UW Political Science Professor Aseem Prakash and his colleague Nives Dolšak from the UW School of Marine and Environmental Affairs contributed a guest article to The Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog. In the article, they argue that the president wants to terminate the popular Energy Star program despite the fact that there are no calls from industry to end it. In addition, the program also constitutes a Republican-friendly approach to encouraging energy efficiency. Nevertheless, the program is a target for the administration. As Prakash and Dolšak point out:
“The administration wishes to discontinue anything purporting to mitigate climate change. [Thus,] If opposing climate action is the new litmus test, environmental initiatives will survive only if they are not overtly associated with climate change.”
The article titled “The Trump administration wants to kill the popular Energy Star program because it combats climate change” appeared on The Washington Post website on March 23, 2017. The Monkey Cage is a blog that relies upon political science research “to make sense of the circus that is politics.” It was named 2010 Blog of the Year by The Week and a 2012 Best Blog by Time.