Rand Paul Blames Energy Department for Faulty Toilets, Among Other Things
Senator Rand Paul’s toilets don’t work, and he blames the Department of Energy.
At a hearing of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Thursday, Mr. Paul lambasted Kathleen Hogan, deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency at the Energy Department, telling her that the department’s “hypocrisy” and “busybody nature” has “restricted choices” for consumers rather than made life better for them.
“You don’t care about the consumer really,” Mr. Paul said. “Frankly, my toilets don’t work in my house, and I blame you.”
The hearing was called not to examine toilet policy, but to consider two proposed bills, one that would update energy efficiency standards for appliances and a second that would repeal a measure passed in 2007 to phase in new efficiency standards for light bulbs beginning next year.
The new standards would make the current form of 100-watt incandescent bulbs obsolete. Those bulbs have long been known to be particularly inefficient, emitting far more heat than light.
Conservatives have taken up the cause of the incandescent light bulb, saying the government is trying to dictate to Americans what kind of light bulbs they can use in their homes. In the Senate, Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, has proposed a bill to repeal the light bulb standards that is co-sponsored by at least 22 other senators, including Mr. Paul. The bill, the Better Use of Light Bulbs Act (or the BULB Act — get it?), is Senate Bill 395.
Two bills are on the books in the House of Representatives. One, H.R. 91, is identical to the BULBS Act in the Senate and is sponsored by Representative Joe Barton, Republican of Texas, and 12 others. A second, H.R. 849, is sponsored by Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, who introduced a similar bill two years ago and who mentioned the looming bulb restrictions in her Tea Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech in January. That bill is co-sponsored by four other House members, including Representative Ron Paul, the father of Senator Paul.
While many Republicans have taken up the cause of the familiar 100-watt incandescent bulb, Mr. Paul said he took the law as a personal affront visited on Americans by “bureaucrats.”
“I’m not against conservation,” Mr. Paul said. “But why not do it in a voluntary way,” rather than force him to adopt the new bulbs with “fines and threats of jail?”
Mr. Paul also drew a pointed parallel with abortion, opening his questioning by asking Ms. Hogan, “I was wondering if you are pro-choice?”
Ms. Hogan said she was “pro-choice in light bulbs.” But Mr. Paul accused her, the Energy Department and Democrats in general of hypocrisy. “You favor a woman’s right to abortion,” he said, but “you’re really anti-choice on every other product.”
He said that department standards on energy-efficient refrigerators and toilets, for example, do not work. “We don’t even save any money,” Mr. Paul said. “We have to flush the toilet 10 times before it works.”
Mr. Paul started to leave the hearing room shortly after his turn at questioning the witness, but he was called back into the room by Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, who scolded Mr. Paul for being rude to Ms. Hogan.
“I think it behooves us all not to engage in name calling,” Ms. Shaheen said. Government workers like Ms. Hogan are simply trying “to carry out the work Congress has asked them to do,” and Congress can change the law if it wants, Ms. Shaheen said.
Ms. Hogan herself had a kind word for Mr. Paul: “I can help you find a toilet that works.”
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