Posted on 03/18/2015 12:30:24 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The initiative would also pressure guests to reuse dirty linens.
Claims of bureaucratic overreach within the Environmental Protection Agency are nothing new; however, its latest initiative is ruffling a few more feathers than usual. With funding from a grant made to the University of Tulsa, the EPA hopes to develop a prototype for a device that would monitor and report the water use of hotel guests across America.
“Most hotels do not monitor individual guest water usage,” the grant states, “and as a result, millions of gallons of potable water are wasted every year by hotel guests.”
As per usual, the federal government asserted its position as the arbiter of personal behavior by explaining how individuals will now be shamed into using less water.
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The device being developed through the grant, the EPA confirmed, “will be designed to fit most new and existing hotel shower fixtures and will wirelessly transmit hotel guest water usage data to a central hotel accounting system.”
According to the grant, its goal will be to “assist hotel guests in modifying their behavior to help conserve water.”
One of the researchers working on the project explained his objective will be to “get hotel guests to reduce their water use by 10 percent or to reduce their showers by about one minute,” noting that the average hotel shower currently lasts about eight minutes.
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Beyond water waste in the shower, the project will also include pleas to reuse towels and other linens while staying in a hotel room instead of requesting they be laundered.
Rush Limbaugh noted on his syndicated radio show Tuesday that he believes it will be just a matter of time until the EPA attempts to force citizens to install such software in their own homes.
Limbaugh was hardly the only person outraged by the news. Twitter comments in response to a Fox News link included overwhelmingly negative reactions.
One user explained that a hotel is “the only place I enjoy a long hot shower especially since I’m paying enough for the room.”
Others cited this program as further evidence that the federal government needs to be pruned significantly.
Not only have the states never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate intrastate water usage, but also consider this. Even if Congress had such powers, Congress has no constitutional authority to delegate legislative / regulatory powers to non-elected federal bureaucrats like those running the EPA.
Yeah. Because I'm a lost little lamb just waiting for "assistance" to modify my personal hygiene behavior to the preferences of some self-proclaimed expert. Because the first thing I think about checking in is, "Wow, now maybe somebody can help me to be more like them: dirty, smelly, and arrogant."
Even a liberal needs a hobby, I guess!
They’d squeal like little girls.
This story is a great example of how a rumor gets started on the internet and snowballs into lunacy.
Ther EPA is not monitoring hotel showers. A university was doing a study on saving water and applied for a grant fronm the EPA. They got a $15,000 research grant. The EPA is not monitoring hotel showers. They are funding a resarch projecct of a university that is using hotesl as their data set.
And as someone who lives in hotels for work, probably one third of they year, I can tell you that all major hotels have ad campaigns that ask if guests will use towels more than once and allow the maids to only change sheets a couple times a week for long term guests. It saves money, and saves for those of us who are in hotels a lot.
Nothing notorious and no weird conspiracy.
You’re taking all the fun out of it, LOL.
The EPA should be shut down as an overbearing agency that we have no money to spend on anyway with a huge national debt and large annual deficits.
Let the states sort this out. Let them have their own EPA’s if they wish.
The Republicans will never do what I just proposed, so I await a new political party that will.
Weirdest thing is, the original story was posted on FR only a couple of days ago.
We don’t have that long.
State need to start nullifying unconstitutional federal agencies and acts now.
First, the natural gas, wood heater and water heater lobbies. Now, the hotel lobby and other lobbies that would want to spy on hotel guests. It appears that government-linked businesses and other special interests are going through the EPA more than ever.
Note to Congress: defund the EPA
The Bates Motel.
I hope every employee of the EPA drops dead.
First, they came for our lawn sprinklers.
Then, they came for our toilets.
Now, they come for our showers.
What’s next?
I wonder if EPA offices monitor their consumptions and wastes.
I have better things to do than to stand in a bathroom and wait for the toilet to fill before I hit it again.
Don't know and we will probably never know. Apparently they are fighting FOIA requests and are not forthcoming. Typical of a government bureaucracy these days.
This is a polite family forum (sort of) so I won’t go into detail. Just look up Jim McGreevey and if the record has not been sanitized you will get a good laugh. He really did control the booths in turnpike mens rooms.
They can try the Navy in the 1970s route. In the 70s the military became so abused that there was no maintenance in the barracks. The showers in the head had feathery black and green mold covering the insides, and the bottoms were a deep furry brown. Really cut-down on water use by us Reservists. Oh. They also turned-off the heat and hot water between 2300 and 0700.
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