Free the fridges! Make dishwashers great again! US conservatives have odd priorities | Emma Beddington

The latest victims of the culture wars? Woke white goods. Because, apparently, energy efficiency and lower electricity bills are unAmerican

If you've ever wished your dishwasher used more water, or found your fridge too cheap to run, help is at hand. US Republicans have their sights set on one of the greatest scourges of our age: woke white goods.

You may or may not remember last year's induction hobs are unpatriotic" idiocy. For the mercifully uninitiated, one of 2023's more niche culture war moments crystallised around an allegation that the Feds" were going to take away" gas stoves. This was demonstrably untrue: despite plentiful research demonstrating gas stove emissions are hazardous to human health, there was no proposed ban, just a statement from a consumer safety commissioner that any option is on the table" with harmful products; the White House almost instantly clarified that it would not support a prohibition. Shame: imagine the bootleg methane speakeasies.