As someone who owns a kill-a-watt, this is depressing. I can quibble with the assumptions Energy Star makes, but being able to compare apliences at the store, apples to apples is one of the most pro-customer things in America.

Then keep it going. Have California, New York, New Jersey, and Michigan all pass state laws that require EnergyStar compliance.

There is no international market anymore; if an American manufacturer wants to sell their products, they’ll match the requirements and regulations of the biggest markets for them. Nobody will be able to afford undercutting anymore, which means nobody will be able to afford to lose any market share.

“What I think we’re looking at here is an absolute distillation of the ideology of this administration, which is a thoroughgoing hostility to anything that the government does that helps people,” Goffman said. “If you want to destroy the relationship between the public and government, you’re going to target the Energy Star program.”

Hopefully a non-profit industry group will form and keep it going. This is one where government standardization helps but there are still other ways to make progress.