Consumers claim agency’s water restrictions are illegal
YSN Staff
Consumers from Texas and Louisiana have filed suit against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), claiming the agency’s strict new water usage limits for washers and dishwashers are illegal.
According to a report by Reason.com, the suit was brought on behalf of the citizens by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a non-profit libertarian think tank. Their argument: while the DOE can regulate energy usage, Congress never gave it the authority to regulate water usage.
CEI General Counsel Dan Greenberg, who filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, said the DOE has written rules for itself that overstep the statutory text passed by Congress.
Stricter Standards
Under the Biden administration, the DOE has imposed stricter regulations on appliances in pursuit of energy conservation and environmental protection, reversing Trump-era rules that relaxed efficiency standards. But this has led to objections from manufacturers who cite the higher associated costs, and from consumers who claim the new regs reduce product performance and thereby actually increase water usage.
As BrandSource member Duncan Kramer of Zeglin’s Home TV and Appliance told YSN last year, “Most people are already rinsing their dishes before they put them in the dishwasher. If the new machines use less water and less power, will people need to rinse and clean the dishes even more before placing them in the dishwasher? If so, they will likely be using even more water in total to get their dishes clean.”
See: DoE Proposes New Dishwasher Regulations
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed, and this past January blocked the DOE’s repeal of the looser Trump-era standards. Besides the counterproductive nature of the tighter regs, the court determined that while the DOE could regulate the water usage of plumbing fixtures, Congress did not extend that authority to electrical appliances beyond set statutory limits.
New Rules
Nevertheless, the DOE issued stricter new water limits for dishwashers and washers in February that are set to go in effect in 2028.
“Instead of one cycle, you have to do two or three cycles,” Greenberg told Reason.com. “I think these rules are a mindset of certain regulators in Washington who don’t understand how trade-offs work.”
