In early July, the Trump administration took yet another step to roll back energy efficiency efforts: It proposed a rule that would make it harder for future administrations to set efficiency mandates for home appliances.
It’s part of a long history of Donald Trump’s attacks on energy efficiency, which experts say saves Americans money on their energy bills and reduces the country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.
But these moves are especially concerning as energy prices are rising—thanks to the war in Iran, which once again recently caused oil prices to hit $100 a gallon; the surge in AI data centers; and the effects of climate change, like heat waves that drive up energy use and thus spike costs.
Trump has taken multiple steps to dismantle energy efficiency efforts. He attempted to end the Energy Star program (Congress funded it anyway); criticized building codes meant to conserve energy use; and successfully rolled back standards on everything from water heaters to light bulbs to shower heads.
Efficiency policies have been linked to real savings. Energy Star, which certifies appliances that meet such standards, saves Americans some $40 billion on their energy bills annually.
Residential and commercial buildings account for 40% of the country’s energy use. By incorporating codes around efficiency, the country has saved more than $44 billion between 1992 and 2012 alone, according to a 2016 Department of Energy factsheet.
For consumers, that means an estimated $5 billion in annual savings. By using less energy, we also reduce our plant-warming greenhouse gas emissions, which benefits us all. In 2020 alone, Energy Star saved 400 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to taking 93 million gas-powered cars off the road.
And there’s even more that we could—and should—be doing on this front, experts say.
A recent report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a nonprofit that works on efficiency policies, found that improving efficiency efforts across our buildings, transportation, and industrial behaviors could save about $4.8 trillion in energy and related costs by 2050—or about $31,000 per household.
“High utility bills and gasoline costs are straining family budgets. Improving energy efficiency can save consumers thousands of dollars while easing strain on the electric grid and slashing pollution,” Lowell Ungar, senior fellow at ACEEE and lead author of the report, said in a statement.
It’s not only inaction that is costly. Reversing energy efficiency efforts, as Trump has done, also costs money.
That’s not only because Americans lose out on the efficiency savings, but because changes to these standards mean the companies that make appliances, light bulbs, and so on have to change their manufacturing processes. And any change comes with costs.
When Trump wanted to bring back incandescent light bulbs to replace LEDs, for example, those in the industry said they didn’t even have the supply chains or means to make those kinds of bulbs anymore.
“What [industry] really despises is change,” says Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute. “If I have to change the light bulbs again, that’s a cost. If I leave them alone, leave the efficient light bulbs installed, that’s no cost.”
To be fair, increasing efficiency standards is also a change that could raise manufacturing costs in the short term.
Some efficiency programs could also raise home energy bills in the short term, too, as utilities make grid upgrades, the costs of which go to ratepayers. Energy-efficient appliances may also be more expensive than their less-efficient counterparts.
But those short-term costs are offset by the long-term savings. Energy efficiency is a forward-looking effort, and that’s especially important as the country’s overall energy demand is expected to surge.
AI data centers are driving that demand, and driving up energy bills. In the U.S., data center power consumption is on track to account for almost half of the growth in electricity demand between 2025 and 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.
Meanwhile, the war in Iran is raising fuel prices and energy costs now, and into the future. Already, the average American household has spent $450 more on gas and energy amid the war, CNBC reported using data from the end of May.
Even if the war ends immediately, those higher prices will linger for months, [economists say](https://apnews.com/article/iran-war-prices-gasoline-groceries-flights-9c413bc111efcfa9bac53b20e9057738).
If Trump’s rule blocking future efficiency standards succeeds, that, coupled with these rising energy costs, means Americans will miss out on savings, and our energy grid could become increasingly strained.
“Efficiency standards are a proven policy for lowering Americans’ energy bills, but this would create hurdles designed to make updating them more difficult,” Andrew deLaski, executive director of the ACEEE’s Appliance Standards Awareness Project, said in a statement at the time the rule was proposed.
“We have products that keep getting more efficient and we need to embrace these technology advances, not reject them, especially as data centers strain our electric grid,” he added.
Trump’s attacks on energy efficiency may be a short-term strategy, according to Smith, particularly as he focuses on the midterm elections. By doing so, he’s sacrificing the long-term benefits.
“Sticking with the efficiency rules that are in place is probably the least expensive thing we could do,” Smith says.