Environmental groups sue Trump administration over rule allowing for faster dishwashers
Washington (CNN) — A coalition of environmental groups sued the Energy Department on Tuesday in an effort to block a new federal rule that would allow for faster dishwashers, arguing it could possibly lead to “higher household utility bills and more pollution.”
President Donald Trump railed against dishwasher efficiency while on the campaign trail, including when he referenced suburban women’s alleged dissatisfaction with dishwashers.
“This was a senseless Trump administration action that hurts consumers and all who’ve benefited from the significant efficiency gains in dishwashers over more than 30 years,” Joe Vukovich, an energy efficiency advocate with the NRDC, said in a statement. “It also sets an appalling precedent that the agency could abuse by picking any trivial feature of an appliance and exempting it from all efficiency standards.”
The Energy Department did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.
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In the new rule, the department referenced a shortened cycle in the context of a requirement for “a product class with a higher or lower energy use or efficiency standard than the standards applicable to other dishwasher product classes.”
While some dishwashers feature cycles shorter than an hour, the department said in the rule finalized in late October that it could not confirm that they “operate within the confines of current energy and water consumption standards,” which are applied to “normal” cycles.
CNN’s Caroline Kelly contributed to this report.