Showerhead Liberation Day

I was not a fan of Trump’s “Liberation Day” because it means higher taxes and senselessly destructive protectionism.

But he’s given us another liberation day that is much better.

The Administration has announced that American consumers will once again (sort of) have the freedom to purchase working shower heads.

This issue strikes home because I was in Argentina and Brazil last week to give a few speeches and I enjoyed being in hotels with showers that actually worked.

This week I’m staying in American hotels while giving speeches as part of the Free Market Road Show. Sadly, this means being in hotels with low-flow shower heads that take much longer.

Reason‘s Christian Britschgi has an article on the Trump announcement, which technically involves a work-around to the original law. Here are some excerpts.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order that repeals the Biden administration’s December 2021 definition of a showerhead—saying instead that the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of showerhead will do for the purposes of federal regulations. …The president’s latest order is part of his longrunning pressure campaign against the appliance regulations of the Obama and Biden administrations. But the root of the issue goes back to the presidency of George H. W. Bush. The 1992 amendments to the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) require that showerheads emit a maximum of 2.5 gallons of water per minute. …In the waning days of his first term, he issued a new rule reversing the Obama administration’s definition. In December 2021, the Biden administration reversed course again and reapplied the Obama-era regulations saying that whole shower units, regardless of headcount, had to comply with the 2.5-gallon limit. Trump has now reverted things back to his 2020 standards.

But Trump’s move isn’t the ideal solution. You have to get a shower with multiple shower heads.

“Directionally, it’s the right thing to do. Unfortunately, there’s less to it than meets the eye,” says Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute… Lieberman notes that no executive regulation can repeal the statutory requirement in the EPCA that showerheads emit just 2.5 gallons of water. Very few Americans have multiheaded showers that Trump has deregulated with his order, he says. …In order to fully deregulate shower flows, Congress will need to act, says Lieberman. …Enshrining showerhead deregulation in statute would get industry back on the side of free markets and allow free markets to deliver more choice to consumers.

I also hope that Congress acts. This should be an easy victory.

Given the stupidity of Republicans, however, I predict it won’t happen.

P.S. Speaking of GOP stupidity, the original law was enacted under the statist administration of George H.W. Bush.

P.P.S. The war on effective shower heads is just one of many ways that the nanny-state left wants to undermine our quality of life.