Appliance efficiency standards are one of the most successful and cost effective regulatory efforts in US history, and most folks don’t know that. https://twitter.com/mattrooney11/status/1331945451889827854

These regulations are benefit-cost tested beforehand. Costs are almost always lower than initially projected, because people and companies are smart and innovative, and they figure out how to meet standards in smarter ways than initially anticipated.

The regulations are subjected to extensive feedback from industry and the public before they are finalized, so industry has an idea of what’s coming, and can prepare.

Another benefit is that standards push certain efficiency technologies from being niche products with high markups to being standard products with low markups. That reduces costs for everyone.

Standards also push industry to innovate. When standards were introduced for fridges in the 1970s the industry developed new insulation in response.

Refrigerator/Freezers are the poster child for the success of efficiency standards. https://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/appliance_standards/standards.aspx?productid=37&action=viewlive

Purchase prices are much lower, features are increased, and fridge size is much bigger, but fridges use less than 1/4 of the electricity they used per unit in 1973, and half of what they did in 1990. https://appliance-standards.org/blog/how-your-refrigerator-has-kept-its-cool-over-40-years-efficiency-improvements

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been studying appliance efficiency since the 1970s, and has played a key role in the analysis of efficiency standards for decades. https://ees.lbl.gov 

Here's a key reference by LBNL researchers analyzing efficiency and price trends for fridges over time:

Greening, Lorna A., Alan H. Sanstad, and James E. McMahon. 1997. "Effects of Appliance Standards on Product Price and Attributes: An Hedonic Pricing Model." The Journal of Regulatory Economics. vol. 11, no. 2, March. pp. 181-194.

The engineering and economic analyses of the standards are quite detailed, and all publicly available (although the older ones are embedded in paper documents that may be hard to access nowadays).

Standards eliminate transaction costs in the purchase of efficient products. They address the landlord-tenant problem by simply eliminating the least efficient products on the market. They reduce markups for efficient equipment, benefiting everyone.

For another great example, see that of efficient magnetic ballast standards circa 1990, which delivered longer lifetimes and equivalent light to their less efficient counterparts, with no change in consumer amenity.

Koomey, Jonathan G., Alan H. Sanstad, and Leslie J. Shown. 1996. "Energy-Efficient Lighting: Market Data, Market Imperfections, and Policy Success." Contemporary Economic Policy. vol. XIV, no. 3. July (Also LBL-37702.REV). pp. 98-111. [ http://enduse.lbl.gov/Info/37702-abstract.html]

So President Obama is quite correct to point to efficiency standards as a great success story. They continue to save society significant amounts of energy, with benefits vastly exceeding costs to society.