Why are Republicans so obsessed with refrigerators?
The seemingly weird plan in Project 2025 is merely a new page of a familiar fossil fuel playbook.
by Arielle Samuelson and Emily Atkin
Over the last year, Republicans have begun championing a new and novel environmental cause. It’s not the air; it’s not the water; it’s not the climate crisis.
It’s refrigerators.
Apparently they’re getting way too efficient.
That’s the idea behind the Refrigerator Freedom Act (seriously), introduced by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) this summer. The bill seeks to repeal appliance efficiency regulations proposed by the Biden Administration last year—regulations that require refrigerator manufacturers to use less electricity and water over time as technology improves.
The Department of Energy claims these regulations, along with efficiency regulations on other appliances, would save Americans about $3.5 billion a year on energy and water bills while significantly reducing climate pollution. But proponents of The Refrigerator Freedom Act say they force Americans to give up the appliances they love. “Americans can hardly afford to stock their refrigerators with food, and now Democrats want to take the damn refrigerator away as well,” Rep. Van Drew (R-NJ) argued on the House floor in July.
The characterization is inaccurate. Americans can own whatever type of appliance they want to. The regulations do make it difficult for consumers to buy new refrigerators that use tons of water and electricity. But they don’t prevent Americans from owning inefficient refrigerators.
Still, the scarcity messaging has been effective for Republicans. The Refrigerator Freedom Act passed the GOP-controlled House this summer, along with a bevy of similarly-worded bills like the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act (SUDS), the Liberty in Laundry Act, and the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act (HOOHA).
Source: X
These bills currently have no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate. But they have a better chance of being reality if Donald Trump is elected president, as a plan to repeal appliance efficiency standards is enshrined in Project 2025, the 900-page roadmap for Trump’s second term.
Published by the conservative Heritage Foundation and co-authored by 140 former Trump appointees, Project 2025 proposes to repeal the law mandating electricity-saving and water-saving regulations for appliances—a law signed by former President Ronald Reagan and currently supported by manufacturers.
Advocates, researchers, Democrats, and even some Republicans call the plan harmful for consumers and the planet—as well as just plain weird. “Out-of-touch House Republicans have been weirdly obsessed with appliances this Congress while ignoring the real issues American families are struggling with,” Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) told HEATED in an email.
But a closer look at the GOP plan to deregulate home appliances reveals that it’s not really that weird at all. It’s merely the next chapter of a familiar climate delay playbook.
“Democrats are coming for your kitchen appliances”
To truly understand the conservative effort to unravel appliance efficiency standards, you can’t just view it as a simple policy proposal. You also have to look at it as a messaging device to spread fear about efforts to slow the climate crisis.