WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — For years, President Donald Trump has talked about water conservation policies that he feels make dishwashers less powerful than they used to be. Now, just days before the election, the Trump administration has changed Obama-era regulations to allow increased water flow for the popular kitchen appliance.
“The dishwashers, they had a little problem. They didn’t give enough water, so people would run them 10 times, so they end up using more water,” Trump said at a rally in Carson City, Nevada earlier this month. “And the thing’s no damn good. We freed it up.”
“Now you can buy a dishwasher and it comes out beautiful,” he added. “Go buy a dishwasher. Go buy it.”
According to NBC News, Obama-era dishwasher standards did not allow more than 5 gallons of water per cycle for standard products. That’s roughly half the water used by the appliance two decades ago.
Russ Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the president has freed people from “ludicrous government regulations” and brought “common-sense reform” to dishwashers.
“Dishes now wash in an hour or less,” Russ Vought told Real Clear Politics. “This is yet another example of President Trump’s promises made, promises kept on deregulation.”
While some models may have a long wash cycle, 87 percent of dishwashers sold in 2017 included a fast cycle that allowed dishes to be washed and dried in an hour, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.
Vought’s office made the news official with an October 20 tweet that read, “with burdensome regulations imposed by the Obama Admin, dishwashers were weak & took nearly 3 hours. Today, we concluded on an @ENERGY rule to change that. @POTUS’ common sense rule will allow Americans to wash dishes in under an hour!”
Previous to this move, the Trump administration rolled back energy standards for light bulbs and froze standards for gas-power furnaces in homes, according to the New York Times.
