The US Department of Energy Removes Thousands of Pages on Energy Saving

In recent hours, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) removed thousands of pages dedicated to energy conservation from its website, right as a historic heatwave struck the country. The removal closely followed Republican attacks on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who had urged citizens to set their air conditioners to 78°F (26°C) to lighten the load on the power grid: the same temperature the DOE had officially recommended just days earlier.

Mamdani's appeal to New Yorkers during the hottest days was stated as follows: "New York: It’s hot and the power grid is working at full speed to keep us cool. Set your air conditioning to 78 degrees, turn off lights and electronics that you are not using, and unplug everything you can." New York City recorded temperatures exceeding 95°F (35°C) for four consecutive days, two of which surpassed 100°F (38°C), while the National Weather Service issued extreme heat warnings in 26 states and the District of Columbia, with heat index values up to 115°F in some areas.

The Removed Pages

The deleted pages from the DOE explicitly recommended finding a comfortable indoor temperature during the day and increasing it by 7°F when no one is home, suggesting a starting point of "an indoor temperature between 75°F and 78°F during the day." However, the removals did not stop at thermostats: pages on water conservation, types of thermal insulation, and even the Solar Decathlon—the sustainable design competition promoted by the same Department—also vanished. The Internet Archive has preserved the content via the Wayback Machine, making verifiable what has been removed.

The overall number of pages removed remains uncertain but is estimated to be around 6,000.

A Not New Rule, Applied Only to Mamdani

The detail that makes this situation more striking is that 78°F is not a threshold invented by the New York mayor: it is the same figure previously used by Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who asked Texans to set their air conditioners the same way during summer heatwaves without sparking any controversy. In contrast, Republicans Ted Cruz, Nikki Haley, and Congresswoman Nancy Mace publicly opposed Mamdani, with Mace calling the request an attack on menopausal women while others labeled it "socialism" or compared it to communism.

The DOE has not responded to requests for comments regarding the incident. There is no official confirmation that the removals were deliberately linked to Mamdani's case: currently, there is no evidence of a direct causal link between the criticism of the mayor and the disappearance of the pages. However, the timeline remains as it is: the same recommendation, the same threshold, a single political target, and a government website that soon ceased to discuss it.