Jeff Luse of Reason Magazine interviews Nick Loris of C3 Solutions about the EPA’s Energy Star, an energy efficiency standards program launched in 1992.
This is not the first time that Trump has proposed ending the popular program. In 2017, the president floated cutting Energy Star but the plan was halted after more than 1,000 organizations implored Congress to protect the program.
Despite having a relatively small budget—the program costs about $50 million per year and represents less than 1 percent of the EPA’s spending—and being one of the “most innocuous” government programs, there are reasons to reconsider Energy Star, Nick Loris, vice president of public policy at the free market energy think tank C3 Solutions, tells Reason.
“In an age of information and where the cost of getting that information is pretty low, consumers readily have access to the many different attributes they value in the product. And the product manufacturers can still advertise the energy savings from their products” without a federal program, says Loris.
