Government mandates for energy-efficient appliances and to phase out natural gas for heating houses and apartments could be on the chopping block. The House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce committee heard testimony at a hearing on Tuesday that urged a rollback of energy-efficiency rules. The National Association of Home Builders voiced particular concern with state and local governments that have tried to mandate electric power use rather than gas, and stricter appliance standards that the group said have driven up costs for homeowners and renters.
“While often well-intentioned, these requirements add thousands of dollars to the cost of a home, limit consumer freedom and take important design and lifestyle decisions out of the hands of American families,” testified Buddy Hughes, a North Carolina homebuilder and the NAHB’s current board chair.
Residential and commercial buildings must comply with a wide range of laws and regulations for design, construction practices and materials, as well as energy consumption. But the battle on Capitol Hill over affordability, reliability and energy conservation could bear upon homebuyers and renters across the country depending on how lawmakers, who disagree across party lines on how such rules affect consumers, choose to act on various bills.
Among bills Republican House members have introduced in the current legislative session are Rep. Rick Allen’s (R-Georgia) Don’t Mess With My Home Appliances Act, which would block new energy-efficiency rules if they raise consumer costs, and the Energy Choice Act, which Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-New York) filed to block states or cities from banning forms of energy like gas.
Impact on renters and homeowners up for debate
Not everyone agrees that actions to rework standards will help homeowners or renters. More efficient appliances save consumers money over time, Kara Saul Rinaldi, chief policy officer for Pittsburgh-based advocacy group Building Performance Association, told the committee.
“Without efficiency standards, people would buy whatever products are cheapest and they would spend more money on their monthly utility bills,” she said.
She highlighted that since tenants usually pay electric and fuel bills at multifamily properties, landlords have less incentive to invest in more efficient equipment as they are not the ones realizing the cost benefits. Appliance and building standards then, she said, set a baseline to protect consumers against “wasteful” products. A typical household saved $576 annually on their water, lighting and heating bills from using energy-efficient appliances, she said, citing recent U.S. Department of Energy data.
About 35% of Americans live in rental properties, she noted in written testimony, citing 2023 U.S. Census data.
NAHB’s board chair, Hughes, said switching from gas to electric power would cost the average homeowner more than $15,000. He also said compliance with the latest energy-efficiency standards for construction adds as much as $31,000 to the cost of some single-family homes. The payback period for homeowners through reduced energy bills could be up to 90 years, he said, too long for them to enjoy the financial savings.
Hughes said older homes offer the most potential gains from energy-efficiency standards, yet the federal government is imposing costly rules on new homes that are already efficient and make up a much smaller share of the housing market.
Rinaldi said the $31,000 figure is overstated and that there are ways to reduce it substantially through the right construction methods or with more efficient appliances.
Ben Lieberman, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, reminded the committee of how the U.S. Department of Energy proposed a rule in 2023 to encourage the use of electric-powered stoves over those that use gas. In response to criticism, the agency said on its website at the time that it was not trying to ban gas stoves but to improve efficiency for both gas and electric stoves.
The NAHB was among groups that sued New York State over its pending ban on natural gas in new home construction. A federal court recently upheld the ban that would bar the installation of fossil fuel-generating products such as gas stoves in new homes starting in 2026. Montgomery County, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., has scheduled a similar ban to take effect at the end of next year.