As a historic heat wave sweeps across the United States, the U.S. Department of Energy has been revealed to have deleted about 6,000 energy conservation-related web pages, raising concerns about government information transparency and public safety. The move, which comes shortly after New York City Councilmember Zohran Mamdani called on citizens to set air conditioners to 78 degrees Fahrenheit to reduce load on the grid, is seen as epitomizing the White House's politicized response to energy conservation.
Mamdani recently publicly called on New York residents to set their home air conditioners to 78 degrees Fahrenheit during hot weather to help relieve stress on the power grid. This recommendation itself is common practice during heat waves and is highly consistent with official federal and state energy conservation guidelines for many years. In fact, the previous official position of the U.S. Department of Energy was to recommend that people set their thermostats between 75 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and many Republican governors have issued similar initiatives in the past, including current Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
However, this initiative in New York was quickly attacked by the Republican camp. Many Republican politicians, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz, former U.S. Representative to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace, have intensively criticized Mamdani's approach, even describing it as "socialism" or a "war" against menopausal women. On social networks and TV programs, conservative public opinion has packaged this conventional energy-saving advice as part of an ideological struggle, trying to turn technical heatstroke prevention advice into a political attack topic by panic-stricken exaggeration of personal lifestyles.
As the controversy continues, a large amount of energy-saving content was suddenly removed from the U.S. Department of Energy's website, including a page supporting setting air conditioners at 78 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as information related to water conservation, building insulation, and the Solar Decathlon. These deletions were described as “broad and indiscriminate” and almost wiped out all previous public information surrounding daily energy conservation and efficiency improvements. Currently, the Internet Archive has backed up and saved these deleted pages, providing researchers, media and the public with channels to trace this information.
Jason Scott, a veteran Internet archivist, briefly teased the incident on social platforms: He pointed out that shortly after Mamdani’s initiative sparked a wave of online criticism, MSNBC’s show pointed out that the U.S. Department of Energy had long recommended 78 degrees Fahrenheit as the energy-saving set point. And just after this official position was publicly reiterated, the Department of Energy quickly removed approximately 6,000 energy conservation-related web pages. The timeline has raised widespread suspicion that the deletion was carried out under political pressure to avoid the government's existing energy-saving programs being seen as supporting Mamdani's position.
At the same time, high temperatures continue to rise in many parts of the United States, with temperatures in New York City exceeding 95 degrees Fahrenheit for four consecutive days, and two of which exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit. With more people staying home during the holiday weekend and electricity loads remaining high, the power grid is facing unprecedented pressure. Any large-scale power outage may cause people to lose the protection of air conditioning and be directly exposed to deadly high temperatures. On average, extreme heat kills more people in the United States than floods, tornadoes and hurricanes combined, making it one of the country's deadliest weather disasters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
So a seemingly small adjustment to setting the thermostat at 78 degrees Fahrenheit is actually a technical measure of public safety and grid stability designed to avoid blackouts and life-threatening heat-related injuries. In this context, the White House's removal of a large number of energy conservation web pages during the heat wave was criticized as using political considerations to trump scientific consensus and public health needs. Several observers warn that this trend of politicizing years-old energy-saving advice could erode public trust in official disaster preparedness information and increase unnecessary risks from future extreme weather events.