Why Does President Shitstain Want To Kill Energy Star? Because It Violates Randroid Ideology

[hatrack]

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Still, what’s not to like? Maybe it’s the idea that Energy Star is a government program. The Trump administration wants to cut 31 percent of EPA’s $8-billion budget and 25 percent of its staff. A leaked March 21 agency memo recommends that EPA prepare to transfer “ownership and implementation of Energy Star to a nongovernmental entity.” This reflect the views of free-market think tanks in Washington that have advised the Trump administration to limit government meddling in the economy.

In an email to the trade publication Door and Window Market Magazine, Myron Ebell, who headed President Trump’s EPA transition team and directs the Center for Energy and Environment at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, wrote: “Our view is that Energy Star is good insofar as it’s voluntary and not so good that taxpayer dollars are used to run it. One of the reasons that the federal government is so disastrously in debt is that hundreds of special interests have been able to commandeer tax dollars for programs that benefit them. If your industry and others that participate in Energy Star think it’s a good program, then I think you should pay for it and run it.”

In a report last year on government energy efficiency programs, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said that energy efficiency should be achieved by “supply, demand, competition and the powerful incentive for families and businesses to get the biggest bang for their buck.” The report challenged the cost savings claimed by the EPA and argued that regulating energy efficiency limits consumer choices and hurts the poor. “Ultimately,” the report states, “Congress should eliminate all existing federal efficiency regulations for appliances, vehicles and buildings.”

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The claim by libertarians that markets, left alone, will drive efficiency has been challenged by decades of academic research. “We know a lot about the barriers to energy efficiency,” says Nives Dolšak, a public policy expert at the University of Washington. Particularly when consumers buy products infrequently, they rely on third-party evaluations to help them make choices. “When you have infrequent purchases, you have ‘information asymmetry’ between the buyer and seller,” she says. Standards and labels fill a gap.

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http://e360.yale.edu/features/killing-energy-star-a-popular-program-lands-on-the-trump-hit-list

[Docreed2003]

1. I truly loathe libertarians as much as regular old conservatives, if not more...

I'm so tired of hearing "free market" solutions to every single problem we face in the world! You know what would fix the majority of problems in this country?? Freaking regulating the unfettered free market and their legion of vampires who value the almighty dollar over the cost of human life!