Category Archives: Consumer Products & Services

Appliances, DEA - Department of Energy, Energy

Industry rails against Obama’s dishwasher rules

July 21, 2015 ejistook

C ugh ompanies that make dishwashers are warning that the Obama administration’s latest efficiency standards for their industry would backfire.

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers is accusing the Department of Energy (DOE) of a politically motivated drive to increase dishwasher efficiency standards, which are so bad that they would cause consumers to re-wash dishes, erasing any efficiency gains, and that’s why is so important for appliances to do portable appliance testing to verify the quality before use them regularly.

Rob McAver, the group’s head lobbyist, said regulators are going too far and the new rules will allow only 3.1 gallons to be used to wash each load of dishes.“At some point, they’re trying to squeeze blood from a stone that just doesn’t have any blood left in it,” McAver said.

Some of the group’s members, which include companies like GE Appliances & Lighting and Whirlpool Corp., tweaked their models to comply with the DOE’s December proposal to ratchet up standards. They then ran standard tests with food stuck to dishes.

“They found some stuff that was pretty disgusting,” McAver said.McAver brought DOE officials to his office recently to show them the results and released photos of it publicly this week.

He’s hoping that the disgusted reactions to the tests will spur DOE to go back to the drawing board for the standards and work more closely with the industry this time.

“The poor performance that would result would totally undercut and go backwards in terms of energy and water use, because of the need for running the dishwasher again, or pre-rinsing or hand-washing, which uses a lot of water,” he said.

McAver suspects the DOE is pushing the rules to try and meet President Obama’s greenhouse gas emissions goals under the Climate Action Plan, his second-term climate change initiative. And while appliance makers are willing to work with the administration, they don’t want that to come at the expense of effective products. Additionally, if you’re wondering how to eat faster, it’s important to consider the efficiency of your eating habits in the context of energy conservation. You can also check out this article to gain more knowledge.

Source: Industry rails against Obama’s dishwasher rules | TheHill

Barack Obama, Consumer Products & Services, Consumers, DEA - Department of Energy, Energy, Water

Dishwashers ruined by energy regulations: Prices up $143 but dishes don’t get clean

July 2, 2015 ejistook

Who wants a dishwasher that doesn’t work but costs more than ever?

The Department of Energy is completing a second round of regulations dictating the machines must use less water and less energy.

Prices already rose by $44 a unit with their first round in 2012. But add another $99 to the price from the 2015 regulations, spurred by President Obama’s call to “save the planet” by restricting use of energy. These are the government’s official cost projections; industry says the costs are even higher.

No, you won’t get the money back from lower electric bills. Manufacturers say that would take 20 years–twice as long as most dishwashers last.

The kicker: The new units don’t get things clean because water use is restricted and the energy limits prevent use of high-velocity sprayers.

Dishwashers could use 6.5 gallons per cycle until 2012, when that limit was lowered to 5 gallons. The 2015 Department of Energy (DOE) rules will drop that to 3.1 gallons per cycle.

The 2012 regulation restricted energy usage to 307 kWh (kiloWatthour) per year for a standard washer. The 2015 proposal lowers that to 234 kWh/year.

Manufacturers expect to lay off workers, because who wants to pay more and get less. Similar energy restrictions are in the works for other appliances.

Get ready to work harder as you wash dishes by hand. Unless you have a willing pet to lick your plates clean.

Consumers, FDA - Food & Drug Administration, Food, Food Police, The Heritage Foundation

FDA bans trans fats; you cannot eat what you like

June 18, 2015 ejistook 1 Comment

Next targets: sugar, sodium, caffeine

The mission of the FDA–Food and Drug Administration–is to protect us from unsafe foods. But the agency has re-interpreted its mission as protecting us from what they deem as “unhealthy” even if not “unsafe.”

Their newest regulation dictates that artificial trans fats must be off our grocery shelves within three years.

The FDA released a specific plan giving packaged-cookie makers, ready-made frosting producers and margarine suppliers until 2018 to eliminate the artery-clogging substance from their products. Artificial trans fats (also called “partially hydrogenated oils” typically are used for fried and baked goods.

The American Heart Association called the regulation a “historic victory for the nation’s health” that it claims could prevent up to 20,000 heart attacks each year.

Critics, however, called it a nanny-state measure. “The FDA’s role [is to] . . . make sure the ingredients of the food supply are safe. That’s different than making sure people eat something that’s healthy,” said Daren Bakst, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation. “Other ingredients are coming. That’s their intent: to go after sugar, sodium, caffeine,” he said.

Since 2006, the FDA has required companies to include trans fat content information on their nutrition labels, and many producers have eliminated trans fats altogether. The FDA estimates that consumption of trans fats fell by 78 percent from 2003 to 2012 and Americans ate about 1 gram a day on average in 2012, down from 4.6 grams in 2006. Also, are chicken wraps healthy 2 for your health? see to learn more.

HEAR Ernest’s commentary on this:

Source: FDA bans artificial trans fats from grocery shelves; critics see nanny-state overreach – Washington Times

Appliances, DEA - Department of Energy, Electric Bills

More manual labor! Regs raise prices of labor-saving appliances

June 16, 2015 ejistook 3 Comments

The era of affordable labor-saving devices is threatened by rising appliance costs, caused by federal energy regulations.

Washing clothes by hand sounds Third World to Americans, but how else might limited budgets respond to sticker shock since washing machines and dryers already can cost $600 to $1,000? That’s apiece, not both together.

Energy savings cannot be counted on to offset the larger price tags. Agencies project electric bill “savings” extended over as long as 30 years. But the Consumer Electronics Association warned regulators that it’s nonsense to count 30 years of using less energy when consumers don’t use an item that long, sometimes only for a few months. The agencies did not listen.

Stricter federal energy decrees are in-process for plenty more, including:

Refrigerators	Freezers
Lamps	Lighting
Dishwashers	Icemakers
Space heaters	Ovens
Stoves	Electric Chargers
Clothes washers	Clothes dryers
Air conditioners	Furnaces

Each product gets mind-numbing new standards on power usage, design and labeling. The red tape language is dizzying, such as telling manufacturers to consult “Appendix Z to subpart B of 10 CFR Part 430.”

When appendices reach the letter Z, we’re in trouble.

Source: Regulations could kill your labor-saving home appliances – Washington Times

CFPB - Consumer Financial Protection Board, Consumers, Health Care, Insurance, Obamacare, OPM - Office of Personnel Management, Privacy

Privacy at-risk on HealthCare.gov website

June 16, 2015 ejistook 1 Comment

Once it met you, it won’t forget you. And you can forget your privacy.

All who shared information with healthcare.gov will be remembered forever. That Obamacare website stores information indefinitely about all who visited it, even if they did not buy their insurance through the website.

The data system is called MIDAS–Multidimensional Insurance Data Analytics System. Developing the website cost taxpayers over $2.1-billion, yet it still is not finished.

The practic is like what the Consumer Financial Protection Board does. Both government websites keep a mountain of personal data on millions of Americans. Goodbye, privacy! What will the feds eventually do with it? We have to guess.

And is either site more secure than the files of millions of federal workers, which got hacked through the Office of Personnel Management? Unlikely.

Experts told Congress that the longer the data is kept on government websites, the more likely it will be hacked and and privacy of millions will be breached.

The Associated Press writes up more details: Government data warehouse stores personal information indefinitely for all HealthCare.gov users – Red Alert Politics

Housing, Housing, Local regulations

Regulation adds 40% to San Diego housing prices

June 12, 2015 ejistook

San Diego County’s regulations account for 40 percent of the area’s high cost of new housing, according to a study by the The Fermanian Business and Economic Institute at Point Loma Nazarene University.

Just reducing regulations by 3 percent would save consumers $2.5 billion and boost the local economy by 37,331 more jobs, according to the report.

Financing for the study came from homebuilders.

One local city has delayed a proposed $20 per square foot fee on new apartments pending the outcome of a lawsuit elsewhere.

Source: Regulation adds 40% to housing prices, study shows | UTSanDiego.com

Appliances, Automobiles, Climate Change, Consumers, Cost-of-Living, Electric Bills, Energy, Environment, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Family Budget, Food, Gasoline, Light Bulbs, Medical Costs, Transportation

Wham! Regulations sock it to consumers

June 12, 2015 ejistook

Consumer prices will increase by more than $11,000 just from 36 of the Obama Administration’s regulations, reports the American Action Forum (AAF).

It’s a wallop to the jaw for everyday people. AAF’s research finds this includes higher-priced vehicles, pricier household goods, and more expensive food. “Energy-efficiency” standards are the biggest reason for higher prices.

Of course, politicians and bureaucrats claim they’re saving us money. So ask yourself, Have YOU saved $11,000 thanks to federal regulations?

THE GIMMICKS:

Typically, agencies speculate that IF buyers keep using the mandated energy-saving products for long enough, they eventually will have a net gain. That’s IF things don’t wear out (or a light bulb doesn’t burn out).

As The New York Times researched and reported in 2012 about automobiles, projections of fuel savings often presume that consumers will keep their cars twice as long as is normal. Plus their study presumed gasoline would cost almost $4.00 a gallon. Projected “savings” also are not offset against interest paid on loans to buy more-expensive products, nor the extra repair charges to make old things last longer. Continue reading Wham! Regulations sock it to consumers →

Automobiles, Corruption, Crony Capitalism, Energy, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Gasoline, Regulatory Costs, Subsidies, Transportation, USDA - US Department of Agriculture, Waste, Fraud & Abuse

‘Dirty Rotten Ethanol Scoundrels’ – Wall St. Journal

June 7, 2015 ejistook 1 Comment

A Wall Street Journal editorial notes that the EPA is reducing the amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline below the level required by the 2007 energy bill.

Why? Because it’s impossible to meet the goal without diluting gasoline so badly that it will damage car engines because ethanol is corrosive. Requiring 10% (E-10) is bad enough, but mandating anything higher would “damage the engines and fuel systems of most of the cars and trucks on the road today . . . risking accidents, breakdowns and valve, pump, cylinder and injector replacements rarely covered by consumer warranties.”

But to placate corn farmers, the Agriculture Department pledged $100 million in state grants to help fix vehicles that use higher blends of ethanol. That’s more taxpayer money to fix the damage caused by taxpayer subsidies of ethanol.

The WSJ concludes: “Such is the corruption of corporate welfare, which continues for no reason other than that it already exists.”

Barack Obama, Internet, Phone Bills, Waste, Fraud & Abuse, Welfare (Public Assistance), Worldwide Web

First, free Obamaphones. Now, free Internet. Next???

June 4, 2015 ejistook

America’s welfare state keeps growing because Congress allows bureaucrats to expand programs, immune from accountability to voters.

The latest proposal would give free Internet service to tens of millions of people. It would be done by the nonelected commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission.

Millions of people already get free phones through the fraud-ridden FCC program nicknamed “Obamaphones.” Expanding this to the Internet (Call it “Obamanet?”) could add tens of millions of people, thanks to FCC’s loose eligibility criteria.

The cost would be borne by the rest of us through surcharges on our cellphones, landlines and business lines. Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/3/ernest-istook-free-internet-service-expansion-of-o/#ixzz3c6rKWtYm

Barack Obama, Crony Capitalism, Electric Bills, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

Checked your electric bill? It’s skyrocketing!

June 1, 2015 ejistook

Obama's Skyrocket

It’s only just begun. American households are suffering skyrocketing electricity costs thanks to President Barack Obama’s agenda. Already the average household pays an extra $120 a year.

But the worst is yet to come.

Thanks to EPA regulations that have been announced, the U.S. will lose 9 percent of our ability to generate electricity by the year 2030, even while population grows by 54 million people. That is 116% of the current population trying to get by on 91% of our current power.

Supply-and-demand dictates electric rates will climb higher and higher.

What does Obama suggest we do? Spend thousands of dollars per household to buy more energy-efficient appliances. You’ll pay more upfront but then you’ll use fewer kilowatts. But your utility bills will still climb because the cost per kilowatt-hour will be much higher.

Higher electric rates are Obama’s plan, not just an unforeseen consequence:

Agencies, Appliances, Automobiles, CEI - Competitive Enterprise Institute, CFPB - Consumer Financial Protection Board, Christmas Lights, Consumer Products & Services, Electric Bills, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Family Budget, Food, Gasoline, Health Care, Insurance, Light Bulbs, Medical Costs, Perfume, Privacy, Window Blinds

Family budgets wrecked by runaway regulations and red tape

May 30, 2015 ejistook 3 Comments

Runaway regulations are hurting everyday people and wrecking family budgets. It’s not big companies that suffer from the $1.88 trillion annual burden of red tape that the government imposes. They pass them along, adding the costs onto their price tags.

Unaffordable health care coverage, unaffordable electric bills, unaffordable rises in food costs, unaffordable college, and unaffordable appliances are parts of the skyrocketing burden of regulations, usually dictated from Washington.

Millions of Americans who no longer pay federal income tax nevertheless have a stake in controlling the size of government, because their family budgets are ruined by higher prices resulting from regulations. All costs of regulations are passed along by businesses owners to employees who get paid with a pay stub template software.

The average is $15,000 per household per year, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s new annual report “Ten Thousand Commandments”, with a collective cost of $1.88 trillion. Last year alone, President Obama’s hand-picked bureaucrats created $567 per person of new red tape by creating 75,000 pages of more regulations. That’s a one-year regulatory increase of over $2,000 for a household of four.

Because that overall $1.88 trillion number is too big to swallow, people need the details one bite at a time. Providing those digestible bites is the mission of Americans for Less Regulation. Many items also are posted on ALR’s Facebook site.

HOW does red tape hurt your family budget? Read more for details including:

Skyrocketing electric bills
Higher automobile prices
Phony claims of consumer savings
Appliance prices
Light bulbs
Window blinds
Federal snooping of your personal finances
Rising health care costs

Cost-of-Living, Electric Bills, Energy, Environment, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

Your electric bill will skyrocket with new energy regulation

May 21, 2015 ejistook

Reported by Associated Press:

Electricity prices are probably on their way up across much of the US as coal-fired plants, the dominant source of cheap power, shut down in response to environmental regulations and economic forces.

New and tighter pollution rules and tough competition from cleaner sources such as natural gas, wind and solar will lead to the closings of dozens of coal-burning plants across 20 states over the next three years. And many of those that stay open will need expensive retrofits. Because of these and other factors, the Energy Department predicts retail power prices will rise 4 percent on average this year, the biggest increase since 2008. By 2020, prices are expected to climb an additional 13 percent, a forecast that does not include the costs of coming environmental rules.

Barack Obama, Clean Air Act, Electric Bills, Energy, Environment, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency, Propaganda, Regulatory Costs

Propaganda secret: How Obama raises electric bills yet claims he lowers them

June 4, 2014 ejistook

In 2013, President Obama was given the “Lie of The Year” award for claiming that Obamacare would allow people to keep their current health insurance. Now a new statement might win Obama that award for 2014 as well: Obama claims that his new Environmental Protection Agency regulations will lower people’s electric bills.

On June 2, he stated, “Your electricity bills will shrink as these standards spur investment in energy efficiency, cutting waste and, ultimately, we’re going to be saving money for homes and for businesses.”

Yet in 2008 he admitted his agenda was to make electricity rates “skyrocket,” supposedly to save the planet. And the EPA’s own analysis predicts their regulations will raise electric rates an extra 6% to 24% by 2020.

Careful research reveals the carefully-contrived statements Obama is using to leave consumers a totally false impression about the impact of the new EPA regulations.

Read the secrets about the propaganda: Obama’s latest brainwashing whopper — lower electricity bills

Barack Obama, Clean Air Act, Electric Bills, EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

Obama’s EPA plan is like a Three Stooges routine

May 28, 2014 ejistook

President Obama’s latest EPA plans give America only bad choices which all will cause electric bills to skyrocket.

While claiming states will have “fexibility” to reduce carbon dioxide, the limited options are all bad. It’s like a classic Three Stooges routine: The Stooges are given a choice either of being burned at the stake or beheaded. Curly chooses the fire. “After all,” he says, “a hot steak is better than a cold chop.”

The Environmental Protection Agency isn’t offering anything better. They are not targeting something tangible, dirty or visible like soot or carbon particles, which is the purpose of the Clean Air Act. Instead, they want to reduce carbon dioxide, which is not a pollutant. CO2 is invisible whether it’s coming out of a smokestack, exhaled from your lungs, or released by plants at night. Obama’s justification is all about supposed “global warming” and “climate change,” not about pollution.

Watch the Stooges’ “hot steak, cold chop” bit below:

https://youtu.be/OjIWbeZ3KtM?start=121&end=139

Food, Food Police, Michelle Obama, School lunch, Uncategorized

Students complain: ‘First Lady messes up our lunches’

May 20, 2014 ejistook 1 Comment

The food fight over student lunches is personal for First Lady Michelle Obama, and personal for millions of upset school children and their families.

She has told us, “My most important title is mom-in-chief,” and “We can’t just leave it up to the parents.” The First Lady’s attitude is reinforced by the regulators at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, overseeing the federal School Lunch Program. They follow her bidding on extreme makeover of meals, but 1.6-million students have dropped out of the program rather than accept the new menus.

First Lady kidnaps Easter event to push food regulations

April 10, 2014 ejistook

The annual White House Easter Egg Roll has been politicized to re-educate children and parents. Sorry, Peter Cottontail; your event has been kidnapped. And apologies to the churches.

The 30,000 guests were told, “In addition to all of the fun, the day’s activities will encourage children to lead healthy, active lives in support of the First Lady’s Let’s Move! Initiative.” In 2013, Michelle Obama proclaimed the event’s purpose was is “to celebrate nutrition and activity” and “learn about making tasty, healthy food.”

Her philosophy? “We can’t just leave it up to the parents.” That’s what the First Lady proclaimed when her husband signed the Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. That act has sparked student protests across the country for changing the school lunch program to promote items that students refuse to eat. And down-sized portions.

Regulations kill diversity. Less red tape=more consumer choice

March 26, 2014 ejistook 2 Comments

Obamacare dictates conformity–the opposite of diversity.

Even left-leaning Ben & Jerry’s offers more than 75 flavors of ice cream, so why must all health-care policies be uniform?

We prefer supermarkets with the biggest variety of fruits and vegetables, dozens of flavors of soda, multitudes of salad dressings, pre-sliced lunch meats that are smoked, baked, honey, oven-roasted, cured, mesquite, rotisserie, Black Forest, black pepper, or Cajun-style, in your choice of ham, chicken, turkey, beef, or mystery meat.

Government could “simplify” our lives in other ways. If Obamacare saves us from substandard insurance, wouldn’t “Obamacars” save us from substandard automobiles? And “Obamacurs” would make sure our pet dogs are only the very best breed.

Agencies, FDA - Food & Drug Administration, Food, Food Police

FDA’s food police slow down your pizza orders

February 11, 2014 ejistook 2 Comments

With 34-million ways to mix-and-match pizza crust, sauce, cheese and toppings, how can you comply with a Food and Drug Administration mandate to list all the nutritional details–especially when you’re trying to deliver the pizza promptly?

It’s another saga in the battle between business and the federal “food police.”

Would consumers really stop and read special labels before ordering a pizza, especially if it’s during the excitement of a big game on TV?

Associated Press study says ethanol is bad for the environment

November 12, 2013 ejistook 1 Comment

Federal regulators mandate use of ethanol in gasoline for “environmental benefits,” applying what they call a “renewable fuel standard.” That makes corn a much more profitable crop than without the regulation.

But a detailed study by The Associated Press concluded that the rationale is phony. Some of the findings:

As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found.
Five million acres of land set aside for conservation—more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined—have vanished on Obama’s watch.
Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil.

Source: The secret environmental cost of US ethanol policy

Americans for Less Regulation