Energy Star ratings are cheap, effective and popular. Why does Trump want to kill them?

[Rhiannon12866]

Commercial real estate giant CBRE is always on alert for shifts in federal government policy that might impact its vast property management and investment business.

But the Los Angeles-based Fortune 500 company never anticipated an effort to eliminate a voluntary, cost-effective initiative that has saved its customers millions of dollars and had almost no critics.

In a reflection of how much influence a handful of free-market think tanks wield over the White House, the Trump administration has decided the immensely popular Energy Star program must go.

The fight centers on the Environmental Protection Agency’s 25-year-old effort to boost efficiency in products and services by encouraging companies to compete for coveted, government-issued labels that certify a product or property meets high standards for saving energy and costs.

Functioning like a government seal of approval, the Energy Star program costs taxpayers a pittance and is widely beloved by the 16,000 companies and organizations that participate. Now it is fast becoming a test case of how committed the Trump administration is to pursuing the agenda of once-fringe groups seeking to slash government programs wherever they can.


Much more (includes video): http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-energy-star-20170412-story.html

[DetlefK]

1. He doesn't want to kill it. He just doesn't give enough fucks to keep this around.

[Ilsa]

2. He doesn't understand it.

He's never bought an appliance, I suspect.

He might as well be from another planet.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. That's an excellent point.

How much he doesn't understand - on any level or issue - is scary as hell!

[WePurrsevere]

4. W.T.H! This just plain 'penny smart, dollar foolish'.

We use this regularly and not just because it's better for our wallets but for our environment.

I swear my jaw is aching from so much dropping.

[Rhiannon12866]

5. I know.

My reaction has been for my stomach to wrench whenever I hear yet another of his stupid and/or dangerous decisions. There are times I have to avoid the news. Actually, I did. During the campaign, I changed the channel everytime they showed him on the news, he was just so offensive - in every possible way. I couldn't wait for the election to be over so we'd never have to see or hear from him again.

BTW, they just announced on the early MSNBC news that he's leaving for Palm Beach yet again today...

[WePurrsevere]

8. I was/am the same way...

as much as Shrub infuriated me at times, he's starting to look like a walk in the park compared to what I've heard, seen and see coming with Trump & the neo-CON cabal.

Palm Beach again... ::sigh:: Are we still all that surprised? If it wasn't for his (and the RW defenders) incredible and obviously racist hypocrisy and the fact that he's making money off it while it's costing taxpayers so much, especially when he wants to cut so many important programs, etc I probably wouldn't care if he played golf every weekend since I grew up with a dad who was an avid golfer and 'get' loving the sport. OTOH my dad is a frugal accountant type and would never do what Trump has been... I know because as a 95 yo "registered Republican" he gets going on rants on about Trump and the current Republican party. (I don't know when he last voted R for a national or state position but it's been at least 3 maybe 4 decades.)

[Rhiannon12866]

10. I sure agree about that, too.

I actually felt physically sick when Bush* inexplicably got a second term in 2004. But Trump made me sick during the campaign and what he's doing now is so surreal that it has to be a bad dream.

Kudos to your Dad! And Trump's not even a Republican, he only does what he thinks will benefit him, could care less what Republicans think or want. My Dad was a lifelong Republican, but he was also a liberal, if anyone can imagine that now. And he wasn't partisan, liked the "good guys" of any persuasion. He never gave me any grief about who I voted for. I always wished I could ask him what he thought of Bush*, since I couldn't imagine him supporting much. But Trump has to offend anyone who's paying attention - or even conscious...

[WePurrsevere]

21. You're right, Trump isn't a Republican, he's his own...

'Me, me, me' Party with his ignorant followers willing to bite off their nose to spite their face to bow down to their golden idol.

Your dad sounds a lot like mine and for a man who grew up in a pre-civil rights era I'd say he's quite 'liberal' in many ways although a bit 'stuck' in past on a couple issues but they're religious conflicts so he feels separate from politics). When I was very young we belonged to a country club, my dad came home furious one day after a club meeting (late 1960s) and announced we wouldn't be renewing because the board refused my dad and a few other members request that the club allow Jewish and black members. A few years later they finally opened up the membership (and my dad joined just for the golfing) but I'd never seen him as angry as he was that night before.

He didn't like Shrub at all, he feels that he's a totally inept fool used to get Cheney in power, but the total disgust and anger I hear in his voice when he talks about Trump goes way beyond his opinion of Shrub and the thing that 'really' nailed it home for him before the election was how Trump treats and speaks to/about women and the disabled. He still gets livid about it even months later.

[anarch]

6. Republicans are a death cult, hell bent on destroying the planet and killing everything that lives

on it. The Energy Star program may not be a huge factor in mitigating human impacts on the environment, but every little bit counts...and besides, it's run by the EPA, so just needs to go on general principles. Plus, and maybe more importantly, it demoralizes Democrats to see this kind of thing taken down. Much like federal funding of the arts, it's not an example of government waste or overreach so much as an opportunity to stick it to the liberals any which way they can.

[Rhiannon12866]

7. I think you're right, more's the pity

They don't care what they do or who it hurts (except for their billionaire cronies) if they know it's important to Democrats and/or liberals. It's been well publicized that Trump loves to get revenge and so he's determined to do whatever he can that's certain to upset his detractors. And their excuse is that "millions and millions" voted for "change," so any "change" will do...

[Cosmocat]

12. Yep - just mean spirited hatred

And, once again, this kind of crazy shit is happening because 1/3 of the brainwashed cons in the county will immediately get on board with this after getting skukl fucked by their consevative media whores of choice and 1/3 tge country is just simply tuned out.

[hatrack]

18. "Will destroyng this piss off liberals and Democrats? Then let's destroy it!"

Last edited Thu Apr 13, 2017, 11:24 AM - Edit history (1)

An administration fueled by equal parts venality, incompetence and sheer spite.

Or, as Bill Maher asked in New Rules last week, 'What would a dick do?"

[Cooley Hurd]

9. Any consumer protection device is antithetical to his quest to screw others...

He's just a sick little man, essentially.

[Rhiannon12866]

11. So he's doing everything he can to make the rest of us sick, too...

[MrModerate]

13. They attack the effective regulations first, because they want to discredit regulation itself /nt

[Fast Walker 52]

14. because he's just a fucking giant asshole who hates progress

[mtngirl47]

15. Because it's on the "Freedom" Caucus list of regulations to eliminate.

We'll probably be seeing more of these come up as Trump tries to cozy up with the Tea Party.

(and here in Western NC--we're trying to get a strong candidate to send Meadows back to Florida in 2018)


[link:http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000159-020c-d78a-a5dd-1f9c53400001|

[Rhiannon12866]

17. Trump has alienated so many groups and individuals, there has to be a backlash in 2018

We already saw the Trump effect on the special election in Kansas. The thing is, I don't think we can afford to wait that long, his actions get exponentially worse by the day.

And where in Western NC? My grandmother retired to Black Mountain, so I spent a lot of time there. I even joined her peace group that visited their "sister town" in the USSR. They were some pretty amazing people and they got to be my friends, too.

[mtngirl47]

19. I'm in Whittier---just outside the Cherokee Reservation

Beautiful country and great people here in the Smokies!

[Rhiannon12866]

20. It certainly is beautiful country!

I liked it so much I thought of moving there! I enjoyed the people I got to know so much and you sure have better weather than here in New York. My cousin actually did move there, went to Warren Wilson College - and stayed. She got her RN and became a nurse at one of the big hospitals in Asheville...

[Mc Mike]

16. Yeah. 'Free market' zealots and pro-consumption energy interests.

That's the repugs' real base.

Raygun did the exact same thing, when his junta took power in the '80's.