In its latest issue, Consumer Reports reviewed shower heads. The Competitive Enterprise Institute criticized them for reporting a high-performing shower head to federal authorities — not because it was defective or fraudulently advertised, but because it exceeded government limits on shower head water flow.
Consumer Reports states that the British-made Hudson Reed Theme Thermostatic Shower Panel had a forceful spray that seemed too good to be true— or legal. Environmental Protection Agency regulations limit shower head water flow to no more than 2.5 gallons per minute. Consumer Reports acknowledges that many shower fixtures get around this rule by using several shower heads, but the magazine decided to report the new single-head fixture to authorities anyway.
CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman pointed out that Consumer Reports had things backwards. Their “duty is to consumers, not bureaucrats. It should not be acting as a nosy bathroom cop, trying to toss good products in the slammer just because they violate some intrusive federal regulation. More basically, people ought to be able to use whatever shower fixtures they want, just like they can decide how long a shower to take. This is a really victimless crime.”
Perhaps this is where Obama’s “green jobs” are going to come from. Can’t you just see thousands of ACORN members as uniformed bathroom police, checking if you have a low-flow shower head, a low-flow toilet and the correct CFC lightbulbs (hope you don’t read in the bathroom, CFCs are terrible reading lights).
Never content to leave well-enough alone, the busybodies at the EPA are planning to restrict shower head flow even further:
Currently there is heightened interest from many stakeholders to pursue the development of performance based shower head criteria to address water and energy savings, encourage new and emerging technology, and ensure consumer satisfaction.
“Performance based shower head criteria” indeed. And just who the hell are these “stakeholders?” The EPA tops my personal list of government agencies to be abolished entirely. They are about to “regulate” carbon dioxide as a “pollutant,” so plan to stop breathing soon. They may be missing high school biology, but they do understand that calling CO2 a pollutant gives them the regulatory ability to regulate absolutely everything. Can’t beat that if you are a good leftist!
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American Elephants 
The EPA has become just another power mad goverment buracracy it should be totaly abolished ITS RUN BY DARTH VADER
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Comment by Birdzilla October 2, 2009 @ 3:43 pm