ENERGY STAR is moving to the Energy Department: what it means for refrigerators, dishwashers and cooktops

The ENERGY STAR label on refrigerators, dishwashers and electric cooktops is changing hands. Under an agreement that took effect on March 3, 2026, the Department of Energy (DOE) became the lead federal agency for the voluntary program, taking over primary management from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the two agencies finalized a transition plan on August 28, 2026. The program has long been run jointly by the two, the plan notes. This guide explains what the agreement and the plan say, what they mean for kitchen appliances that carry the label, and how old the current kitchen criteria are, based on the agencies' documents and ENERGY STAR's own pages, read on November 11, 2026.

What the agencies agreed

ENERGY STAR rests on section 131 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which set up a voluntary labeling program within both DOE and EPA and left the split of duties to agreements between them. The 2026 memorandum of agreement names DOE as the lead agency, consulting other agencies such as EPA and the Small Business Administration as needed, and starts an orderly move of partnership agreements, trademarks, IT systems and databases from EPA to DOE. It replaces agreements from 1996 and 2009, runs for 10 years and lets either agency withdraw with at least 365 days' written notice. The memorandum describes itself as neither binding nor a funding document.

The timetable

EPA's ENERGY STAR status page, last updated on August 28, 2026, says the complete transition, including the IT systems and databases, will happen by July 2027; it showed no later milestone when we read it on November 11, 2026. The plan also has EPA transferring the energystar.gov domain and the program's social media accounts to DOE.

What it means for the label on kitchen appliances

For products, the plan describes certification as resting on Certification Bodies, which verify models against ENERGY STAR criteria and report certified models to EPA. The procedures for running certification and verification, and access to the systems behind them, are among the material EPA is passing to DOE. The partnership agreements that let manufacturers and retailers use the mark carry over too: the plan counts more than 15,000 active partners and says most agreements already include both EPA and DOE, so only a small share need changing. The agencies say they aim to keep disruption to a minimum for the 1,500 manufacturers, 1,200 retailers and 840 utilities that, in their words, depend on the program.

The money comes from EPA's fiscal 2026 appropriations, which the plan says are paying for current operations and the transition. EPA is to estimate what is left unspent and send it to DOE, which then takes financial responsibility for running the program. The plan adds that “the long-term success of the program depends on adequate funding.”

Refrigerator, dishwasher and cooktop criteria date from 2021 to 2023

The criteria an appliance must meet to carry the label predate the transfer. The plan says EPA has not worked on updating specifications since early 2025, and that DOE will receive notes on known outstanding issues to address as it reviews them. Among the material EPA is to hand over are evaluations of potential products to sunset and of the specifications most in need of updating; the plan does not name any. DOE, it says, will lead future program updates. These are the current criteria for three kitchen categories on energystar.gov:

ENERGY STAR sits on top of the federal minimum standards, which DOE already sets for products such as refrigerators under the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act; the refrigerator criteria are written as a margin below those minimums. Our guides to ENERGY STAR's list of electric cooktops and ranges and to EnergyGuide labels on refrigerators and dishwashers use the program's data and the federal labels.