Oh my, all the stereotypes about "ecofascists." As if none of us here ever got hit over the head with a stereotype in our own lives, huh?!
EnergyStar is not a mandate, it's a market-driven thing, that companies gain advantages from advertising about. You can't "ban" that any more than you can "ban" automakers advertising their MPG ratings. All it is, is a standard reporting method.
That being said, I find EnergyStar ratings for washers & dryers to be less than useful. They make assumptions about how many pounds per load, how many loads per year, and all that, which is almost impossible to translate into real world performance except in a very relative way. Far more useful to say how many kilowatt hours and how many gallons of water, for a load of some specific size that's within the realistic capacity rating of the machine. Then you can figure out for yourself what the yearly totals are, based on your actual needs. This of course is "too simple," and some manufacturers would resist mightily.
As for lawns: I find it somewhere between amusing and tragic that people spend so much time practicing an expensive and time-consuming (not to mention energy and water consuming) agricultural ritual for a non-edible crop.
Simple solution to all of this: No need to micromanage peoples' lifestyles. You have a monthly allotment of water and electricity, you can use it any way you like. This will encourage clever solutions such as using graywater from the washer to water the lawn, etc. Same case with gasoline and other limited resources.
