President Donald Trump is working to make showerheads great again.
He signed an executive order on Wednesday that would maintain “acceptable pressure in showerheads” and combat “the Obama-Biden war on showers.” The order targets Biden-era regulation that restricts the number of gallons of water per minute that flow through the hardware and other appliances.
“I like to take a nice shower, take care of my beautiful hair,” the president told reporters, in the midst of tariff-induced global upheaval in the markets. “I have to stand in the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet. Comes out drip, drip, drip. It’s ridiculous.”
“What you do is you end up washing your hands five times longer, so it’s the same water,’' he added. “And we’re going to open it up so that people can live.”
Trump, who has been fixated on having stronger showers for years, directed Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to rescind a regulation issued under President Barack Obama, and later reinstated under President Joe Biden. The rule limited the flow from each shower head on the market to 2.5 gallons of water-per-minute. Some states have imposed lower rates, including in the drought-and-wildfire-stricken West.
“The Order frees Americans from excessive regulations that turned a basic household item into a bureaucratic nightmare. No longer will showerheads be weak and worthless,” the White House said in a fact sheet announcing the move, pinning changes on a “radical green agenda that made life worse for everyday Americans.”
“These appliances worked perfectly fine before Biden’s meddling piled on convoluted regulations that made those appliances worse,” the administration said. Trump called past standards an “unnecessary restriction.”
During Trump’s first term, the Energy Department introduced a loophole to the rule which stated that, if a showerhead head more than one nozzle, the limit applied to the flow from each nozzle, rather than the entire fixture.
It remains unclear what effect the executive order will have. Water pressure weakness in showers is likely tied to home plumbing or limescale buildup, according to the Appliance Standard Awareness Project.
Andrew deLaski, the director of the the energy conservation advocacy group, said “there isn’t a problem to be solved” with the showerheads available today, and called the order a gimmick that would get around the law.
“It sounds like the administration is gearing up to do the same gimmick they did last time, where they’ll specifically allow products with many nozzles in a manner designed to get around the 1992 law. No major showerhead manufacturer even bothered to sell such a device last time,” he said.
Showers account for nearly 20 percent of the average American family’s daily indoor water use, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Water-saving showerheads also conserve energy, because heating water accounts for about one fifth of the average home’s energy use.
During an appearance on Newsmax Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy expanded on the president’s plans.
“The president is talking about showerheads,” he said.
“You don’t have enough water that can come through your showerhead because of Biden’s regulations, and so again, fixing small things like that – hopefully he’s gonna get the dishwashers – wouldn’t it be great if dishwashers worked again? Where you don’t have to wash your dishes first and then put them in the dishwasher to actually get a little heat on them?”
He added“I mean, common sense stuff he’s doing.”
The U.S. is one of the top water users in the world, and the average American family uses about 552 gallons each day. Many Americans aren’t aware of how much water they use, according to utility company American Water.
Saving water can save money, and a 2014 Government Accountability Report found that 40 out of 50 state water managers expect water shortages under average conditions in some portion of their states over the next decade. Climate change, which is exacerbating water scarcity and water-related hazards, is projected to reduce water supplies in parts of the country.
With reporting from The Associated Press
