Alicia Huey, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home developer from Birmingham, Ala., today issued the following statement after President Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to boost production of electric heaters:

“The purpose of the Defense Production Act is to expand the supply of materials and services to protect the American people, not to advance a political agenda. Therefore, it is extremely disappointing that President Biden has elected to invoke the Defense Production Act in a blatant move to promote a policy agenda seeking to push American households towards electric heating in lieu of gas heating.”

“For the past few years, there has been an extreme shortage of distribution transformers that have prevented the construction of badly needed housing developments, exacerbated the nation’s housing affordability crisis and frustrated recovery efforts in communities hit by natural disasters. NAHB has been calling on the administration to utilize the Defense Production Act to boost transformer output at existing facilities to address the growing supply chain crisis for distribution transformers that threatens the nation’s housing sector.”

“Transformers are an essential part of the electrical grid bringing power to homes and businesses. But lead times to obtain transformers have remained stubbornly long, ranging anywhere from 18 to 24 months as global supply chains continue to heal in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Getting the production of transformers back online should be a national priority, something the Defense Production Act was designed for. Hopefully, President Biden will reassess his priorities and provide funding under the Defense Production Act to jumpstart the production of badly needed transformers across the nation.”