Federal regulations that make dishwashers and washing machines even worse are also illegal. That’s why consumers in Texas and Louisiana are making the claim in a new lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
While the Department of Energy has the authority to regulate the energy used by these devices, Congress never gave it the authority to regulate the water used by these devices, the lawsuit said. Therefore, recent regulations restricting its water use are illegal.
“The Department of Energy has the ability to set its own rules based on the text of the legislation,” said Dan Greenberg, general counsel of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), which represents consumers in the lawsuit. “The difficulty is that it creates rules that appear to rely on authority that is not found in the statutory text passed by Congress.”
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Under President Biden, the Energy Department has been an active regulator of home appliances. It repeals several Trump-era rules that relaxed conversational standards for showerhead and dishwasher efficiency and seeks to impose tighter regulations on a broader range of products.
Manufacturers object to the costs of these new rules. The same goes for many consumers, who don’t like to see their choices limited to low-quality products.
Stricter energy efficiency standards are also often counterproductive. As machines become less efficient, more and more people are washing dishes by hand – a process that uses more water.
The DOE’s regulatory push has also encountered other legal problems. Back in January, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the department from repealing the Trump administration’s lax energy efficiency standards for dishwashers.
The court ruled that the Energy Department failed to properly consider how energy efficiency standards could cause consumers to use more energy and water. It also said the department had not given due consideration to repealing previous regulatory changes.
Most relevant to this latest lawsuit, the 5th Circuit ruled that energy regulations passed by Congress over the years did not give the Department of Energy the authority to impose limits on the amount of water used by energy-using appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines beyond express limits. in regulations.
The DOE can regulate water use in non-energy plumbing fixtures such as shower heads, and it can regulate energy use in dishwashers and washing machines, but not in the latter machines.
Nonetheless, the Department of Energy went ahead and issued new water restrictions in February 2024 for dishwashers and home washing machines.
“You have to do two or three cycles instead of one cycle. What you save on water bills, you’re going to have to pay as much or more in increased electricity costs, plus time and increased physical labor,” Greenberg explain. “I think these rules are the mindset of some regulators in Washington who don’t understand how the trade-offs work.”
