In its recent budget outline, the new administration proposes to eliminate funding for the ENERGY STAR ® program. An earlier leaked draft suggested that the private sector should take over the program and that a government role is not needed. Others have suggested that ACEEE should run the program. We strongly disagree.

ENERGY STAR is a huge return on investment

The ENERGY STAR program was started in 1992 under President George H.W. Bush and has received strong bipartisan support since its founding. ENERGY STAR is a voluntary program that typically recognizes the 25 percent most-efficient equipment and buildings. Its label has about 90 percent consumer brand recognition. The program spurs the manufacturing and purchasing of ENERGY STAR certified equipment and buildings.

More than 16,000 ENERGY STAR retailers, manufacturers, contractors, and other businesses work with the program. From the program's inception through 2015, more than 5 billion certified products have been purchased in more than 70 product categories. Approximately 1.8 million ENERGY STAR certified new homes have been built, and owners of almost half the US commercial building space (450,000 buildings) have benchmarked the energy use of their buildings with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager ®. Families and businesses have saved more than $400 billion cumulatively since the program's inception, saving $34 billion in 2015 alone. All this for a budget of about $50 million a year, enough to purchase about half of a new F-35 fighter jet.

The future of ENERGY STAR will be a highlight of our upcoming National Symposium on Market Transformation, so we hope you join us...

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