The Energy Department is repealing a Biden-era rule that restricted water flow from shower heads following an executive order last week from President Trump. The department said it was issuing a final rule that will repeal the Biden-era shower head definition in a Federal Register notice that was signed on Friday and will be formally published on Tuesday. Typically, energy efficiency rules undergo a lengthy process that involves notifying the public and allowing it to weigh in. However, Trump’s executive order directed the Energy Department to skip that step. “Notice and comment is unnecessary because I am ordering the repeal,” the order said. Similarly, the rule itself cited the executive order, saying, “In compliance with that directive, and because there is good cause to skip notice and comment in light of the nondiscretionary nature of the agency’s duty, the agency is issuing this repeal without notice and comment.” Legal scholars have raised questions about the legality of skipping these procedural steps. Max Sarinsky, regulatory policy director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University's law school, called the directive to skip the notice and comment period “blatantly illegal.” “That's an extremely broad theory of presidential power that … if taken literally would blow a huge hole in the Administrative Procedure Act,” said Sarinsky, who also served as an adviser in the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs during the Biden administration. ...read more read less