House Republicans are unhappy about a new plan by the Department of Energy to include ceiling fans in a push to apply energy efficiency standards to household appliances.
"We've already seen the federal government stretch their regulatory tentacles into our homes and determine what kind of light bulbs we have to use," Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said earlier this month. "Now they’re coming after our ceiling fans. It is a sad state of affairs when even our ceiling fans aren't safe from this administration."
Sabrina Siddiqui of The Huffington Post reports:
As it turns out, Blackburn's state is home to the nation's biggest ceiling fan supplier, the Hunter Fan Company. And so, along with Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.), the congresswoman secured an amendment to the fiscal year 2014 energy-and-water appropriations bill that would prevent the Energy Department from enforcing its energy efficiency standards for ceiling fans and ceiling fan light kits. The amendment was approved by a voice vote, and the final bill passed the House two weeks ago on a mostly party-line vote of 227-198.
The bill, however, will not make it out of the Senate.
"We need to make our decisions not based on political wish lists, but we need to make it based upon real, true science," Rep. Michele Bachmann told HuffPo when discussing the bill. "The thing I didn't like about the light bulb issue, for example, is the federal government had actually outright banned a particular product, rather than allowing choice in the marketplace so people can choose which form of light bulb they wanted to have."
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