Ben Lieberman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute writes about how regulations are making air conditioning less affordable:
Add air conditioning to the long list of items experiencing inflation under the Biden administration. Whether it is fixing your home’s existing system or buying a brand new one, costs are moving higher due to environmental regulations. The same is true for the electricity needed to run our AC. Unless Washington reverses course, staying cool will only get more expensive in future summers.
Repair costs have been hit the hardest. The EPA is restricting supplies of a class of refrigerants called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), used in most air-conditioning and refrigeration systems, pursuant to a law passed in the last Congress targeting these compounds as contributors to (what else?) climate change. As a result, wholesale prices have increased 400 percent for compounds like HFC-410a — the refrigerant used in most residential air conditioners. Service technicians say that replacing refrigerant lost from a leak now costs upwards of $800, about double what it did a year ago. Moreover, EPA’s HFC quotas tighten in the years ahead, so the ratchet will keep turning, surely causing homeowners’ bills to increase further still.
Read the whole thing here.