Things the Gummint Should Not Be Involved In, Part I
I'm going to use this space as a digital chalkboard to tally the things the federal government does that it has no fucking business getting involved in. I'll amend and bump it as necessary.
What made me think of this? My toilet. The first entry is...
Telling us plebeians how much water our toilets can flush!In 1992 the EPA enacted the Energy Policy Act, a part of which required toilets to reduce capacity to 1.6 gallons per flush by 1994. Prior, most toilets used a healthy 3.5 gallon flush. Ever throw a few paper towels in the toilet in a moment of carelessness while cleaning the sink, toilet, tub, whatever? Instant clog with a wimpy 1.6 gallon flush; I've done that a few times. A goddamn toilet should be able to shred the hell out of a few paper towels, but instead it turns into a six flush half hour plunger project that uses three times as much water as a single 'high capacity' toilet flush would have taken. Hell, screw 3.5 gallon flushes, I'd get the supercharged five gallon flushpuppy if I could. How much would you like to bet the patricians have real toilets in their mansions? Kind of like how they don't have to pay social security, but that's another entry.
Okay, rant off; in all seriousness, water conservation is NOT a federal issue. Here in the northeast we're hardly having a water crisis, you know. We had major rains twice in the last three months that flooded much of the area, for example. Now, in the southwest where water shortages are actually an issue, it would be a state or local issue--by law. Probably state, and that assumes that the free market wouldn't take care of itself. Fact is, this law is a solution looking for a problem and causing no few of its own. There's literally a toilet black market, if you can believe that.
Disclaimer: The most recent article I found pertaining to this regulation is dated 2000, and I can't find any actual text; I guess the 1992 Energy Policy Act is a very broad piece of legislation and googling it just gets me stuff on nuclear waste and such. Even my beloved Wiki just has a stub entry. So I suppose it's possible the law has been repealed, but I seriously doubt it; you'd think I would find a few articles about the repeal if it happened.
