Eliminating Energy Star and its impartial data on energy-saving appliances means that the energy transition will likely devolve to individual companies.

A new generation of scholars is following in the path of Jared Diamond’s 1997 path-breaking book Guns, Germs, and Steel in order to explore the answers to a fairly simple question: Why do some societies fail and others succeed? History provides both commonalities and distinctions. A basic distinction offered by Diamond involves how nations handle new information and what they do with it. Similarly, this is also a distinguishing dimension of energy transitions.

Measured in this way against the great civilizations in world history, our current shift from fossil fuels may be in peril as the Trump administration’s interest in government cuts is now honing in on the Energy Star certificate program, a decades-long guide for informed consumer choice.

Energy Star Certificates

You know them and may have put them to good use in your most recent appliance selection—badges or stickers denoting which air conditioner or refrigerator uses the least amount of electricity to do its job.  Often, you will even find a numerical ranking of such machines.  This information has become a helpful consideration as consumers make their selection on considerations other than price.

Which American president gets credit for developing this service for every American consumer?  Founded in 1992 under the administration of George H. W. Bush, Energy Star is a testing and certification program for appliances and electronics.  Manufacturers have been able to earn the Energy Star logo if their products are third-party certified as meeting the EPA’s energy-efficiency specifications for the program. Following this initial ranking, the agency oversees continued postmarket testing of appliances and electronics with the label to ensure that they are maintaining their performance. 

At the time of its founding, both business leaders and environmentalists recognized that economic growth and environmental protection could work in tandem. This was an innovative idea at the time, but within a year, Energy Star became a symbol of the fact that there were important ways that the government could empower businesses to protect the environment at a profit, while also providing consumers with the valuable input that they desired.

The EPA has estimated that, in 2024, each dollar that it spent on the Energy Star program resulted in approximately $350  spent by homes and businesses on infrastructure that was energy efficient. It has also been estimated that the program has resulted in $500 billion in energy cost savings since the program was founded.  “Most economists would agree it’s generally a pretty good use of federal funds,” said Joe Craig, chair of the department of economics at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

Why Energy Star is a National Treasure for Consumers

On a larger scale, the standards set by Energy Star have impacted the planning and design of apartment buildings, commercial buildings and industrial plants. Event local building code benchmarks and tax incentives for homeowners are also influenced by the programs’ standards. 

By the EPA’s calculations, since its founding, Energy Star has saved more than five trillion kilowatt hours of electricity and, therefore, prevented four billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in the same period. Even more importantly, in a 2022 survey conducted by Energy Star, eighty-nine percent of American households recognized the Energy Star label and fifty-seven percent of consumers surveyed reported that they had knowingly purchased an Energy Star product in the past year.

“One of the reasons it is so popular is that people see the government as an unbiased source of information,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

In short, the program works and results in informed consumers intelligently making essential purchases.   

A Consumer World Without Energy Star?

Without the guidance of Energy Star, consumers will be left to draw information from a few other programs, such as  LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for buildings or specifications for products from the nonprofit Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE). Each program, though, has its limitations. Unlike the EPA’s Energy Star designation, though, CEE does not independently test or certify products, and LEED certification is limited to architecture.

There is also some hope that manufacturers might step into the void or that the program could be taken over by the Department of Energy,  which sets minimum efficiency standards for the home appliance industry.  However, any disruption to the program has implications for these essential purchases that will inevitably continue.

Finally, some observers hope that the Trump administration will recognize the value of providing informed, basic and unbiased information for consumers. An informed consumer can clearly still be a vital participant in a growing American economy.

Brian C. Black is Distinguished Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Penn State Altoona and author, most recently, of Ike’s Road Trip: How Eisenhower’s 1919 Convoy Paved the Way for the Roads We Travel. (Godine, 2024).  ENERGY TRANSITION 2025 is an ongoing series to place details of our current energy shift into historical context.

Image: Shutterstock/T. Schneider

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