Trump to End EnergyStar Program
For reasons.
WaPo (“Trump administration plans to end Energy Star program for home appliances“):
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to end Energy Star, a popular program whose iconic blue labels have certified the energy efficiency of home appliances for more than three decades, according to three people briefed on the matter and documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
During an all-hands meeting Monday of the EPA’s Office of Atmospheric Protection, Trump administration officials announced that the office would be dissolved and that Energy Star would be eliminated, the three people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
Officials also outlined the changes in slide presentations obtained by Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The presentations, which were shared with The Post, state that “staff in restructured/eliminated organizations may be reassigned to other positions.”
The end of Energy Star, first reported by CNN, builds on the Trump administration’s broader attacks on energy efficiency standards for appliances found in millions of American homes. Such standards have become a flash point in the nation’s culture wars and a source of conservative resistance to President Joe Biden’s environmental agenda.
Yet the decision is likely to draw pushback on Capitol Hill, where Energy Star has historically enjoyed modest bipartisan support. A handful of moderate Republican senators have championed the program, saying it has helped consumers reduce their energy bills while improving the efficiency of refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washers and other appliances.
An EPA spokesperson did not directly respond to questions about the end of Energy Star. In an email, the spokesperson said the agency is undergoing a reorganization that affects the Office of Air and Radiation, which includes the Office of Atmospheric Protection.
“With this action, EPA is delivering organizational improvements to the personnel structure that will directly benefit the American people and better advance the agency’s core mission, while Powering the Great American Comeback,” the spokesperson said.
NYT (“E.P.A. Plans to Shut Down the Energy Star Program“):
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate Energy Star, the popular energy efficiency certification for dishwashers, refrigerators, dryers and other home appliances, according to agency documents and a recording of an internal meeting.
[…]
“The Energy Star program and all the other climate work, outside of what’s required by statute, is being de-prioritized and eliminated,” Paul Gunning, the director of the E.P.A. Office of Atmospheric Protection, told employees during the meeting, according to the recording obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Gunning’s office itself is also slated for elimination.
For the past 33 years, Energy Star has been known for its recognizable blue label, which shows that an appliance has met energy efficiency standards set by the federal government.
It has been credited with changing the way Americans shop by encouraging manufacturers to make products that use less power, as well as with reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Since its creation under the first President George Bush in 1992, Energy Star has helped households and businesses save more than $500 billion in energy costs and to get rebates and tax credits, according to the program’s 2024 report. At the same time, it has also prevented four billion metric tons of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere.
Nearly 90 percent of American consumers recognize the Energy Star label, according to the government. “It’s an easy way for them to identify high energy efficiency equipment,” said Steve Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
“It’s had widespread support from all presidents except for Trump,” Mr. Nadel said.
President Trump has railed against energy efficient appliances and taken particular aim at shower heads and toilets that are designed to conserve water.
During his first term, Mr. Trump tried to eliminate funding for Energy Star, describing it as not essential to the core mission of the E.P.A. and something that could be run by the private sector. The effort to defund the program prompted a backlash from lawmakers in both parties who said privatizing it could lower the program’s standards.
This just seems weird to me. I don’t know what the program costs to run and am persuadable that it’s more expensive than it’s worth—except that this doesn’t seem to be about cost at all.
I’m actually sympathetic to complaints that environmental regulation have made various home appliances worse at performing their assigned functions. Railing about low-flow showers and toilets and washing machines and dishwashers that don’t clean as well as they used to is overblown but not without merit. Similarly, the ever-changing refrigerants used in refrigerators and HVAC systems are both more expensive and less efficient than older versions. While I think the tradeoffs likely worth it, I at least understand the frustrations and why a populist politician would target those policies.
But who is it that wants less information about the operating costs of major appliances? I have a hard time imagining that consumer.
Ah, yes. Removing pertinent consumer-facing information that allows them to save money, to own the libs.
What lovely public policy. /s
Imagine what the cost is going to be to reinstate all these programs once we are rid of the Doughboy?
But the most interesting part of this story is that Trump Org. is putting the Trump name on a multi-billion dollar project in the UAE, and the UAE is investing in Trump-associated crypto currency, and in an obvious quid pro quo Trump is allowing them to access AI chips which were previously unavailable to them.
The corruption is in plain sight, folks.
Cleek’s law:
OSHA, EPA, climate change, anything of that sort that liberals believe in, Trump is out to destroy. So hooray for gasoline, no EV’s etc.etc., pure Cleek’s law in action. Trump being Trump needs to push this all to extremes, helps keep Trump the attention whore the center of attention.
Good job, GOP, you got the mentally ill senile demented narcissist you’ve longed for.
When is the Republican Trump administration going to order that tetraethyllead be reintroduced into gasoline. Just think of all the lead miners we could put back to work.
I assume that producers / manufacturers / sellers are savvy enough to figure out that this, too, won’t last.
Trump will not be President in 2028 and chances are super high it will be a D who will try hard to reverse this policy change. Likely succeed.
A competent producer is just going to continue on and ignore this policy miscarriage stupidity. Why disrupt the supply chain now for a super transient policy change that’s going to reverted in four years?
Successful capitalists aren’t stupid.
This is about corporate America wanting to fleece the American consumer by denying information to them. They all talk about letting the marketplace and capitalism drive down costs and drive up quality but their actions are just the opposite.
In a piece I linked in yesterday’s general forum, the author stated that to an authoritarian, there is no such thing as independent data. Data takes sides. It either supports what I say, or it is working on behalf of the enemy. So they seek to eliminate any and all sources of data other than what they say.
This administration is clearly bothered when someone demonstrates that they are lying. They want a universe where that isn’t possible. Where they are the source of truth.
@Scott: Why wouldn’t a brand that wanted to market based on its efficiency continuing using the tag and point to its competitor without tags as trying to hide something? Is the Trump administration going outlaw the tags?
@Joe:
Would you be surprised if the tags were outlawed? Or even if the fixer general sued any company claiming better energy efficiency in their products?
Finally, it looks like we’re going to have lead-paint chip snacks again.
This is no surprise, except perhaps to those who believe that there’s no difference between Republicans and Democrats. For years now nuevo wave Republicans like Grover Norquist have been telling us that they, Republicans, if given the chance, were going to destroy the federal administrative state.
Department of Education, EnergyStar Program, Air Traffic Control System
… it’s all the same to these nihilists
In Trump’s dream America, recycling is illegal and littering is an expression of our independent spirit. And everyone who isn’t a billionaire is hip deep in rotting trash all the time.
@James Joyner
The program harms no one and publicly sets the bar for energy efficiency among manufacturers. No, this is just more of the self-injurious own-the-libs nonsense for ideological bragging rights. As if saving energy and saving money are “commie” traits.
Next up: removal of ingredients from packaged foodstuffs.
Seems a consumer advocacy group could mount a pressure campaign incentivizing manufacturers and retailers to provide these disclosures to the buying public.
@DrDaveT:
When I walk I take a small grocery store sized plastic bag with me to pick up litter. I hate litter. It bothers me profoundly and makes me think less of humanity.
I walk. Stop. Pick up a cigarette butt or candy wrapper and toss it in my bag. Walk. Stop. Repeat.
After awhile I have to intentionally ignore it.
My city is actually really good about litter. They hire folks to patrol up and down streets and sweep it up. Those folks are champions in my book. I’m just a weirdo volunteer that helps them out.
@de stijl: I live across the street from a large city park. For years, one of my neighbors routinely patrolled the park with a bucket and a garbage claw picking up stray trash. Sadly, she died a couple of years ago. Now 3 or 4 families do this routine in her honor/memory. We are, admittedly, not one of those families, but it heartens me see my neighbors out doing that.
@Joe:
Detroit’s budget was so f’ed that the city could not afford to cut the grass in parks.
So, the local population banded together with lawnmowers and took on the job. Over 90 acres.
They formally became the Detroit Mower Gang, and have spread out to other abandoned parks in the city.
@Rob1:
Well, that is ONLY because you are normal… The MAGA see the wild conspiracies everywhere:
The woke liberals aren’t letting the showers was Trumps luxurious hair… he stand there and just drips drips drips… it takes DAYS to take a shower!!! And Toilets! You have to flush them 50 times before things go down. And those gas stoves that Biden’s nazi government want to rip out of your homes and replace them with those new cooktops that don’t even get warm!!!
ALL OF THAT AND MORE IS THE FAULT OF ENERGY STAR!!!!
wharrgargble warble!!!
(Showers and toilets were some of Trump’s greatest hits in the fascist rallies. They always got him big laughs and applause from the crowd. Killing energy star is the outcome)
@Mister Bluster: there is a Qanon theory that says that the government outlawed lead paint in order to spy on us. The idea is that since a lead apron blocks x-rays, then supposedly, lead paint used to prevent whatever spy tools the government has from seeing inside your home. And of course, they wouldn’t be at all skeptical if Trump were to reinstate it.
@Monala:
Such a comic book understanding of the world would be funny if it were not pathetic.
Suppose the government were using some kind of magical radiation to spy on everyone. A thin coat of paint containing lead salts won’t block as much of it as the much thicker, denser brick or wood walls, or even sheetrock.
I’ll say it again: the next conspiracy theory that doesn’t fall apart with three seconds of critical thought will be the first.
@Monala:..
Lead paint stopped the Jewish Space Lasers.
It’s not clear to me Trump can end the EnergyStar program, or, if he can, what the repercussions would be. (Cue, “He doesn’t care,” and so on.). Specifically, there are laws/corporate mandates/etc that require purchase/usage of Energy Star labeled devices/products. I don’t know how those laws/programs behave if Energy Star devices/products don’t exist any more. And Energy Star claims are validated by third party companies, so there’s nothing that prevents the Energy Star process from continuing.
So fucking stupid. The cruelty isn’t even the point, any more. So much of this isn’t intended to hurt people, because there are much better ways they could be doing that, just stupid behavior from people who have no understanding of the world, and no curiosity.