Travel & Lifestyle: Trump Is Pushing For More Wasteful Showerheads, Toilets And Cars

President Donald Trump is rolling back efficiency standards on new appliances and cars as part of forthcoming executive actions the new administration said will “empower consumer choice in vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers.”

The White House announced the move in a document Monday listing Trump’s top priorities upon his return to office. The executive orders expected in the coming hours or days are likely to direct the agency chiefs awaiting Senate confirmation to begin new rulemaking processes to reverse Biden-era regulations.

During the closing days of Trump’s last term, his administration finalized rules relaxing efficiency standards on showers, laundry machines and toilets that he complained used insufficient volumes of water.

The Biden administration swiftly reversed the rules and looked to undo a special carveout Trump made in 2020 in response to a petition from the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute giving appliances that complete a full cycle in an hour or less a special status with less-stringent rules.

Republican attorneys general sued to block the Biden administration from revoking Trump’s appliance rules, and a federal court sent the issue back to the Department of Energy in 2022.

Days after the November election, the Energy Department finalized its proposal to cement Biden’s rescinding of the Trump-era carveout.

While Trump’s focus on appliances has long been described as a personal pet peeve, efficiency advocates pointed to positive reviews of new showers and dishwashers.

“Any good showerhead is likely to be an upgrade over the one you inherited when you moved into your place, especially if it’s more than a decade old,” the product-review site Wirecutter wrote in December.

Earlier this month, Consumer Reports testing found models that “use even less water than what the law allows while still providing a powerful shower that leaves you feeling recharged.”

Most dishwashers with five-star cleaning ratings on the Consumer Reports website meet the stronger standards the Biden administration finalized last April, according to an analysis by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

In another write paper, ACEEE found that new federal standards finalized last January to make stoves more efficient would primarily impact electric stoves, leaving 97% of gas models on the market untouched.

Republicans routinely railed against higher gas costs, then redirected rage at the Biden administration’s decision to release fuel from the Strategy Petroleum Reserve to bring down the price at the pump. But the American Petroleum Institute, the main oil and gas lobby in the U.S., made reversing fuel-milage rules to make automobiles more efficient a top priority ahead of Trump’s inauguration.

Doing so will likely require a formal rulemaking process at the Environmental Protection Agency, set to be led by Trump’s nominee, former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.).

But advocates expect Trump to issue executive orders this week setting the stage for slashing energy efficiency standards on new appliances.

“Test after test has found that efficient new dishwashers, washing machines, and showerheads perform far better than old models,” said Andrew deLaski, executive director of ACEEE’s Appliance Standards Awareness Project, “so any effort to undo standards for these products would not help families and would only raise their total costs.”