Environment — News & Analysis

Over 1,600 energy department webpages on utility bill savings removed as US temperatures soar (July 15, 2026)

WASHINGTON — At least 1,662 Department of Energy webpages offering guidance on protecting the electrical grid during heatwaves had gone dark as of July 3, 2026, according to a Guardian analysis of a list of deleted URLs provided by researchers at the Internet Archive. The deleted pages were filed under the department's "energy saver" section and included a wide range of advice for energy and cost-saving measures, from ways to keep a home cool during the summer when energy bills and usage spike to tips on how to seal air leaks around the home. More than 300 of the webpages had drawn more than 160,000 page views in the preceding 30 days, according to a Guardian analysis of government web traffic data from the U.S. General Services Administration. The exact dates of deletion are unclear; the Guardian confirmed timeframes by comparing the dates the pages were last successfully saved on the Internet Archive, finding that 18 pages were last live on July 1 and 2, 73 were last live in June, and 1,571 were last live before May 2025. The Department of Energy did not respond to the Guardian's questions about when and why the pages were removed, or whether the removals were related to the proposed rule to "Permanently End Green New Scam Appliance Mandates."

The removals coincided with the administration's push to weaken efficiency rules. On July 1, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani asked New Yorkers to set their thermostats to 78 degrees amid a historic heatwave; on July 2, the Trump administration announced a proposal to weaken energy efficiency standards for home appliances such as air conditioners and heaters, and at least 18 webpages were removed within days of that announcement. Advocates say the rollback, if enacted, would effectively undo decades of policies proven to lower household utility bills and would make it much harder for the department to update efficiency standards under future administrations. Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, said that "having a functioning air conditioner is a health and safety issue for the elderly, for folks with health conditions, and for the very young," and that keeping standards up to date helps hold energy consumption down so people can afford to operate the products. His coalition's analysis found the next round of standards updates would save each household an average of $160 annually and could significantly ease peak summer electricity demand on a grid already strained by AI datacenters and more frequent heatwaves. Itai Vardi, research manager at the Energy and Policy Institute, called the combination of the proposed rule and the deletions "just absurd," saying the administration is "rolling back the rules on energy efficiency, but also trying to hide helpful tips and information for the public, and it's going to cost people more money."