My bet is that consumers still care because it equates to dollars, so either the manufacturers will advertise it themselves, raitings websites will measure it as part of their assessment, or some non profit will pop up to do it.

The energy star organization isn’t dictating how much energy manufactures have to make their appliances use federal mandate is.

The law is actually dictating how much energy they should be using and they get more and more stringent every year from Congress.

The energy star rating is nothing more than marketing. The same as the better Business bureau they serve no actual function.