Industry "Struggling To Understand" Shitstain's Plans To Destroy Energy Star Program, Which They (And Consumers) Support

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It’s a voluntary program launched during a Republican administration, endorsed by manufacturers and well-recognized by U.S. consumers, who have saved an estimated $500 billion over the past 33 years guided by its familiar blue label. But President Donald Trump’s administration has decided the Energy Star program has got to go. CNN and The Washington Post first reported the plan to eliminate the program that certifies the most energy-efficient appliances and buildings with the Energy Star label. Knowledgeable sources have confirmed to Inside Climate News that Environmental Protection Agency staffers learned the details at an internal meeting earlier this week.

The EPA press office, when asked about Energy Star, did not comment directly about the program, but noted the reorganization of the agency that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced last Friday. “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,” EPA’s press office said in an email. Because Energy Star has had strong support across the political spectrum and from industry as well as environmentalists, some close observers are struggling to understand the Trump administration’s motivation for eliminating it.

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But Joseph Goffman, who headed up air pollution programs at EPA under President Joe Biden, thinks the decision aligns with the Trump administration’s other actions—its regulatory rollbacks, its cuts in personnel and its clawing back of clean air and water grants. “What I think we’re looking at here is an absolute distillation of the ideology of this administration, which is a thoroughgoing hostility to anything that the government does that helps people,” Goffman said. “If you want to destroy the relationship between the public and government, you’re going to target the Energy Star program.”

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Word of Energy Star’s potential demise began to circulate weeks ago. On March 20, a wide array of manufacturers and industry associations signed on to a letter to Zeldin, urging him to maintain the Energy Star program. The groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the Air Conditioning, Heating, & Refrigeration Institute; and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers released their letter publicly this week. It called Energy Star “an example of an effective non-regulatory program and partnership between the government and the private sector.” Companies that have invested in making more efficient products are faced with the loss of the Energy Star brand as a marketing tool. The Energy Star logo has helped them make the case, with the government’s support, that the initial higher cost of efficient appliances will be offset over time in reduced water and energy consumption. “Eliminating it will not serve the American people,” they wrote. “In fact, because the Energy Star brand is highly recognizable to consumers, it is likely that, should the program be eliminated, it will be supplanted by initiatives that drive results counter to the goals of this administration such as decreased features, functionality, performance, or increased costs.”

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https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/05/industry-groups-are-not-happy-about-the-imminent-demise-of-energy-star/