{"id":488985,"date":"2010-03-30T10:02:12","date_gmt":"2010-03-30T14:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/epa-s-energy-star-not-too-bright-41574\/"},"modified":"2010-03-30T10:02:12","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T14:02:12","slug":"epa%c2%92s-energy-star-%c2%97-not-too-bright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/488985","title":{"rendered":"EPA\u0092s Energy Star \u0097 Not Too Bright"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 03.30.10 06:00 AM posted by Robert Gordon<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

While the Environmental Protection Agency grinds ahead with its Clean Air Act regulations to force reductions of carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report<\/a> on a different energy conservation program introduced by EPA the under the same law. Whether you are conscious of it or not, you have probably seen the logo for the Energy Star program stuck on a refrigerator, dishwasher or some other consumer product. The logo means the government has deemed the product to be relatively energy efficient. However, just because the government deems something to be more energy efficient does not mean it is. In fact, not only may it NOT be more energy efficient but also it may not even be real.<\/p>\n

The GAO recently put the nearly two decade old Energy Star program to the test by establishing several bogus companies \u0096 consisting of websites, PO boxes and cell phones numbers \u0096 and then sought certification for twenty fictitious products. The results were dismal even for those who don\u0092t expect too much from bureaucracy. At least 75% of the bogus products earned Energy Star certification. Of the twenty make-believe products submitted by the GAO, only two were rejected by the EPA or the Department of the Energy which is a partner in the program. Fifteen bogus products were stamped with the Energy Star seal of approval and for three others, the process was incomplete by the time the GAO authored its report.<\/p>\n

With three out of four bogus products certified it\u0092s hard to imagine that it could be worse but it is. Some of the bogus products that received Energy Star certification were no less than comical. According to the GAO they included: \u0093\u0085a gas-powered alarm clock and a room cleaner represented by a photograph of a feather duster adhered to a space heater\u0085\u0094 Judging from the photo in GAO\u0092s report, \u0093adhered to\u0094 is a nice way of saying \u0093stuck on with tape.\u0094 Perhaps this would be an energy efficient way to burn down one\u0092s house.<\/p>\n

Not only are tax dollars spent administering this program but GAO also notes that \u0093\u0085 federal agencies must procure Energy Star-qualified or DOE Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP)-designated products, unless the head of the agency determines in writing that a statutory exemption applies\u0094 and \u0093The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 increased and extended the energy tax credits for homeowners who make energy-efficient improvements to their existing homes.\u0094<\/p>\n

Good news about the program is that it\u0092s voluntary. That\u0092s more than can be said for what EPA is planning to do to the economy with its pending carbon dioxide regulatory scheme.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/03\/30\/…ot-too-bright\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 03.30.10 06:00 AM posted by Robert Gordon While the Environmental Protection Agency grinds ahead with its Clean Air Act regulations to force reductions of carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on a different energy conservation program introduced by EPA the under the same law. Whether you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-488985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}