By Ben Jealous
Sierra Club Exec. Dir.
and U. Penn Professor
“Look for the Energy Star.” Most Americans know that is excellent advice to anyone appliance shopping. That little blue label saves American consumers roughly $40 billion a year in energy costs every year.
With the program’s modest price tag – less than one percent of the EPA’s total spending – Americans save a whopping $1,250 for every single dollar spent on Energy Star. And Americans know that little blue symbol means less wasted energy and cleaner air. It helps families stretch their paychecks and do right by the planet at the same time.
Since the Energy Star public-private partnership began in 1992, it has helped save American households and businesses more than $500 billion on energy costs. It has more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions (roughly the equivalent of annual pollution from 933 million cars).
And it has done so while empowering consumers with better information – not by taking anything away. What that looks like at the local level is homes and businesses in a large city like Chicago saving $116.6 million a year in energy costs, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 539,500 metric tons.
Now, Donald Trump wants to get rid of it. Virtually no one thinks that would be wise.
In March, a large group of manufacturers and industry associations joined a letter calling on Environmental Protections Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to keep the popular EPA program.
The US Chamber of Commerce, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, and others said, “eliminating [Energy Star] will not serve the American people,” and they pointed out that because of consumers’ high awareness of the program – to the tune of 90% brand awareness – the results if it is eliminated would be “decreased features, functionality, performance, or increased costs” of appliances.
Energy Star certified homes typically save around $450 per year on energy bills. In 2020 alone, the program’s emissions reductions amounted to more than five percent of total US greenhouse gas emissions. That year, the program’s energy savings also improved health outcomes for communities by preventing 210,000 tons each of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollutants, and 20,000 tons of fine particulate matter (PM2.5).
The public health benefits from those reductions in air pollution were estimated to be as high as $17 billion!
Further, the estimated annual market value of Energy Star product sales is more than $100 billion. And of domestic energy efficiency jobs, about 35% are in the manufacturing and installation of Energy Star products. As of 2020, that was more than 790,000 American jobs.
In his latest attack on common sense, Trump is trying to eliminate one of the federal government’s most successful, least controversial, and most popular consumer protection tools.
Ending Energy Star is not a serious policy move. It is performative politics at its worst. It is “virtue signaling” to fossil fuel extremists from a man desperate to please his donors while punishing regular people for choosing clean, affordable options.
Targeting the program as part of some sort of ideological deregulation agenda doesn’t even make sense because it is not a regulation. It does not force anybody to buy or produce anything. It is simply a voluntary, science-based labeling system. It helps consumers compare appliances and other products based on their energy efficiency. It helps Americans cut down their energy bills. And it helps reduce pollution that hurts our lungs and heats our planet.
That is why Americans across the political spectrum support it. It is an example of our government doing something simple, effective, and bipartisan. At least, it used to be.
Donald Trump’s push to dismantle this program is a perfect example of how MAGA hardliners have turned their backs on the very people they claim to represent. This is not about freedom or choice. It is about controlling the market to benefit fossil fuel interests. It is about keeping consumers in the dark. And it is about making sure families have fewer tools to protect themselves from rising costs.
Ask yourself: why, in the middle of what Trump and his allies keep calling an “energy emergency,” would you go out of your way to kill a program that helps people save so much money energy? The only people who benefit are the fossil fuel executives who profit when homes and appliances waste more of it.
When people waste energy because they unknowingly buy inefficient products, the fossil fuel industry makes more money.
That is the whole ballgame. It is a rigged system that leaves working Americans with higher bills while big polluters cash in. The Energy Star label helps consumers break that cycle.
Cutting Energy Star would be a betrayal of the millions of Americans who are already struggling to afford groceries, gas, and electricity. It would hurt seniors trying to stay warm in winter. It would hurt young families buying their first refrigerator. It would hurt renters in cities and homeowners in rural towns alike. No one benefits – except the lobbyists and the oil barons.
Energy Star gives every American the chance to choose better, smarter options. Scrapping it to score cheap points with the same special interests that are holding our country back defies common sense.
Americans deserve leaders who will fight to keep our bills low, our homes efficient, and our future sustainable.
Ben Jealous is the Executive Director of the Sierra Club and a Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
