Energy star, an efficiency program that led the choice of consumers, targeted in the Cups: NPR

A plan of the environmental protection agency to eliminate its energy star offices would end a decades old program that has given consumers the choice to buy refrigerators, dishwasher and other dishwasher and save money on electricity bills, have said consumer and environmental groups.

The changes, described in the agency documents examined by the Associated Press, are part of a large reorganization at the EPA which would eliminate or reorganize important parts of the office focused on air pollution. These plans advance the lively turn of President Trump of the accent put by the previous administration on climate change.

The EPA did not directly confirm that it ended the program, was reported on Tuesday for the first time by CNN, but declared that reorganization “will bring organizational improvements to the structure of staff who will directly benefit the American people and better improve the main mission of the agency, while fueling the American return.”

The EPA launched Energy Star in 1992 in order to tackle environmental protection and economic growth. It stimulates the market for energy -efficient products and benefits that design devices that earn the label. A house that decides to buy Energy Star products can save $ 450 a year on energy costs, the program website says.

“People recognize it right away, so they would be like” Oh, it’s Energy Star, so I should probably go with it “” said Francis Dietz, spokesperson for the Air conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute of the Commercial Association.

Steven Nadel, Executive Director of the US Council for an energy economical economy, said the program benefited from bipartite support until recently. It promotes efficiency by tightening standards when many products can meet the requirements of the label, he said.

Big saving in money and pollution

Since its departure, the program has reduced energy costs by more than $ 500 billion and has prevented around 4 billion metric tonnes of planet warming gasoline warnings, according to its website. The devices can be responsible for tons of air pollution, but efficiency measurements can reduce carbon dioxide, methane, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and fine particles that produced electricity releases to the atmosphere. These pollutants can harm the heart and lungs and cause other health problems.

Trump’s proposed budget requests that the congress eliminates the entire atmospheric protection program of the EPA, which house the offices that direct Energy Star. The budget described the program as “an excessive excess of the government authority which imposes unnecessary and radical regulations on climate change to businesses and stifles economic growth”.

But Sarah Gleeson, responsible for research on climate solutions solutions when taking non -profit project on Climate Action, said that America’s energy independence depends on the ability to respond to American energy demands, and reduce the program jeopardized and support households at the same time.

Gleeson said that energy loss of energy would make consumers more difficult to have trustworthy information on product energy consumption.

The label is voluntary and the congress ordered it

The Energy Star label is voluntary for products that meet certain levels of efficiency and differs from the standards of the Ministry of Energy which set minimum efficiency requirements that products must meet to be legally sold. In the 2000s, Congress ordered EPA and Department of Energy to manage an energy efficiency program and promote energy.

The DOE did not comment on changes and its role in the future, postponing questions to EPA. According to the program website, the role of DOE includes the development of product test procedures. The EPA is responsible for setting performance levels and the guarantee that consumers can rely on the label.

The association of household appliances said that it supported a rationalized energy program through the DOE. The spokesperson Jill Notini said that “would achieve the administration’s objectives to preserve a complete selection of products from which consumers can choose and reduce the unnecessary regulatory burden”.

This decision is the last in the broader deregulation effort of the Trump administration. They have announced their intention to write policies of the Biden era to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the prioritization of fossil fuel and a policy of energy dominance.

The president has been particularly eager to eliminate efficiency standards, arguing that they translate into more expensive products and are less effective and that they deny the choice of consumers. Trump reversed the rules restricting water flow for shower potatoes and other household appliances.

Trump targeted Energy Star during his first visit to the White House, but faced a backlash.

“For an administration which continues to claim that the country is faced with an” energy emergency “, Trump continues to attack all efforts to save energy through efficiency,” said Xavier Boatright, deputy legislative director for clean energy and electrification at the Sierra Club in a press release. “When we waste energy thanks to ineffective devices, the fossil fuels industry uses it as an excuse to extract and sell more of its product to earn more money on the back of the American people.”