There is a good chance that you will be part of the almost 90 percent From American households that are aware of the Energy Star label that appears on household appliances when you shop for a new dishwasher or fridge. It is a useful approval seal, a signal to exceed the efficiency of the lower usefulness and the lower utilities that you pay over time.
And now it is in danger thanks to the wishes of the Trump government to make cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency and to eliminate the Division of the agency that supervises the Energy Star program.
When the News came about Last week that there will soon be no more stickers for all kinds of devices of air conditioning units to washing machines-a solution clear: the companies could promise to set up their own version of the program, using independent third parties to assess their goods.
Simple, right? But none of the most important manufacturers of devices I approached would promise to do that. Many, including Frigidaire, Samsung and Sub-Zero, did not even respond to the multiple requests I made to comment.
Energy Star is a big problem, if you believe the EPA according to A document On its website, the program contributed to $ 500 billion – billion, with a “B” – in household and business energy savings since the 1992 launch.
Equipment manufacturers do not want an energy star, in which participation is voluntarilyTo leave. They said just as much in a letter from March to the EPA when they felt that cuts could come.
But they don’t see the end of the government support for the program to be a fixed matter. A spokesperson for Bosch’s Home Appliance Group described the ins and outs of ‘in treatment’, while an LG representative said that every discussion about how it could promote superior efficiency for consumers in the future.
Even if the EPA does not reverse itself, the Ministry of Energy – which determines minimal efficiency standards for the home device industry – would be deployed to supervise Energy Star. The Department did not respond to requests for comments about whether it would commit to this.
You can imagine the other conversations that take place behind the scenes at every company that depends on the Energy Star label and its blessings.
Would it create the goodwill of the consumer to be one of the first companies in this industry (or a competitive) to get up and say that the cutbacks on the EPA are absurd, considering how useful Energy Star is? Certainly. But would consumers, who do not often buy large devices, do not yet remember who was pronounced first? Probably not.
Moreover, this is an environment where silence can pay for real dividends. President Trump ran on a platform to use his office to punish people he does not like.
Yes, every company – or all together – can promise to restart the Energiestar if necessary. Because you are challenging, however, you simply make you vulnerable to a rate, an executive order or who knows what. And that applies twice to reasonable people at the Ministry of Energy who otherwise announce their publicly and immediately their intention to step in to save the program.
That can all look like cowardice, but it is probably just caution if you are steadfast in your dedication to keep the program or something.
Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an energy -efficient economyA non-profit research group, increased its own objection to an energy star replacement sponsored by the industry: it may not be credible.
“One of the reasons why it is so popular is that people see the government as an unbiased source of information,” he said.
But would there be at least any advantage if different trade groups arrive to maintain Energy Star? Almost certain, even if they have to spend some money to do it.
There is a world in which someone in the Trump administration awakens the pure lack of logic here. If a regulated industry wants its customers to save another $ 500 billion in the coming years by using less energy (and to pollute less as a side effect), maintain the federal test and reward system that makes this possible.
Somehow we are about to find out if we can live in such a world.
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