How easy it is to make fun of those out-of-control, unelected government bureaucrats! The examples of their wild behavior are just so plentiful. Here's Tim Pawlenty in his big economic speech this morning (prepared remarks, video):
Conservatives have long made the federal bureaucracy the butt of jokes. And considering some of the bureaucrats in Washington, and what they're actually in charge of doing -- like the strength of our showerheads, the vigor of our toilet flushes, or the glow of our reading lamp -- you know, it’s hard not to laugh, or cry, about such things.
Actually, no.
The showerhead and toilet standards were set by Congress in the Energy Policy Act of 1992. From the law:
The maximum water use allowed for any showerhead manufactured after January 1, 1994, is 2.5 gallons per minute when measured at a flowing water pressure of 80 pounds per square inch.
The law also set a 1.6 gallon/flush standard on most toilets. American life went on.
The law addressed manufacturers, not homeowners, so homeowners aren’t required to change their existing showerhead. It wasn’t a particularly controversial law at the time, passing the House 381-37 and the Senate 93-3. It was signed into law by the not-so-liberal George H.W. Bush. Showerheads were back in the news last year when the Department of Energy said the law meant manufacturers couldn’t attach multiple nozzles onto one fitting and thus double the flow of water. The controversy was irrelevant to the vast majority of Americans, who use showers with a single head.
As for the light bulb standards, those were done by Congress (2007) and then expanded by the Obama Administration. The congressional light bulb initiative, pushed by Representative Fred Upton (R), was uncontroversial enough that it cleared the Energy & Commerce Committee on a voice vote; conservative stalwarts, including Joe Barton, declined to ask for a roll-call vote, as Greenwire has noted. The full bill, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, was signed into law by another left winger, George W. Bush, that December.
Those darned federal bureaucrats! And, of course, if a federal bureaucrat did set a standard that was in contradiction with the laws set by Congress, an affected party could (and certainly would) sue, and the courts would determine if the standard had broken the law.
If Tim Pawlenty is so upset about the showerhead standards, he should take it up with some of the folks who voted for them back in 1992: Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, Trent Lott, Orrin Hatch...
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Ben Somberg | June 7, 2011
How easy it is to make fun of those out-of-control, unelected government bureaucrats! The examples of their wild behavior are just so plentiful. Here’s Tim Pawlenty in his big economic speech this morning (prepared remarks, video): Conservatives have long made the federal bureaucracy the butt of jokes. And considering some of the bureaucrats in Washington, […]
Robert Verchick | June 5, 2011
Bonn–At a climate conference in Germany, with lager in hand, I was prepared to ponder nearly any environmental insult or failure. But rat pee? Really? The urine of rats, as it turns out, is known to transmit the leptospirosis bacteria which can lead to high fever, bad headaches, vomiting, and diarrhea. During summer rainstorms in São Paulo, Brazil, […]
James Goodwin | June 3, 2011
In testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in mid-April, Cass Sunstein, Administrator of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), was asked to comment on a much-disputed $1.75 trillion estimate of the annual cost of federal regulations. The number comes from a report commissioned by the Small […]
Dan Rohlf | June 3, 2011
Few things in politics are certain, but it’s a safe bet that Barak Obama will not carry the state of Utah in his 2012 re-election bid. But despite its dismal electoral prospects in the state, the Obama Administration knuckled under to pressure from Utah and other western Republicans this week when Secretary of Interior Ken […]
Lena Pons | June 2, 2011
For the last two decades, scientists have amassed evidence that bisphenol A (BPA) poses a threat to human health. BPA is a chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastic, can liners for food and beverages, and thermal paper used for register receipts. It is used in so many applications that the Centers for Disease […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | June 2, 2011
The Obama administration has been busy with its regulatory look-back, which required agencies to identify health, safety, and environmental standards to be reviewed in the coming months, with the possibility of eliminating or modifying them (in some cases, the specific proposal for modification or elimination was already made last week). In explaining why the look-back […]
Daniel Farber | June 1, 2011
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. I’ve just spent some time reading the initial briefs in the D.C. Circuit on the endangerment issue. They strike me as much more political documents than legal ones. A brief recap for those who haven’t been following the legal side of the climate issue. After the Bush Administration decided not to […]
Matt Shudtz | May 31, 2011
OSHA published a report (pdf) last week on its role in the federal government’s response to last year’s massive oil spill. Within days of the blowout aboard the Deepwater Horizon, OSHA officials were in Louisiana, working to ensure that the people involved in the response and cleanup had adequate protection from the myriad hazards they would […]
Holly Doremus | May 27, 2011
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. I was excited to read this story in the LA Times, saying that BOEMRE and NOAA had reached an agreement that would give NOAA more say in decisions to approve offshore drilling. (Draw whatever conclusions you like about what my geeky excitement says about how boring my life must be.) This […]