Team Trump takes a big step backward on energy efficiency standards for home appliances
Almost immediately after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered some anodyne thermostat advice during a heat wave last week, a variety of Republicans expressed outrage that didn’t make a lot of sense. The underlying fight, however, offered a timely reminder about an important issue: Energy efficiency matters.
Or at least, it should. The Washington Post reported:
As punishing heat sends the U.S. power grid to the brink and Americans reel from rising electricity costs, the Trump administration is moving to weaken efficiency standards for home appliances proven to cut power demand and lower utility bills.
The Energy Department on Thursday said the proposal would “Permanently End Green New Scam Appliance Mandates.” It takes aim at energy conservation standards for a host of appliances, including air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines.
It wasn’t that long ago when energy efficiency standards were a bipartisan issue. In fact, it’s a priority with a Republican pedigree: It was George H.W. Bush who approved breakthrough policies on the issue nearly four decades ago.
Those efforts have endured for all the right reasons: Improved energy efficiency standards haven’t just helped to reduce carbon emissions, they’ve also saved American consumers hundreds of billions of dollars on their electric bills. Common sense suggests U.S. officials would want to stay the course for as long as possible.
Team Trump has come to the opposite conclusion.
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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