On the day after Christmas, in its last days, the Biden administration published a final rule that was effectively a ban on most fossil fueled residential hot water heaters. Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution nullifying the rule.

House Joint Resolution 20 passed 221-198. No Republicans opposed the disapproval, and 11 Democrats voted for the House action.

Implications for Homeowners

Just days before the vote President Trump issued a statement of administration policy that explained he, “strongly supports passage of H.J. Res. 20, a joint resolution to disapprove the rule submitted by the Department of Energy (DOE) relating to Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-fired Instantaneous Water Heaters.” .. “This rule’s impact on the water heater market could set a dangerous precedent for further restrictions on natural gas appliances, making it harder for American homeowners to maintain affordable living standards. The rule promotes more expensive condensing gas water heaters and creates hurdles for remodeling and replacement projects.”

Pendent to the issuance of that statement and consistent with the Presidential Memorandum of January 20, 2025, temporarily postponing all pending rules, DOE announced that it is postponing the effective date of these standards until March 2, 2025.

Broader Legislative and Regulatory Context

The House action is part of the broader Trump administration and Republican Congress efforts to dismantle the “green New Deal” including what are seen as environmental policies overreaching into people’s lives wrongly justified in the name of apocalyptic global warming. In this instance, the federal government was not coming for your gas stove, but it certainly was coming for your non-condensing natural gas powered hot water heater, which comprises approximately 40% of the market.

In a perverse only in Washington DC turnabout, the loudest opponents to this repeal are not Democrats, but manufacturers of ‘electric’ hot water heaters, who are not subject to this rule.

In the name of a climate emergency, the Biden administration issued regulations to force households to implement its agenda: Last year, the executive branch introduced a final rule imposing stricter energy standards for residential clothes washing machines; Finalized a rule, set to go into effect in 2025, to transition to more advanced refrigeration and cooling technologies that don’t use hydrofluorocarbons; Only after facing pushback, issued its final regulations, which will impact 3% of gas stove models, rather than the initially proposed 50%; Doubled efficiency standards for light bulbs, requiring manufacturers to raise the levels for common light bulbs from 45 lumens per watt to more than 120 lumens per watt, such that only LED bulbs will be able to comply with the standards, not compact fluorescent bulbs; and, Amended the energy conservation standards for ceiling fans, putting into effect far stricter energy standards that forced small and medium size manufacturers out of the market.

The Role of the Congressional Review Act

This resolution was introduced under the Congressional Review Act, a tool Congress can use to overturn certain federal agency actions. If a CRA joint resolution of disapproval is approved by both houses of Congress and signed by the President, the rule at issue cannot go into effect or continue in effect.

While over 400 joint resolutions of disapproval for more than 250 rules have been introduced since the CRA’s enactment, the method has only successfully been used to overturn a handful of rules. It was utilized in the 117th Congress to repeal three rules promulgated by the Trump administration, similarly. During the 118th Congress, when over 200 joint resolutions of disapproval were introduced, the most to date during a given Congress, no rules were successfully overturned. Today in the 119th Congress, there are more than 30 CRA joint resolutions already pending and there will be more.

Next Steps

The office of Senator Cruz, who cross filed Senate Joint Resolution 4 for gas fired instantaneous water heaters, announced on Thursday they had gathered the required number of signatures to bring the resolution to the Senate floor, and a vote will likely come within the next two weeks.

If the Senate passes the resolution and it receives presidential assent, and both are expected to happen before the end of March 2025, the rule on gas fired instantaneous water heaters will be nullified, preserving current consumer options and averting drastically increased costs associated with the purported transition to electric models responding to the U.S. public’s number one concern of lower cost of living.

This Congressional development highlights the significant shift in political views on apocalyptic climate change as well as skepticism of Executive branch regulatory efforts.

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