There is a good possibility that you are part of the almost 90 percent of US households who know the Energy Star label that appears in appliances when buying a new dishwasher or refrigerator. It is a useful approval seal, a large efficiency signal and the lowest public services invoices that will pay over time.
And now it is in danger thanks to the desire of the Trump administration to make cuts in the Environmental Protection Agency and eliminate the division of the agency that supervises the Energy Star program.
When the news arose last week that there could soon be more stickers in all types of appliances, from air conditioning units to washing machines, a solution seemed obvious: companies could commit to establish their own version of the program, using independent third parties to evaluate their merchandise.
Simple, right? But none of the main appliance manufacturers that I approached promised 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 that the EPA according to a document on its website, the program has contributed to $ 500 billion, one billion, with a “B”, in the saving of domestic and commercial energy since its launch in 1992.
Appliances manufacturers do not want Energy Star, in which participation is voluntary, disappear. They said to the EPA in a March letter, when they felt that the cuts could come.
But they do not see the end of government support so that the program is an established matter. A spokesman for the Bosch appliance group described that events are “pending”, while an LG representative said that any discussion about how it could promote superior efficiency to consumers in the future was premature.
Even if the EPA is not invested, the Department of Energy, which establishes minimal efficiency standards for the appliance industry, could intervene to supervise Energy Star. The department did not respond to requests for comments on whether it committed to do so.
You can imagine the other conversations behind the scene in each company that is based on the Energy Star label and its blessings.
Would you create a good consumer will be one of the first companies in this industry (or any of the competitive) to stand up and say that the cuts in the EPA are absurd, given how useful the Star Energy is? Sure. But, consumers, who do not buy large appliances often, remember who spoke first? Probably not.
In addition, this is an environment where silence can pay real dividends. President Trump ran on a platform for the use of his office to punish the people who do not like.
Yes, any company, or all together, could promise to restart Energy Star if necessary. However, being challenging about it, only makes you vulnerable to a rate, an executive order or who knows what. And that is doubly for reasonable people in the department of Energy who could otherwise publicly and immediately announce their intention to intervene to save the program.
All that may seem cowardice, but it is probably just prudence if it is firm in your commitment to preserve the program or something.
Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy, a non -profit research group, raised its own objection to a replacement of energy energy 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 a source of impartial information,” he said.
But would there be at least any benefit if different commercial groups intervened to maintain the energy star? Almost sure, even if they have to spend some money to do it.
There is a world in which someone in the Trump administration awakens the lack of logic here. If a regulated industry wants its customers to save another $ 500 billion in the coming years using less energy (and contaminate less as a side effect), then maintain the system of federal tests and rewards that facilitate it.
In one way or another, we are about to discover if we can live in that world.
