program for farmers and for restaurants closed due to COVID, halt energy leases, and implement a federal moratorium on evictions of deadbeat tenants, among others.
In our constitutional republic, the executive branch isn’t allowed to just make up new laws on its own. It is a good thing that courts keep blocking the attempts to do so by Biden and his minions.