Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads
Signed: April 9, 2025
Published: April 15, 2025
Document Number: 2025-06459
📋Summary
This executive order directs the Secretary of Energy to rescind a 2021 Department of Energy rule that set a detailed federal definition of “showerhead” in energy conservation regulations. It mainly affects the Department of Energy and, indirectly, manufacturers and sellers of showerheads who were subject to that definition in federal rules. The key action required is publishing a notice in the Federal Register отменing the 2021 rule and removing the related definition from the federal code, with the change taking effect 30 days after the notice is published. It also states the order must be carried out within existing legal and budget limits and does not create new legal rights for the public to enforce.
💼Business Impact
Plumbing fixture manufacturers/importers, retailers, and hospitality/multifamily property operators are most affected, because rescinding DOE’s 2021 “showerhead” definition may loosen how multi-nozzle or bundled spray products are classified and tested under federal energy/water conservation rules. Businesses may see a near-term opportunity to redesign, re-label, or reintroduce products that were constrained by the prior definition, but should still plan for continued enforcement of other DOE/EPCA efficiency limits and state/local water-use standards (e.g., California) that may not change. Immediate actions: manufacturers should review product lines and certifications against the pre-2021 framework, update compliance files/marketing claims, and coordinate with counsel/testing labs on how products will be treated once the rescission is effective (30 days after Federal Register notice); property operators and distributors should pause large purchasing decisions until suppliers confirm post-rescission compliance and any state-specific requirements.
Full Text
Executive Order 14264 of April 9, 2025
Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1 . Purpose. Overregulation chokes the American economy and stifles personal freedom. A small but meaningful example is the Obama-Biden war on showers: Twice in the last 12 years, those administrations promulgated multi-thousand-word regulations defining the word “showerhead.” See Energy Conservation Program: Definition of Showerhead, 86 Fed. Reg. 71797 (December 20, 2021); Energy Conservation Program for Consumer Products and Certain Commercial and Industrial Equipment: Test Procedures for Showerheads, Faucets, Water Closets, Urinals, and Commercial Prerinse Spray Valves, 78 Fed. Reg. 62970 (October 23, 2013). To the extent any definition is necessary for this common piece of hardware, the Oxford English Dictionary defines “showerhead” in one short sentence.
Sec. 2 . Ordering the Repeal of the 13,000-Word Regulation Defining “Showerhead”. I hereby direct the Secretary of Energy to publish in the Federal Register a notice rescinding Energy Conservation Program: Definition of Showerhead, 86 Fed. Reg. 71797 (December 20, 2021), including the definition of “showerhead” codified at 10 C.F.R. 430.2. Notice and comment is unnecessary because I am ordering the repeal. The rescission shall be effective 30 days from the date of publication of the notice.
Sec. 3 . General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
( printed page 15620)(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
April 9, 2025.