Costing 0.001% of the defense budget, cutting energy star is a strange place to cut the fat. If it saved only 1% of what it claims to save Americans a year than the program would still have a net benefit to consumers.

Bitch and whine about energy star all you like but you probably shouldn't do it on the basis of any kind of cost benefit scheme.

The energy efficiency sector is filled with both well intentioned and malevolent bull shit. I have friends in the building efficiency side who can't believe the publicly funded waste. The most real economics I did in college was studying the take back effect for the local public sector energy efficiency outfit. Their numbers were full of shit, entirely based on engineering models. They lived in fear that someone would someday actually monitor a large number of thermostats before an after improvements and watch 7% if their predicted savings go away. 7% is a big part of what make many if these projects work out on paper.

I knew nothing about the energy star program until today and a little bit about government energy efficiency programs in general. I don't think I'm in anyway prone to expect the best of them. I think energy star is probably a worthwhile program, problems and all.