EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is pushing back against the Biden administration’s regulations targeting popular home appliances including natural gas-powered furnaces and stoves.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Manchin criticized the Department of Energy (DOE) for its aggressive energy efficiency rulemakings, arguing the agency should allow the free market to improve product technology rather than force such changes through regulation. Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, expressed concern with rules aimed at electrifying gas appliances.
“It absolutely shows you how disconnected the [DOE] is with the facts and reality of what’s happening to the grid system,” Manchin told Fox News Digital. “We’ve had so many warnings from [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] and [North American Electric Reliability Corporation] and everybody else that the grid is strained to say the least.”
“And we’re taking more dispatchable power off the grid….