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The administration's proposal to zero out funding for ENERGY STAR has drawn a lot of buzz. While preserving ENERGY STAR is vital for energy efficiency in many ways, it's only one among many important efficiency programs on the chopping block. The full budget has not been released yet, and Congress certainly won't approve it in its current form, but House Republicans are eager to reduce funding for many of these programs. The threat of deep cuts is real.
Here are some of the other programs that could be gutted under the budget and who would be harmed by the cuts. Most of these cuts are proposed for 2018, but I also note some proposals for 2017.
Consumers: This "skinny" budget does not specify numbers for most energy efficiency programs but proposes massive cuts that will have to come from somewhere. It proposes that the Department of Energy's, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office (EERE) be cut by $516 million this year, about a quarter of its total budget with only half the year left. In 2018 the EERE, Electricity, Nuclear, and Fossil Energy offices would be cut by roughly $2 billion---about half of their combined budgets. That cut will likely be taken from programs like Building Technologies, which has helped the average consumer save almost $500 a year in energy costs through appliance standards and research. WaterSense, a consumer information program similar to ENERGY STAR labels that addresses water use, is at the Environmental Protection Agency, which would be cut overall by 31 percent...
To continue reading this blog post, visit: http://aceee.org/blog/2017/03/energy-efficiency-budget-cuts-could
