Is the Biden Administration's push for 'green' policies doing more harm than good? Many Republicans have said so, as the White House's environmental agenda creates more federal regulations that impede economic growth and make life more difficult for everyday Americans. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) expressed the sentiment in a recent op-ed for the New York Post, blasting new environmental standards for affordable housing that ironically make it more expensive.
"The Department of Housing and Urban Development exists to boost affordable housing for Americans, yet under President Biden, HUD is issuing a new "energy-saving" rule that will instead increase the cost of building homes for federally assisted buyers, despite already sky-high prices and a nationwide housing shortage," Sen. Rubio began, highlighting the stark contradiction in the policies.
However, he noted that news outlets with a pro-Biden slant would not discuss the impact of these new regulations, if not dismiss them entirely, citing Bloomberg's coverage of the latest environmental regulations as an example.
For additional context, the new rules regulate efficiency standards for windows, insulation, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), among similar systems. Bloomberg claimed these regulations would save homeowners $963 per year, but Sen. Rubio pointed out that the increased construction costs these regulations create, up to $31,000, renders the energy savings moot.
"With today's interest rates, it could take a buyer as many as 90 years to break even on that through energy savings," the Florida Senator noted.
Moreover, Rubio claimed these regulations only exacerbate the housing shortage crisis, a pressing issue that the Biden Administration seems to be overlooking, yet the Biden Administration is "beholden to Wall Street-based interest groups and environmentalist activists."
Rubio further noted these same environmentalist activists are "fanatics [who] are at odds with normal families and their desire to live the American Dream. Their ideology sees modern civilization as a cancer on the Earth and explicitly opposes new human life."
"The United States, however, is not a sandbox for ideological fanatics," he stipulated.
This is not the first time Florida Republicans, including Rubio, have voiced opposition to the Biden Administration's energy and environmental agenda. Representative Kat Cammack (R-FL) blasted emission standards imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on new vehicles last July as "all about dependency and control, not about sound economic policy or promoting the environment."
