Senate votes to end Energy Department standards for gas water heaters
The Senate voted on Thursday to reverse energy conservation standards for gas-powered tankless water heaters implemented by the Biden administration, sending the measure to the Oval Office for President Donald Trump’s signature.
In a 53-44 vote, senators approved a resolution that reverses rules set by the Biden administration’s Energy Department that mandate a minimum efficiency level for the water heaters. The House passed the measure in February.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced the bill in the Senate, and it advanced through a special legislative process permitted by the Congressional Review Act that bypasses the filibuster, allowing Republicans to take a simple majority vote in both chambers to end federal rules. After a rule is reversed through the CRA, the federal agency is not allowed to promulgate a similar regulation.
“Washington bureaucrats shouldn’t decide what appliances you can own,” Cruz said in February on X. “President Trump and the Republican Congress are going to end and reverse Democrats’ war on affordable American appliances.”
Republicans have argued that Democrats’ efforts to set regulations on water or energy for home appliances limit consumer choice and raise prices. Trump’s Energy Department announced last month it has paused the effective dates of several efficiency standards for home appliances, including those for gas-instantaneous water heaters.
“American families are going to face higher bills because the Senate sided with a group of gas utilities and one particular manufacturer,” said Andrew DeLaski, the executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, a group that favors the standards. “This is going to keep an outdated version of this technology on the market, with homeowners and renters paying the cost.”
