Reports are coming in that various suppliers and retailers of high-end gaming PC components are no longer selling certain items to residents of a few states. The reason for citizens of these states being denied access to the components is a new energy reduction policy in places like California and Washington.
https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1419775227047800835
Twitter user “Grummz” — who is actually former, original World of Warcraft project lead Mark Kern — went into detail about the situation on his account. According to Kern, it seems that the changes will hit California in December, but some retailers are implementing the restrictions already to make sure they’re compliant.
https://twitter.com/Grummz/status/1419857537738764294
Attempting to purchase banned components in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Vermont, will all lead you to the following statement on various retailers:
“This product cannot be shipped to the states of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont or Washington due to power consumption regulations adopted by those states. Any orders placed that are bound for those states will be canceled.”
Meanwhile, if you live in any of the other 45 states in the United States, as well as the American territories, you’re free to purchase whatever components you’d like and play with as powerful a PC as you wish. Very interesting is that it’s hard to imagine how a gaming PC component can compete in electricity usage versus any number of other items that are not banned in these states. Furthermore, it would seem that citizens of these states could potentially have these items shipped to them from friends or family, although this is not legal advice and residents should consult an attorney before attempting to do so.
According to MMO Fallout, Dell has already confirmed the restrictions in place are due to the new five-state regulations.
“Yes, this was driven by the California Energy Commission (CEC) Tier 2 implementation that defined a mandatory energy efficiency standard for PCs – including desktops, AIOs and mobile gaming systems. This was put into effect on July 1, 2021.” — Dell
PC Gamer, meanwhile, is reporting that sites like Alienware will not honor purchases that have been previously purchased in the five restricted states. Rather, the purchased items will be cancelled and refunded if they have not already shipped.
It certainly is an odd time in our world when citizens of certain states may have to resort to smuggling in computer parts from the rest of the country where they’re just normal, mundane purchases. Increasingly, however, there seems to be a divide in the political positions of the states, and this is just one more piece of evidence for the growing schism.
