Have you heard about the “Don’t Mess with My Home Appliances Act?” It’s not just legislation with an edgy name. The bill is designed to protect your right to choose appliances that work best for your home.
What’s This All About?
In early 2025, I wrote about the Energy Choice Act. The “Don’t Mess with My Home Appliances Act” has a similar goal — ensuring you have access to the appliances you want. For example, depending on where you live, you may need a cooking range fueled by natural gas or propane or electricity. This law would make sure you get to select the option that works for you.
The Department of Energy (DOE) sets energy efficiency standards for appliances like stoves, water heaters, and furnaces. Some recent energy efficiency standards are making it more difficult to purchase and install natural gas and propane appliances — pushing families to switch from natural gas or propane to electric appliance, which may be more costly to purchase and operate.
The “Don’t Mess with My Home Appliances Act” aims to:
- Maintain consumer choice: By not imposing standards that force you to switch fuels (like natural gas or propane to electric).
- Ensure affordability: Standards would have to be practical and economically justified.
- Add transparency: DOE would be required to show the real-world impact of new rules.
Why Should You Care?
- Your wallet: Switching to electric appliances can require purchasing pricey appliances, paying expensive installation costs, and result in higher utility bills. Natural gas and propane are the most cost-effective fuels in many parts of the U.S.
- Your choice: You deserve to choose appliances that fit your lifestyle and budget.
- Your comfort: Appliances fueled by natural gas or propane are supported by robust and dependable infrastructure.
What Can You Do?
This bill is moving through Congress, and your voice matters:
- Stay informed: Follow updates on energy policy and appliance standards. Keep an eye on this blog and the Let’s Clear the Air Newsroom to learn more about issues around how we make and use energy.
- Speak up: Express your support for consumer choice, energy affordability, and energy reliability.
- Share this message: Talk to friends and family about why this matters.
The “Don’t Mess with My Home Appliances Act” is about protecting your freedom to choose, keeping energy costs affordable, safeguarding reliable energy, and ensuring that energy policies work for Americans.
Stuart Saulters is Vice President, Federal Affairs, for GPA Midstream. In that role, he leads the association’s efforts to engage policymakers on Capitol and within government agencies. Hear more from Stuart on the Let’s Clear the Air Podcast.
Share This
