One of Bush's “Light points”
Energy Star was first founded under the government of President George HW Bush in 1992, the year of the Earth Summit in Rio, where countries around the world first participated in a framework treaty to tackle climate change.
That international treaty, at the insistence of Bush, relied on voluntary action instead of goals and timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At home, the Energy Star program was also a way to encourage energy savings, but not to force it.
“It was one of his thousand light points,” Nadel said. “He didn't want to do serious things about climate change, but a voluntary program to provide information and let consumers decide that fits very nicely in his way of thinking.”
In the first instance, the Energy Star was initially only focused on personal computers, monitors and printers, Energy Star expanded over the years to cover more than 50 household appliances, from heating and air conditioning systems to refrigerators, washing machines and dryers and lighting. From 1995, Energy Star certification expanded with houses and commercial buildings.
A congress controlled by the Republicans wrote Energy Star in the law in a vast energy bill of 2005 that President George W. Bush signed. It is not clear that the Trump administration can eliminate the Energy Star program, which is managed by both EPA and the Ministry of Energy, without a new congress.
In a report on the occasion of the 30-year anniversary of Energy Star in 2022, the BIDEN administration estimated that the program had reached 4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas reductions by helping consumers make energy-efficient choices. Nadel said that the impact on the market is visible because companies increase the number of product choices that meet Energy Star standards when a new standard is adopted by EPA through a public notification and comment process.
The non -profit Alliance to save energy has estimated that the Energy Star program costs the government about $ 32 million a year, while families are saved more than $ 40 billion in annual energy costs.
Nadel eliminated the program and said, “Is million and billion fools.”
“It won't serve the American people”
The potential downfall of the Word of Energy Star began to circulate weeks ago. On March 20, a wide range of manufacturers and industrial associations registered for a letter to Zeldin, encouraging him to maintain the Energy Star program.
