George Will has a new column in the Washington Post about the bureaucracy’s war against dishwashers that…well…actually clean dishes.
The Energy Department’s busy beavers, with their unsleeping search for reasons to boss us around for our own good, decided that dishwashers use too much water and energy… Responding to the Biden administration…, a slew of states sued the Energy Department… This dispute reached the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which, in its Jan. 8 ruling,swatted away what it tartly called the department’s “government-always-wins” argument…the court said, not only has the Energy Department acted in excess of statutory authority, but the record also contains “ample evidence” that the department’s new rules reduced efficiency in both energy and water use because “purportedly ‘energy efficient’ appliances do not work.” People “may use more energy and more water to preclean, reclean, or handwash their stuff before, after, or in lieu of using DOE-regulated appliances.” …DOE itself estimated in 2011 that handwashing consumes 350% more water and 140% more energy than machine washing.
The Wall Street Journaleditorialized about this issue last year.
…the Energy Department dropped a sweeping proposal for “efficiency” mandates on dishwashers. Did you enjoy last night’s spaghetti, still crusted on the plate? Now you can taste it twice. …Americans have learned the hard way that stricter efficiency rules on already efficient appliances translate into higher costs, inconvenience, and ultimately waste. The Obama Administration’s dishwasher regulations raised the average price of a machine nearly $100, while producing a new norm of dirty forks and smelly glasses. …Machines can only meet much higher efficiency standards by recirculating water in longer cycles, meaning run times of two or three hours. Yet if the dishes aren’t clean, owners run them again, undermining the argument about conservation. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says that in 2020 nearly 20% of American households that owned a dishwasher never used it. That means they hand washed, which is as inefficient as it comes. The Biden …Energy Department plan gives manufacturers only until 2027 to produce the miracle of costlier washers that do a worse job.
This issue is ridiculous. I’m not sure what’s worse, the fact that bureaucrats are making our lives less pleasant, or that they’re making our lives less pleasant in a way that doesn’t actually save water or energy.
I’ll close on a related note. I was in Mexico City last week and was happily surprised at the quality of the hotel’s shower.
But then I realized that I was enjoying strong water pressure because Mexico presumably does not impose (or does not enforce) the stupid water-flow regulations we have in the United States.
This type of red tape is supposed to save water, but I wonder if that happens since you have to spend twice as long in the shower?
Dan Mitchell is co-founder of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and Chairman of the Board. He is an expert in international tax competition and supply-side tax policy.
