By: Jacob Kim
Donald Trump has made lowering costs for the American people a central pillar of his political platform. In a recent press conference, he emphasized that “gas is dropping, energy is dropping,” touting his economic agenda as one focused on immediate relief for households. He even remarked that while prices of things like dolls may be going up, girls should just “have three dolls and five pencils.” But while he publicly promises cheaper energy, his actions tell a very different story—none more damning than his plan to eliminate the Energy Star program, a move that not only contradicts his economic message but actively worsens the climate crisis.
Energy Star is a small federal program with an outsized impact. For just $32 million a year, it saves American consumers over $40 billion annually on energy bills. That’s a $350 return for every dollar invested, all while cutting energy waste and emissions. The program provides trusted ratings on refrigerators, air conditioners, heat pumps, and other appliances, allowing households to make informed, efficient, cost-saving choices. It’s supported by consumers, manufacturers, and retailers across the political spectrum. Cutting it doesn’t reduce waste—it creates it.
Shuttering this program reveals the hollow core of Trump’s energy rhetoric. You can’t promise Americans lower utility bills while defunding the very program that helps them achieve it. It’s a bait-and-switch of the worst kind—wrapping regressive policy in populist language, while stripping working families of real tools to save money. And the economic damage isn’t the only concern. Eliminating Energy Star also kneecaps one of the nation’s longest-standing, most successful efforts to cut emissions at scale, without mandates or taxes.
The climate consequences are enormous. Appliances and buildings account for a significant share of the country’s energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The Energy Star program directly lowers both. Ending it means more fossil fuels burned, more pollution released, and less incentive for manufacturers to innovate on energy efficiency. Combined with Trump’s rollback of vehicle emission standards, power plant pollution limits, and methane regulations, the picture is clear: this isn’t just cost-cutting—it’s climate sabotage disguised as economic relief.
Meanwhile, Trump’s EPA continues its systematic dismantling of air and climate protections, from striking down the scientific basis for regulating greenhouse gases to closing the very EPA offices that track emissions and enforce clean air rules. Eliminating Energy Star is part of a broader agenda to gut the nation’s capacity to respond to climate change at the exact moment when the world is running out of time.
This isn’t just bad policy—it’s a betrayal. Trump says he wants to lower energy costs. But cutting Energy Star will do the opposite. He says he wants to empower American families. But this move takes away one of their most effective tools for saving money and reducing their carbon footprint. And while he boasts of energy dominance, he is sabotaging clean, affordable, domestically developed energy solutions.
At a time when the climate crisis demands bold, evidence-based leadership, this decision is short-sighted, hypocritical, and dangerous. It erases decades of progress and sends a clear message: in Trump’s America, polluters get a pass, and families get left in the dark.
Sources
Energy Outlook 
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