Household appliances used to be a safe conversation topic, if a boring one. But these days, many Republican politicians see gas stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers, and laundry machines as symbols of the government meddling in people’s lives. Earlier this year, lawmakers in the House passed the “Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act” to make it harder for the Department of Energy to create new energy-saving standards, though it stalled in the Senate. Other appliance-related bills proposed this year included the “Refrigerator Freedom Act” and “Liberty in Laundry Act.”
The uproar over efficient appliances is just one of the ways that deepening polarization threatens efforts to cut carbon emissions. On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump revived longstanding complaints about energy-efficient dishwashers and showerheads and also railed against clean technologies, falsely claiming that wind turbines break down when exposed to saltwater and that hydrogen-powered cars are prone to blowing up like bombs.
A growing portion of the public appears to share some ... Read more
