OPINION:
This is a day I’ve been waiting for at least 20 years. With a stroke of the pen, President Trump has declared that you are now once again the king or queen of your castle.
No longer will the nanny state tell you what kind of car you can put in your garage. What kind of lawn mower, weed eater or sprinkler you can use on your lawn. What kind of light bulb you can put in your lamps. What kind of showerheads you can use or how much water pressure comes when you flush your bathroom toilet. What kind of stove or dishwasher or washing machine you can use in your kitchen or basement.
Mr. Trump has now overturned all these edicts, many of which were enacted under George W. Bush’s presidency and worsened under Presidents Obama and Biden.
Many of these green edicts came at the behest of environmentalists who hate when you use energy or water. Of course, the foolishness was that these edicts didn’t do anything to save water or energy. Nothing is more frustrating than toilets having so little thrust when you flush that you have to flush twice. A shower lasted twice as long to get clean under the water statutes. Nothing was saved, and a lot of personal freedom was lost.
Mr. Bush started this green war on appliances in the name of saving the planet with the worst energy bill ever signed back in 2007. It regulates nearly everything that moves or is plugged in at your house. The Bushies said it would be good for you because you would save money on your appliances, whether you liked it or not.
Mr. Biden made the regulations more stringent and tacked on appliance mandates nearly every week. His swan song was the outlawing of gas heaters. His electric vehicle mandates backfired. The more Mr. Biden insisted that Americans buy them, the fewer red-state drivers bought them, and the car companies lost money every time someone bought an electric vehicle.
Mr. Trump is ordering the immediate reversal of Biden-era green energy regulations on household appliances and the reinstatement of environmental orders issued under his first term.
In a Truth Social post just days ago, Mr. Trump called on the Environmental Protection Agency, led by former Rep. Lee Zeldin, to immediately undo Mr. Biden’s climate mandates and return to commonsense standards.
“I am hereby instructing Secretary Lee Zeldin to immediately go back to my Environmental Orders, which were terminated by Crooked Joe Biden, on Water Standards and Flow pertaining to SINKS, SHOWERS, TOILETS, WASHING MACHINES, DISHWASHERS, etc.”
The irony of all of these onerous and unpopular edicts is that it used to be the Democrats who insisted that we must “keep government out of the bedroom.” Now they want to regulate the temperature and the type of lamp on your bedside table.
As for the promise of lower electric bill prices by going green, it was never clear why Americans couldn’t make up their minds when they wanted to save money and when they just really wanted the full blast in the shower.
Congratulations to Mr. Trump for splashing cold water in the face of home appliance regulations. It’s a big victory for consumer sovereignty. What irony that the one who liberated us from these government edicts was the man we were told would be a dictator.
Instead, we are free at last.
• Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a co-founder of Unleash Prosperity.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.