By Ed Ireland — August 1, 2023
Big Brother Warning: Banning gas stoves is just the start. A long list of household appliances are on the federal hit list to be either banned, made ineffective, or made too expensive to buy.
“Something is terribly wrong with the current direction of federal regulation. Not only are the number and scope of new rules out of control, but many are driven by the blind ambition to ban the use of fossil fuels without regard for the stability of the power grid or the actual health and safety of citizens.”
While EPA is finalizing rules that will essentially ban natural gas and coal-powered electricity generation, risking blackouts according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, other federal regulators are working on plans to ban gasoline-powered portable generators. The very thing that people need when the power goes out, backup generators, will soon be back-door banned just in time for the power blackouts that the new EPA rules are poised to cause.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, CPSC, has proposed rules and regulations that would make nearly all existing portable gas generators illegal:
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (Commission or CPSC) has preliminarily determined that there is an unreasonable risk of injury and death associated with acute carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning from portable generators. To address this hazard, the Commission proposes a rule under the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) that limits CO emissions from portable generators and requires generators to shut off when specific emissions levels are reached.
While limiting CO emissions from portable generators and requiring generators to shut off when carbon monoxide emissions reach certain levels may sound reasonable, the proposed rules would remove nearly all existing portable gas generators from the market. Smaller gasoline generators would have to cut carbon monoxide emissions by 50%, and larger generators would have to cut emissions by up to 95 percent in only 6 months. Nearly all currently available models are expected to not comply with the new standard.
“Non-compliance” is the code word for bans. When the head of the CPSC, Richard Trumka, hinted that gas stoves could be banned because they were a “hidden hazard” in a January 2023 interview, the public outrage was swift, with many public figures and politicians weighing in. The Administration even trotted out President Biden to say that they would not ban gas stoves. He didn’t say that the plan was to regulate gas stoves out of existence, which technically is not a ban.
The same is true for portable gasoline generators. The CPSC will not “ban” generators; they will establish regulations that most existing generators cannot meet in time to re-engineer them into compliance. Once the proposed rules are in effect, manufacturers must comply with them in six months, thought it usually takes several years.
The regulations specifically ban manufacturers from stockpiling noncompliant generators before the new standards are enacted. In other words, the regulators know that the new rules will create an immediate shortage of generators, so they are writing regulations that guarantee shortages. Given that regulators must understand the life-and-death situations that require portable generators, this rule-making seems particularly designed to cause human suffering.
Having lived on the west coast of Florida for many years, I know full well how vital gasoline generators are. When Hurricane Charlie hit southwest Florida in August 2004, our power was out for three weeks. The only way we survived was by having gasoline generators. A generator could keep a small refrigerator running to keep some fresh food from spoiling and power a couple of fans. Southwest Florida has always been hot during the summer, regardless of what the climate change warriors say. We were hot, had no electricity, and gasoline generators kept us alive.
In a June 28, 2023, press release, Susan Orenga, executive director of the Portable Generator Manufacturers’ Association, said the CPSC proposal will:
create a shortage of essential portable generators during regional and national emergencies because it will prevent the sale of portable generators that are currently available on the market.
The notion of a government agency implementing rules that effectively ban gas generators, especially when the US power grids have become more blackout prone due to EPA rules, is especially concerning. It would be fair to ask if these federal agencies are trying to make life miserable or harm US residents. How else can these rules be explained?
Of course, portable gasoline generators are not only used in emergencies. They are necessary equipment for many tasks, such as for construction, welders, carpenters, roofers, and many other trades, that rely on gasoline generators to do their work. In a July 6 letter to the chairman of the CPSC, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) said:
Engine-driven portable welders are a vital piece of equipment for construction workers across the country. These welders are not consumer products, but rather industrial machinery used on construction sites. Finalizing the CPSC rule in its present form “will not only have a detrimental effect on manufacturers of these products and their suppliers, but also negatively impact the welders who rely on this equipment.
Is the CPSC trying to disrupt construction and increase unemployment? They certainly are acting like it.
CPSC justifies its proposed rules by arguing that carbon monoxide emissions have been harmful to human health:
From 2004 through 2021, there were at least 1,332 CO-related consumer deaths involving portable generators, or an average of about 74 lives lost annually, with thousands of non-fatal poisonings of consumers per year.
Fatalities have increased in recent years. For example, the three most recent years for which complete data are available (2017 through 2019), generator-related deaths have averaged 85 per year.
Unintended Consequences
Carbon monoxide risks? Irony of ironies: the boom in home generation has something to do with government policies wounding the grid with forced substitution of intermittent wind and solar for the reliables.
An NPR report noted “concern about the reliability of an aging electrical grid at the same time as the grid is being decentralized and decarbonized with increasing amounts of renewable energy.” And those generators are fueled by natural gas or diesel, not a battery apparatus.
Conclusion
Something is terribly wrong with the current direction of federal regulation. Not only are the number and scope of new rules out of control, but many are driven by the blind ambition to ban the use of fossil fuels without regard for the stability of the power grid or the actual health and safety of citizens.
And now, conservation policies seem to almost bless the virtue of conservation orders and rolling blackouts.
While U.S. anti-carbon policies are sacrificing the health and safety of its citizens, China is opening two new coal-fired power-generating plants per week. These US policies have virtually no impact on total global carbon emissions. This madness has to stop.
——————-
Ed Ireland, adjunct professor at TCU’s Neeley School of Business, received his B.S. from Midwestern State University and Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. For more such posts, visit Thoughts About Energy and Economics.
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People have known not to use portable generators indoors for decades.
Now the EPA, in order to protect the 1 person out of 10 million who is stupid enough to ignore everything he’s been told, is going to require that all generators be safe to use indoors.
Sort of like their bans on gas fired stoves. When Obama thought he was going to lose to Romney, his administration prepared similar regulations to implement after the loss. Regulations are now under review by the supreme court due to the questioning of the Chevron principle. It is time to rein in these Napoleonic little twerps.
That’s not why they’re doing it:
The “Duck Test” says that it looks like they want the economy to crash so people will revolt.
Oh, we will. They just don’t get that they will be the first targets.
they want the economy to crash so people will revolt
Cloward-Piven: then they step in and sieze full control. Or so they think.
All part of the Envirowahco plan to reduce the population. This will be achieved by preventing people to use their CPAP device, Oxygen Concentrators – both home installed and portable, Medical Alert systems, Security/Fire alert systems, and more than a dozen other medical devices needed to maintain health and life. There is also the loss of Cable TV/Internet/Telephone/WiFi with no AC power. I have two UPS’s just to keep power for the Cable TV/ Internet / Phone and WiFi. I have these as when an outage occurs it has taken over an hour to reconnect to the Cable service provider – aggravated by the massive number of people that are also trying to reconnect. Problem solved with a UPS! Problem created by Unreliable Renewables. If you are someone in your family relies upon these devices, I strongly encourage you to look into providing reliable power.
Amazing how Renewable Energy is drastically reducing the many conveniences we have grown to have and NEED!
At least two homes within sound distance have automatic start, whole home, emergency generators. They were added after the utility shut down the NPP and the outages went up by an order of magnitude with the reliance of 30% of our electricity coming from Wind Turbines. Wind turbines do not generate power during severe storms. PERIOD.
Single purpose agencies never ever have any sense of tradeoffs. Portable gas cans are the sort of kludge one has when anti-fossil fuel activists get together with predatory tort lawyers. Having something actually useful was never a consideration.
Eliminating the agencies, and sending the current civil service employees to herd goats in Federal wildlands would be a solution.
Or wash solar panels in the desert?
Maybe they can simply learn to code.
“ learn to code.”
oh great.. more climate modellers and attribution studies.
Be careful what you wish for !
“learn to code” PLEASE no! There’s enough like-minded people in this business already!
Unfortunately they won’t leave Washington, so they will all go on unemployment there rather than move to where their jobs are.
They are civil service, so one must offer them something that would lead to them quitting. Like weather reporting from Shemya.
A bunch quit when a large part of the Department of Agriculture was scheduled to move to Kansas City, to an area where there is actually a lot of agricultural activity (as opposed to Washington DC, where there is very little commodity level agriculture). They may have rescinded the relocation–I didn’t follow it closely. But it seems not to take much to get them to quit.
Biden did rescind the move, as the real constituents of Department of Agriculture apparatchiks are lobbyists, not farmers.
There hasn’t been farming inside Washington D.C. since circa 2005 when Duane Dickerson sold his 35 acre long time family farm.
Go look at portable gas cans! My old one opened at a seam – what I saw was almost unbelievable – a rube goldberg. This nonsense has got to stop.
I will say this though. My new, annoying gas cans don’t leak when they roll over in the back of the car.
Maybe they want us to have green, electric powered generators. Oh, wait…
They are writing the regulations to empower this side, emasculating their favorites’ competition. Of course most of us useless peons won’t be able to afford the new regime and those that do will have a big increase in fire danger.
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/climate-proofing-your-home-improving-your-backup-power-supply
We need these agencies to justify their existence every 10 years or so. The EPA fulfilled its mission long ago. Now it has to make up “stuff” in order to have a purpose. We simply cannot allow bureaucrats to define their own work. They will always find reasons to continue, reasons they need more money and reasons they need more power.
As President Reagan once said something like, ‘The closest to immortality is a government program”.
….that is exactly what they’re doing here and what they’ve done since they solved whatever ‘problem’ they were set up to solve.
There-in lies the problem with them.:
An Agency could or should be st up to deal with a specific issue and then BE DISBANDED
A long time ago here in the UK, an article was written describing exactly how it works.
In that, The Manager of any given agency is regularly asked, by the elected minister, to justify himself.
Questions like:
How many people did you save last year
How much environment was improved under your watch etc etc
Then the manager would be asked how he could improve on those things in the coming year, else his budget would be cut.
What happened next is why Government agencies are so slow and unproductive… in that endless meetings were scheduled, official ones, unofficial ones around the coffee machine, un-un official ones in extended lunches down the pub and they continued until the manager could put a huge sheaf of papers under the minister’s nose and suggest things to do..
Just like in climate science, academia and journals, quantity always surpasses quality and here we are
Drowning under tsunamis of trivia and irrelevance
The sad part is they were to clean up the superfund sites, those area highly polluted. Most still remain, the cleanup was to hard/costly or political unpopular, so they remain. Why when they did not finish the job the were created for and are still around is a kick in the behind the working men and women of this country. The men and women who really make this country work. People who make life livable and keep the lights on are not bureaucrats.
‘Something is terribly wrong with the current direction of federal regulation.’
No, surely not: never would have seen that coming.
Consumer Product Safety Commission:
“From 2004 through 2021, there were at least 1,332 CO-related consumer deaths involving portable generators, or an average of about 74 lives lost annually, with thousands of non-fatal poisonings of consumers per year.
Fatalities have increased in recent years. For example, the three most recent years for which complete data are available (2017 through 2019), generator-related deaths have averaged 85 per year.”
From 2004-2021 they provide ‘important’ statistics. Then they say things are getting worse, referencing only the data that is complete … through 2019.
Pick the ‘most’ correct answer(s):
a) they purposely twist the statistics and think the reader is too stupid to notice.
b) they made a mistake and are too stupid to notice their mistake.
c) they see the discrepancy, check that it is not significant, and let it slide because a notation would end up being too wordy & confusing (assuming the reader is just too ignorant)
d) the goal, getting rid of most generators, is of over-riding concern & and the end justifies the means.
e) they simply don’t really have anything else to do, so they did this.
As Gilda Radner of SNL fame used to say, “It’s always something”.
“In February 2021, a major power outage caused by cold weather affected millions of Texas residents and was estimated to have caused at least 300 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, including several deaths, in Harris County alone.1”
One might expect that the instances of CO exposure would correlate with the frequency of extended power failures. Since the renewables transition weakens grid reliability, increased use and inevitable misuse of portable generators may well be a self fulfilling prophesy. Instead of trying to regulate generators out of existence, maybe CPSC should try to do something to encourage grid reliability – like replacing unreliable wind/solar with dependable gas, coal and nuclear generation.
By the way, many CPSC product safety concerns involving serious life safety risks have been addressed through regulations requiring conspicuous warnings on product labels and in manuals. Something that manufacturers can comply with quickly and at minimal expense.
They already require homes to have CO monitors and alarms, I’ve got 7 CO monitors.
Funny our bureaucrats would rather have people freeze/cook to death in there homes rather than risk improper use of portable generators. My guess it this rule passes they will be a lot of ac output generators added to pickups, in the end more energy will be wasted.
IIRC CO deaths were reported where people had sat in their cars in the garage with the engine running to provide warmth after their power and heating went out.
“….an average of about 74 lives lost annually…”
compared to nearly 100,000 fentanyl overdose deaths annually, and 28 annual deaths by lightning…seems like maybe legislation to have a warning label to read the warning labels might be in order for generators.
Evidently, these out-of-control bureauracies are not important enough for our ELECTED representatives to put them on a short leash. It would appear dissolution is the only thing that will halt their creeping socialism.
“The Administration even trotted out President Biden to say that they would not ban gas stoves.”
_________________________________________________________________________________
And President Obama said. “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” YouTube
On edit:
Let’s see if just pasting up the link works:
Doesn’t Obama have diesel generators backing up his MV multi million dollar home?
I think propane. with a 2500 gal propane tank. Bet that lasts a while.
Some animals are more equal than others.
They have a deep dislike of ordinary people
That seems unlikely to change any time soon
only if the ordinary people let it
Ed,
As another resident of the central west coast of Florida, the need for generators is essential.
Now if they really wanted to do something useful, they should address the noise level of those things. Surely they can be made more quiet.
Oh Tom….the noise is the safety feature.
They deliberately make all that noise so folks keep away from them and don’t get poisoned.
and to the greater extent, it works.
Put it in a sound attenuated enclosure, not a stupid idea, I used to do it in some of my energy projects, successfully
“Surely they can be made more quiet.”
They need a better muffler. I’ve never understood why this isn’t standard equipment. I guess they save a few dollars. A quiet generator would be a selling point for me.
Maybe retrofiting quiet mufflers to loud generators would make a good job/career for someone.
Problem is that it is difficult to muffle a single cylinder engine, which most small generators are.
It can’t be that hard, I’ve ridden lots of single cylinder motorcycles with quite mufflers. It might be expensive or even inconvenient but not difficult.
This is a perfect public service message from WUWT that obviously benefits those who post and/or peruse this site. If you don’t already own a gas-powered generator, I highly suggest you purchase one near term. I’ve been in Florida most of my life and own a fantastic Honda generator that has brought relief to me and my family many times during power outages resulting from weather.
Unless your rich uncle bought your Honda, you are an idiot.
All portable generators are junk. Some are expensive junk.
Being an idiot there is a good possibility your will win the Darwin award by killing your family.
Tell that to the home builders Kip. Perhaps you need to frame a house with just a hammer like my father use to do. If you did you tune would change.
That was kind of an uncalled-for outburst, wasn’t it?
I had to say something rather than do a down vote. I think your comment was way over the top, and am having a hard time understanding why the mention of portable generators causes such an angry response. Tony is one of millions who own portable generators. Are they all idiots?
Is there any portable generator in the world that would meet your requirement of not being junk?
How about a constructive comment.
Just do what the Marxists do, crowd fund legal challenges, lots of them
Next on the “we’re not banning it” list…Gas stations.
From the WSJ today. https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-regulation-congress-white-house-economy-fc63c5d9?mod=opinion_lead_pos3
1.
“The Transportation Department on Friday proposed a 696-page rule raising corporate average fuel economy (Cafe) standards that would effectively require 100% of new cars to be electric by 2032. This is even more aggressive than California’s EV mandate, which wouldn’t ban the sale of new gas-powered cars until 2035.
Passenger cars would have to achieve 66.4 miles a gallon in 2032, up from 44.1 mpg last year. The ramp-up for trucks and SUVs is even steeper—to 54.4 mpg from 32.1 mpg. Auto makers will have no way to comply but to make more EVs.”
2.
“The Administration on Friday also proposed a 236-page revision to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) guidelines that will require federal agencies to consider climate change and “environmental justice” in project reviews. If a utility wants to build a gas pipeline, agencies might have to evaluate if a solar plant would better promote environmental justice, however regulators define it.”
The Administration continues to impose by regulation what it can’t pass through Congress. We have become a country based on an un-elected Administrative State sending down Rules by dictate. We are no longer a country based on Laws set by Elected Representatives. King George is very likely laughing in his grave.
Yes, the Executive Branch and the various federal agencies need *serious* reform up to, and including, doing away with the federal agency altogether.
This will only happen if Republicans regain the White House and Houses of Congress.
If radical Democrats continue to rule, we are all going down the tube.
Federal Agencies donate anywhere from 95 to 99 percent of their political donations to Democrats. That ought to tell you all you need to know. The Democrats are thoroughly entrenched in the federal bureaucracy, and that is the problem that needs to be solved. If you don’t like radical Democrat policies, then we have to get rid of the radical Democrats in government, elected and unelected.
Revolution
But I thought that every EV needed to carry a portable generator!
μολὼν λαβέ
Anyone here in Minnesota? I hear it is real lefty leaning there? Draconian yet?
That part of the reason left Minnesota 43 years ago.
About 15 years ago I got a call from a guy needing engineering/regulatory help at his residence. He said he was a lefty and proud of it … came from Minnesota & always voted Democrat. But, he said, ‘the govt here (Oregon) and the regulatory stuff here (Oregon) is absolutely frign nuts … they are absolutely communist crazy … I may move back to Minnesota.’
So, based on that guy, Minnesota has a long ways to go to catch up with Portland, Eugene, Beaverton (& most Portland Metro), Ashland, Salem, and most of western Oregon.
Apparently he still couldn’t see that Oregon is just where Minnesota is heading if people like him keep voting the same way…
The problem goes back to Scotus ruling in 2007 ruling in Mass v. EPA which resulted in the EPA gaining the authority to make executive rulings into federal laws. This should be high on the list of liberal decisions that become de factor laws, that the current Scotus is correcting. Should be the States decision not a makeshift body of so called experts who are really political hacks.
This is what I’m talking about, an out of control government agency, unelected with no checks or balances doing pretty much whatever it wants to and no resistance from our elected officials. This is disgusting. Any agency who proposes crap like this should have all of their office buildings and residences removed from the grid. These people make me sick.
I just got a backup generator installed at my house. It runs on natural gas. I wonder if they will make me switch to an electric powered generator. /sarc
No they are going to insist on batteries only for backup.
I’ll be getting a propane-powered generator here in the near future.
The Insane radical Democrats have even put my States grid in jeopardy with their human-caused climate change nonsense. So I’ll have to take matters into my own hands.
The solution to this problem is Trump 2024
Trump is the solution to a *lot* of problems we have.
You should have heard Mark Levine’s takedown of all the fraudulent charges the radical Democrats are trying to stick Trump with, on “Fox and Friends” this morning, on Fox News Channel. It was brilliant!
Everyone should see it and then they would see the criminal Democrats for who they really are and what they are really doing.
They are undermining the U.S. Constitution in their efforts to prevent Trump from running for president, and in the process, they are stealing the freedoms from all of us. If they can get away with doing this to Trump, then they can do it to you, if you get in their way. That’s not freedom. That’s tyranny.
Electing Trump would repudiate everything these Democrats have done since the corrupt Joe Biden took office. Send a message to the radical Democrats that their undermining of the U.S. Constitution is not acceptable to the American people. Vote the radical Democrats out of office and they will get the message.
“How Close is Too Close for Portable Generators?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkO9PK4JvJI
This is a complicated subject. My recommendation is to not get a portable generator for power outage. For the same reasons, having PV panels (smoke emitting diodes) on the roof of your house is a bad idea.
Since I have been retired, I have lived full time in an motor home. I have 3 generators. A 6500 watt installed in the MH, not portable and not cheap. It will run every thing. I have an $88 800 watt Harbor Freight generator for charging batteries. Also have a 2200 watt that will run one air conditioner.
I also have two carbon monoxide in the MH. One next to my head where I sleep.
I am retired from the power industry. Making electricity is dangerous for many reasons.
After the COVID lies you send us to a US government video? I don’t watch propaganda and in this day and age that about all you get from our so called betters. I was also told by a government employee that wood stoves are dangers, The fool did not understand that all my ancestors, parents and grand parents used before WII.
So you post this after your diatribe just above calling a fellow who owns a generator an idiot for owning a generator, and now you say you own four portable generators.
A little inconsistent, aren’t you?
But you see, he has only the best most expensive generators. Even though they are in his mobile home, these generators aren’t portable.
Besides he’s special.
Rather more dangerous not to have electricity in the winter. Do you assume everyone is an idiot and does not understand that one must run a generator indoors?
My recommendation is to not get a portable generator for power outage.
Why?
Because idiots are killing their families during a non life treating minor inconvenience.
My 6 year old granddaughter did the right thing during a life threatening emergency. We practice fire drills when I visit the house in Nevada.
My son, his wife, and two daughters were visiting the other grandparents in Califonia. Wonderful people but idiots when it comes to fire safety and what to do after setting the house on fire.
The point is that information can keep your family safe.
So, because SOME people are idiots, NOBODY should get a portable generator?
Do you hear what you’re saying?
SOME people cause wrecks by texting and driving, therefore NOBODY should buy a car.
SOME people set their houses on fire with their stove, therefore NOBODY should buy a stove.
I could go on.
You rail on about how a portable generator is SO BAD that NOBODY should EVER get one, because SOME people are idiots. Have you ever considered that some of us are a little smarter than that? Or do you really think that the average person engaged at WUWT is really that stupid?
“Do you hear what you’re saying?”
Let me say it another way. Tony G please do not get a portable generator because you are an idiot.
Here is the awful thing I did. I posted a video that provided some information that I found useful as an owner of a portable generator.
A smart person would not have to ask the basis of my recommendation.
please do not get a portable generator because you are an idiot.
THAT’S where you go? Personal insults?
I think you’re probably right in your case, since you can’t seem to understand the difference between SOME people and ALL people. You definitely should avoid getting a portable generator.
We’re done here, it’s obviously pointless to try to get through to you.
A few people are idiots who do stupid things. Therefore nobody should buy a portable generator?
Just how long have you worked for the government?
I was in the US Navy from 1970 to 1980. My primary job was supervising the operation of nuclear reactors. After leaving the navy I worked on power reactors including certifying senior reactor operator on several commercial plants.
I am a really smart guy.
Here is what I know for a fact. Everybody is an idiot and does stupid things. Sometimes it gets children killed.
One of the very smart people I supervised had a master in nuclear engineer. He came to work one day and the first thing he says is ‘Kit you were right!’
The fire department told him what I told him. Clean your chimney
Do NONE of these regulators know anyone that lives at home that exists solely based on 24/7/365 electricity? My wife’s cousin has a ventilator and a kidney dialysis machine at home. She *HAS* to have a backup generator for when the public utility power goes out. If it’s out more than a few hours her life is at risk.
Where are all the disability groups on this? Why aren’t they picketing?
I am going to mention this generator problem to a friend who is wheelchair bound and relies on an electric elevator to get around his house. A few weeks ago, he was stuck in his basement in the dark, when the power went out. He is just the sort of person who needs reliable power, and ergo, a generator. He needs to get it now.
And maybe the groups are not picketing because it is hard. But they need to get out there, I agree.
Most of them have no idea what is coming. It’s not like the news media is going to cover this.
Do these jerks have any idea how their million dollar plus houses are built. Most with portable generators all the way from the framers to the painters. God our elite are stupid.