I’m commenting on this item because President Trump somehow figured out that this was a sore issue for people with a well and septic tank, i.e. rural voters. It seems silly and minor. But it shows that he heard his voters and he took action. And even though his action never bore fruit, rural voters were thrilled that he was on their page and listened to him. And Trump, salesman that he is, was blissfully untroubled by the fact that his action, even if implemented, had very little impact. The urban coastal press (who use city water that is then treated and flushed out to the ocean, versus being put back into the ground which is what a septic tank does) had no idea what he was talking about.
The first time I heard President Trump mention toilets, showers, and dishwashers, I was astonished by his insight and my reaction was “How does this man get and understand this stuff?” Every rural voter complains about these things. I then painfully watched various pundits ramble on about how crazy Trump was to bring this up and that it made no sense to them. I also had to explain it to my urban friends. This is a problem for the left. The recent articles by Anna Philips and Todd Frankel shows that the Post still doesn’t understand this; it also reflects that there is no longer anyone at the Post who presents the rural point of view, even though rural voters constitute a key block that determines presidential elections. But then again, rural voters aren’t the target audience of the Washington Post. Unfortunately, Fox News does read the Post.
Rural voters know we are not running out of water
It isn’t possible to waste water. The amount of water on Earth is fixed. It cannot be wasted nor conserved. What we can waste and conserve are the collection, distribution, and sanitation costs of water. Water moves around, but never goes away. A drought in one area means flooding in another. Rural voters are very aware of this. Many urbanites think that we can run out of water. We can’t. If we could, we should kill all the fish. Do you have any idea how much water fish use? If anything, we have too much water. Yes, we can pump too much out of aquifiers if we are doing nothing to replenish them – currently cities pump water out of our aquifers, use it, treat it, and then flush it out to the ocean. And yes, urban areas need to change their practices. But that simply does not apply for a household with a well and septic tank – a closed system.
Virtually all rural voters have a well and a septic tank. The beauty of a septic tank is that it acts as a closed system for water recycling. Whatever I pump out of the ground for household use goes directly back into the ground through the septic tank. At some point in the future I will pump that same water right back out of the ground. This is exactly what they do on the International Space Station. It is not possible for me to “waste” water in any sense of the word. I live on the same land my Dutch ancestors homesteaded in the 1800s. And my water supply is exactly the same as it has always been. I can pump as much as I want for household use and it will have zero impact on the water table. I drink all recycled water.
I also pump my water out of the ground with a solar pump and a windmill. (I think that might be a Dutch thing). The pump that pressurizes the pressure tanks is also solar. My total cost for an unlimited and perpetual supply of water is zero.
Energy efficiency is more important to the rural voter
What I do pay for is electricity. It is 10 cents per kilowatt during the night and 20 cents per kilowatt during the day. I need a dishwasher that uses a lot of water but very little electricity. But dishwashers have been designed with the urban user and arid state voter in mind. Dishwashers can’t use more than 3.5 gallons on the Normal cycle, and they now run for a very long time. All from lobbying of arid areas and cities which are faced with the cost of collecting, distributing, and sanitizing water. which they then flush out to the ocean.
My new dishwasher’s Normal cycle is now 145 minutes. And despite claims to the contrary, about a third of the time on the Normal cycle the dishes are not fully clean so I run the same load through the fast cycle which takes 101 minutes. That is a total of 242 minutes (4 hours) for a 1100 watt machine. And I run it a minimum of once per day.
Having a machine that runs for 3 extra hours simply because other areas have very high distribution and sanitation costs is an extra 3.3 kwh, or potentially 66 cents per day. This adds up to a potential of $240 extra in electricity costs per year, or at least so goes the narrative.
Those numbers of course aren’t accurate, but it is directionally accurate. Privately, rural people complain all the time that they have to pay a higher electric bill to run their dishwasher so that the urban elites can live in cities and the wealthy can retire to arid states where no one should live in the first place. This isn’t something rural folks share with outsiders because it sounds petty and whiny. (I would also add that it isn’t necessarily accurate – but I’m trying to convey here the narrative, not perfect accuracy).
President Trump’s Response to the Issue
Trump’s gift is being able to figure out what really bothers voters, not make fun of them for it, and take action on it. And he did. He was able to enact rule changes that allowed dishwasher manufacturers to make “fast” dishwashers that are exempt from any rules on water usage. This was perceived as a win for the rural voter and something that could impact their everyday life. And Trump boasted that he made dishwashers great again. (Though to my knowledge, none were ever manufactured, and dishwasher manufacturers hated the rule, as they didn’t want to make yet another line of dishwashers.
President Biden’s Action on This Issue
Biden put Trump’s rule on review on his first day in office with no acknowledgement that it would adversely affect the rural voter. This year, the DOE eliminated the “fast” dishwasher rule and came out with an even more restrictive rule proposal that dishwashers use no more than 3.2 gallons on all cycles.
Even after President Trump’s rule change (and President Biden’s initiative to reverse it), the liberal media continued to claim that there is no one “clamoring” for the type of dishwasher President Trump allowed.
Of course not. Clamoring is done by special interest groups (like environmentalists, manufacturers and cities). There simply is no lobby to address small things that bother rural voters. And on this issue the rural voter has the science right.
President Biden’s Mistake
To the rural Electoral College voter, President Biden ignored their legitimate concern, even after President Trump identified it. This comes across as a deliberate disregard for the rural voter. Only large lobbies that “clamor” for something are heard. And, from the point of view of the rural voter who pumps all of his or her water directly back into the ground, the effort on water “conservation” is based on a failure to understand how the water cycle works. We can say what we want about President Trump, but he heard that small voice directly from his interactions with rural voters and acted on it.
There is a solution that acknowledges the rural voter.
The solution is to allow for a more flexible rule. Even if manufacturers never take advantage of it. Keep President Trump’s DOE proposal as is and allow manufacturers to make water-intensive dishwashers to be sold only in the states that specifically allow them. In practice, most states will say no. And most manufacturers will simply not take advantage of the “Fast” dishwasher exemption. So you end up in exactly the same spot. But now the rural voter has been heard and the states are the bad guy.
As it stands, President Biden ignored a valid rural concern, and will take 100% of the blame for the new more restrictive rule. Fix this. At the end of the day, states are responsible for their own water management. Let them take that responsibility.