The Brief

The federal government's Energy Star program is in jeopardy.

Almost 90% of Americans recognize the blue Energy Star logo, which the Environmental Protection Agency awards to the most energy-efficient appliances. The EPA estimates the Energy Star program has saved Americans over $500 billion in energy costs since it was established in 1992. That's why supporters are defending Energy Star against Trump administration plans to privatize or eliminate it.

"It's like sticking a vacuum into the wallets of American families and businesses and sucking cash out for no reason," says Jeremy Symons of the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit group of former EPA employees. Symons says he once worked on the Energy Star program. Now, he's a frequent critic of the Trump administration's environment and energy policies.

At a May congressional hearing, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin questioned his own agency's calculations for how much money the Energy Star program has saved consumers.

"I would happily, eagerly find out from inside of the agency how they had previously calculated that figure, because I anticipate that they're taking credit for a heck of a lot more than they should," Zeldin told lawmakers.

NPR asked the EPA if Zeldin has investigated the issue since then. "It is unclear what the economic activity generated by the Energy Star program is versus what the economic activity would be without this program," Brigit Hirsch, EPA press secretary, wrote in an email. "As this program does not preclude the purchase or sales of any product this program is essentially a government-sponsored advertising regime."

While the economic benefits appear unclear to Administrator Zeldin, the EPA's own staff backed up its savings calculations with five pages of technical notes about how the calculations were made.

Ending or privatizing Energy Star

Energy Star was created in 1992. The EPA and Energy Department co-manage it, with Energy developing efficiency testing procedures. At this point, one way to kill the program would be to choke off its funding.

The President's budget zeroed out Energy Star funding at EPA. But the Senate Appropriations committee voted to restore money for the agency. The question now is whether the rest of Congress votes to keep the funding — or backs the White House's efforts to terminate Energy Star.

Calls for eliminating or privatizing Energy Star have come mostly from libertarian and conservative groups, such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation.

"I think it's very valuable for consumers to see what energy requirements the appliances they buy are going to have, but I don't think it's necessarily a government function to provide that information," says Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment. "If the federal government didn't provide it, there would be a gap in the market, and other companies would come and offer that service."

At the May congressional hearing, Zeldin also expressed support for privatizing Energy Star.

"This program is an example of one that can be run outside of the government," he told lawmakers, "And I've actually had multiple entities reach out to EPA over the course of the last few weeks, because they want to take over Energy Star."

The EPA has not revealed who it's talking with about privatizing Energy Star. Hirsch, the agency spokesperson, declined an interview request and wrote in an email, "We have nothing more to share at this time."

One option for turning Energy Star into a business would be to charge companies to participate. Currently, the government pays those costs.

"Charging for participation would be an interesting and creative solution," says Sapna Gheewala Dowla, associate vice president of policy and research at the Alliance to Save Energy. But she says privatizing Energy Star and charging a fee could create "additional barriers for small manufacturers, for community-based builders, or potentially even public sector organizations that do rely on the program but operate on tight margins."

The alliance has argued that Energy Star's budget should be doubled to at least $80 million a year, to save even more energy and money. Now, the group is among those arguing to save the program.

"We would love Energy Star to stay at EPA, stay fully funded and stay fully staffed," Gheewala Dowla says. Her organization and the U.S. Green Building Council organized a letter of support for Energy Star that more than 1,000 companies and organizations signed.

Real estate industry relies on Energy Star

Eliminating or privatizing Energy Star has some in the real estate industry concerned.

"To your everyday consumer, Energy Star is typically thought of as the little blue label on your washing machine. To the commercial real estate industry, it is much more," says Leia de Guzman, co-founder of the real estate tech company Cambio.

Energy Star includes a program called Portfolio Manager that helps building owners track energy and water consumption. That information is then used to comply with local conservation regulations.

"If there were to be any diminution or dismantling of Energy Star, what we can't do is lose the underlying data," says Matt Ellis, CEO of a real estate technology firm Measurabl. That's why his company and others are offering services that collect and store that information, in case Energy Star goes away.

In July the Senate Appropriations Committee approved continued funding for the program — $36 million. Now the rest of Congress likely will decide whether Energy Star will continue to be funded in coming months.
Copyright 2025 NPR

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

For the first time since California insurance commissioner became an elected position, two Democrats will vie for the job in November.

The top two vote-getters in the June primary were former San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Jane Kim and state Sen. Ben Allen, who received about 27% and 20% of the vote, respectively. One of them will succeed Ricardo Lara, the former Democratic lawmaker who has served two terms as insurance commissioner. Lara has presided over the Insurance Department in the past eight years, during which the state saw its deadliest and most devastating fires.

Kim or Allen will be taking on complicated, enormous challenges that have implications for local communities, people’s ability to buy homes and start businesses, and the state’s economy.

In the past few years, insurance companies stopped writing new policies or renewing old ones, especially in high-risk areas, citing increasing wildfire risk from climate change and inflation that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. This caused homeowners to turn to the last-resort FAIR Plan, which is mandated by law to provide fire insurance. The plan, run by an alliance of insurers, has grown to more than 684,000 policies in force as of March, an increase of 152% since September 2022. It has warned about its ability to keep paying claims after major disasters.

Proposition 103, a law approved by voters in 1988, means that among many other things, the elected commissioner has the power to approve rate increases. It has kept the state’s rates from rising too much over the years — Californians’ homeowners insurance premiums have hovered around the middle of the pack nationwide — but that could change. Last year, the commissioner put in place regulations that include new factors insurers can use when setting their premiums, such as catastrophe modeling and reinsurance costs. Some companies have applied for and received approval to raise their rates, so they’re starting to write policies again.

Keeping insurance available but affordable will be the most pressing issue for either Kim or Allen, whose responsibilities will also include regulating auto, pet and some aspects of health insurance, plus workers’ compensation.

Another problem that will need plenty of attention: making sure insurance companies pay their claims in a timely manner that helps communities to rebuild. The L.A.-area fires shed a light on insurer practices that delay and deny claims, as well as underinsurance and the lack of standards for smoke damage, which have held up recovery. Pending legislation — such as those authored by Allen, whose district was hit by the fires last year — and lawsuits will address some of those issues. Well-organized fire survivors who called for Lara’s resignation over his department’s response to their concerns will surely keep up the pressure on his successor.

Here’s a look at each candidate’s record and how she or he would approach the job, based on their interviews with CalMatters and what they have said publicly, including at candidate forums.

Jane Kim

Kim’s proposal to create “natural disaster insurance for all,” inspired by a program in New Zealand, has gotten a lot of attention. She plans to fund such a system with a portion of policyholder premiums that insurance companies would collect and divert to the state. The state would then guarantee fire and flood coverage, while insurance companies would continue to cover other risks.

Naysayers, including consumer advocates, wonder why she hasn’t released any specifics about how much capital such a fund would require. Kim told CalMatters that it would need to be studied, but that at its core her proposal would generate revenue.

Opponents of her proposal also say it’s a bad idea to shift catastrophic burden onto the state, pointing to what they say is the failure of splitting off earthquake insurance from homeowner insurance — most California homeowners now have no insurance coverage.

“We (taxpayers) already are on the hook,” Kim said. “When insurers and utilities refuse to pay, they just pass it on to us anyway. Sharing the risk is important.”

Kim also told CalMatters that an idea Merritt Farren, a Republican candidate for commissioner, proposed — that the state create a reinsurance authority to encourage insurers to write policies in the state — “may turn out to be a more efficient model.”

Among Kim’s shorter-term priorities if she wins:

• Create public dashboards to show how insurance companies are spending policyholder premiums, and that show their record on claims.
• Expand eligibility for a program that provides low-cost insurance to drivers who make less than $38,000 a year. 
• Tie a company’s ability to sell auto insurance in the state to its willingness to write homeowner policies.
• Make the FAIR Plan more transparent by requiring that its list of board members be public, and that its board meetings be public.
• Freeze rates when policyholders file claims.

The former San Francisco elected official, an attorney, touts among her accomplishments free community college for the city’s residents; the first $15 minimum wage ordinance in the state; and a tenant-protection ordinance to avoid unjust evictions. She worked as the California director for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 U.S. presidential campaign and most recently as California Director for the Working Families Party.

Kim has a long list of endorsers, including many unions such as SEIU California. Besides Sanders, another U.S. lawmaker, Rep. Ro Khanna of Silicon Valley, has also endorsed her.

Ben Allen

The state senator, who will be termed out of the Legislature, wants to bring together the state, insurers, builders, local governments and firefighters to work on risk-reduction strategies.

“I think that's ultimately going to be the way that we get ourselves out of this mess,” he told CalMatters.

What he calls a comprehensive approach includes thinking about where people live and build: “We shouldn't be building new construction that is irresponsible in high-risk areas. We should be looking for ways to carefully and sensitively encourage people to pull back from high-risk areas.”

If he wins, Allen’s other plans include:

• Create a consumer advocate position within the insurance department, and increase staff to handle customer service. 
• Require insurers to explain claim denials and provide real-time reports of delays and outstanding claims after a disaster.
• Increase oversight of the FAIR Plan and make sure it complies with commissioner orders.
• Ban the insurance commissioner and staff from working for the industry immediately after they leave the department.

Allen has played up his experience as a legislator, including writing and passing bills related to holding insurance companies accountable. For example, a law he wrote now requires insurers to pay 60% of policyholders’ contents coverage without a detailed inventory, and gives consumers more time to provide that inventory. He also touts writing Proposition 4, the bond measure approved by the state’s voters in 2024 “for safe drinking water, wildfire prevention and protecting communities and natural lands from climate risks.”

Other pending bills authored by him include one that would require insurers to give homeowners 90 days notice before they intend not to renew their policies, along with a clear explanation. Another would penalize insurance companies that fail to correct their practices after the insurance department finds that they have violated laws and regulations.

Allen also has many endorsements, including the two leaders of the state Legislature, Senate Pro Tem Monique Limon and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. U.S. Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both from California, unions and the Consumer Federation of California also endorse him.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Children and teens across Long Beach will have access to free meals this summer through programs run by the city and Long Beach Unified School District.

Beginning June 12, the first day of LBUSD’s summer break, more than 60 locations across Long Beach will begin offering free meals through a federal program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The sites were selected to serve communities with the greatest need, in accordance with state guidelines.

The Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine will host lunch at 23 park and library locations. Children and teens ages 1 to 18 can receive lunches on a first-come, first-served basis and must eat them on site. No registration or proof of income is required. A full list of park locations and their service times and dates is available here.

Long Beach Unified will provide breakfast and lunch to more than 8,000 students enrolled in the district’s Expanded Learning Opportunities Program and school-age care programs. Those students can receive their meals at the site where they attend programming. Dates, times and locations of service at LBUSD sites are available here.

During the school year, Long Beach Unified participates in California’s Universal Meals Program and offers free breakfast and lunch to all students — regardless of family income. But options during the summer months are more limited. Offerings through the city’s Parks Department and LBUSD aim to fill that gap in a district where 61% of students are classified as socioeconomically disadvantaged, according to LBUSD’s most recent Local Control Accountability Plan.

The city’s arm of the program distributed nearly 27,000 meals last summer and may serve even more this year, after adding a location in Signal Hill. The program has served millions of children since launching in Long Beach in 1979.

Meals, which are all vended from Long Beach Unified, rotate on a biweekly menu schedule and include chicken tenders, hamburgers, mini corn dogs, bean burritos and pizza sticks. Meals will also include milk, juice, fruits and vegetables.

Meal service will be available from June 12 through Aug. 24, though dates and times vary by location. There will be no meal service on June 19 and July 3. Additional information on the city’s program is available here, and information on the school district’s program here.

Do you need food? See our guide to resources across Long Beach and L.A. County.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is rejecting President Donald Trump's claims of voter fraud in the state's primary elections, where ballots are still being counted.

"Truly embarrassing, unhinged, wild-eyed, dangerous, reckless, desperate," Bonta said when asked about the president's comments. "What's your evidence for the bold claim you've made? He has none."

With midterm elections approaching, Bonta told Morning Edition he expects more election-related misinformation, including from government officials.

Officials are preparing for more election claims

Bonta reacted to a recent announcement from Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, who said on X that his office is conducting multiple election fraud investigations.

"Every count, recount, hand count, audit and court case has demonstrated there is no widespread voter fraud," Bonta said. "It is very unfortunate that we're in a place now where people disregard inconvenient facts, manufacture their own facts."

He points to misinformation spread by reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, who is running for mayor of Los Angeles. City council member Nithya Raman surpassed Pratt on Monday and will face incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in November.

"He's suggesting that some of the votes that went to his opponent … belong to homeless individuals," Bonta said. "So misinformation and disinformation abounds. It's irresponsible and dangerous, especially for those who propagate it knowingly or without doing some critical thinking of their own."

Transparency and public trust

Some of the doubt around elections, Bonta said, comes from a lack of understanding about how votes are counted and why results can take time, especially in California, where final tallies do not come the next day.

Mail-in ballots take longer to process than in-person ballots, because officials must scan bar codes, remove envelopes and check signatures against those on file. In California, around a quarter of the electorate returns their ballots on Election Day, which means officials don't start processing millions of votes until then.

"In L.A. County, the registrar of voters is completely transparent. You can go online right now and look at the livestream of the vote counting. You can go visit the registrar of voters as they're counting ballots to take a look around. The light of day is shining bright on the operations of the vote counting in LA County," Bonta said.

"But some don't want to understand," he continued. "And Trump has basically taken the position that if he wins or the person that he supports wins, the election was fair. If he lost or the person he supported lost, it was rigged. And that's just not right."

'The danger is the action that follows the lie'

Bonta says the best strategy for state officials to counter false claims is simply confronting them.

"The best counter to misinformation and disinformation is calling it out, confronting it, providing the facts that show that it's demonstrably false," he said. "So I immediately went to my own platforms to share how Trump is lying. The facts rebut everything and contradict everything that he said, and it's important that he be called out for it, because it's wrong and it's not true."

"I'm worried about what he might do. Will he deploy the military? Will he deploy ICE to the polls? Will he interfere with the U.S. Postal Service in the November election, and the vote-by-mail ballots that move through the U.S. Postal Service?" he said.

"All those things are possible, and they rest on this lie, this fabrication that there's widespread voter fraud," Bonta added.

"So, the danger is the action that follows the lie," he added. "And we're prepared. We've been tabletopping, preparing our response, our action for each of those scenarios."

A new legal fight over Trump's election order

Bonta's warnings come as he co-leads a multistate lawsuit challenging Trump's latest elections-related executive order, which he says unlawfully tries to interfere with states' constitutional authority to run elections by restricting voter eligibility and mail voting to federally preapproved lists.

The lawsuit, filed with a coalition of more than 20 other attorneys general and Pennsylvania's governor, asks a federal court to block key provisions of the order, which they say would force states to rapidly overhaul election procedures and create confusion and chaos.

White House responds but offers no evidence

NPR reached out to the White House, asking for evidence of the president's claims of voter fraud in California's primary.

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson wrote back that "countless Americans share the same concerns as President Trump" and added the president is pushing for legislation that would establish "a uniform photo ID requirement for voting, prohibit no-excuse mail-in voting and end the practice of ballot harvesting."

The response did not include specific evidence to support the president's allegation of voter fraud in California's primary.
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