President Donald Trump has been complaining about government-restricted showers and water streams since at least late 2019, and on Wednesday proposed his Department of Energy release the stream.
The department wants to change its definition of a shower head so that models with multiple nozzles flowing simultaneously, such as a chandelier-type fixture, would meet federal water flow guidelines.
The new regulation would do this by stating that if each nose met the 2.5 gallon per minute limit, it would be legal. The 2.5-gallon limit was introduced in 1994 as a protective measure, and most showers sold in the United States today are 20 percent less than that, according to the Appliance Standards Awareness Project.
Energy Department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes accused showerhead regulation, first signed into law by President George HW Bush, over the administration of President Barack Obama. They confirmed that the proposed new rules, which will change how the heads are checked by the government, were inspired by Trump’s concerns.
“President Trump has promised the American people that he would reduce unusual federal regulations on American consumers, and this proposed regulation on showerheads does just that,” she said in an email.
On Dec. 6, during a small business tour, Trump focused on regulating water flow.
“We have a situation where we have a very strong view of sinks and showers and other bathroom elements, where you turn on the tap – in areas where there is a huge amount of water, where the water flows to the sea, to “You could never handle it – and you would not get water,” he said.
On July 16 at the White House South Lawn, the president linked his concerns about the flow of water to the appearance of his hair.
“You take a shower, the water does not come out,” he said. “You want to wash your hands, the water does not come out. So what do you do? You just stand longer than or you take a shower longer? Because my hair – I do not know about you, but it must be perfect. Perfect.”
On Thursday, Trump said during a visit to a whirlpool device in Ohio that he had already freed the nation from federal rules for low-current showers, but the proposed rule has not been finalized.
“If you’re like me, you can not wash your beautiful hair properly,” he said. “You’re wasting 20 minutes longer. ‘Please come.’ “The water – it’s dripping, right? You know what I’m talking about – they’re putting restrictions on it. I’ve got rid of it. I’m taking it off. That’s common sense.”
The Department of Energy’s “announcement of proposed regulations” on Wednesday allowed the public to weigh the idea.
Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, wrote a blog post about the proposal stating, “The entire device could have as many 2.5 gallon shower heads per minute as the manufacturer wants. Get it?”
He wrote that as recently as 2011, the Department of Energy stated that “a multi-nozzle shower is a single shower.”
In an email, DeLaski said the proposal he made compared to an episode of “Seinfeld” in which the characters search for illegal, high-flowing showerheads is bad time.
“It’s stupid,” he said. “The country has serious problems, a pandemic, serious drought in the long run in a large part of the West and climate change, to name a few. For the president to fight over showerheads is just ridiculous.”
He also said by email that well-designed low-flow showerheads would satisfy most consumers.
“Given all the excellent executive shower heads on the market and the staff at his disposal, you’d think the president could install a decent shower head in the White House,” DeLaski said.
