Biden Reverses Showerhead Rule Trump Demanded

Former President Donald Trump’s reversal of a 1990s rule limiting waterflow from showerheads to 2.5 gallons per minute never really meant anything in the first place. Now, Biden has rolled the regulation back to 2013 standards, USA Today reports. During Obama’s presidency, lower flow showerhead rules were clarified to mean all nozzles in a multi-nozzle shower could put out 2.5 gallons per minute total. Trump called for a rule allowing each nozzle to put out that limit. But manufacturers largely ignored it, the AP reports. "Changing the rules to address one of President Trump's pet peeves is simply silly," Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, said.

Trump discussed the rule change in terms of wanting perfect hair. But it was part of a package of rolled back environmental standards that included relaxing energy-saving requirements for some washers and dryers, CNN reports. The earlier water standard saved Americans billions of dollars and trillions of gallons of water. Conserving energy and water is a hot-button issue as the western US faces a grueling drought. (More environment stories.)