BIDEN IS UN-AMERICAN: Biden removes Trump-era rule that helped rural Americans benefit, make profit from minor waterways

The Biden administration began legal action Wednesday to repeal a Trump-era rule that ended federal protections for hundreds of thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways.

The rule — sometimes referred to as “waters of the United States” or WOTUS — narrowed the types of waterways that qualify for federal protection under the Clean Water Act. Donald Trump said the rules imposed unnecessary burdens on business. The Trump-era showerhead rule took aim at the 2.5-gallon-per-minute maximum flow rate set by Congress in the 1990s. During the Obama administration, each showerhead in a fixture counted toward that limit collectively — but the Energy Department under then-President Donald Trump moved to let each showerhead reach the 2.5-gallon-per-minute individually.

The new proposal from President Joe Biden’s administration would revert to the showerhead standards set by the Obama administration. The proposed action is set to be published in the Federal Register, after which it will undergo a 60-day public comment period. The reversal of this process was first reported by the associated press.

Through 2020, the official said these standards had saved consumers $111.1 billion dollars in energy and water bills, 4.8 quads of energy and 4.3 trillion gallons of water. Those water savings equated to 107.5 billion baths of water with a 40-gallon average bath, the official said, which is equivalent to 63% of the water in Lake Champlain.