The EnergyStar-Approved Gas-Powered Alarm Clock

April 1st, 2010. By Hunter West

Remember that fridge you bought with the EnergyStar label? Oh, y’know it may have even cost a bit more than other models that lacked the label. But it’s worth it, right? You’re using less energy…saving on hydro, and being the good environmental steward that you are. 

Don’t bet on it. As revealed last week in The New York Times and in the contents of a government report issued March 26^th, the EnergyStar program can’t be trusted. Okay, well maybe now that the proverbial dung has hit the fan things will improve. But for anyone who has bought anything bearing the blue EnergyStar seal in recent years—well, you really don’t know what you’ve got. 

Because EnergyStar may not know what you have, either. 

EnergyStar is run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in tandem with the federal Energy Department. A great idea, with lofty goals. As a consumer, you can be assured that by purchasing an appliance with the blue seal you are buying the very best, most efficient item in that class, on the market. 

Or are you? 

Audits are wonderful things. And when the Government Accountability Office (GAO) did a nine-month investigation, the auditors uncovered some interesting factoids: 

• A manufacturer can download the coveted EnergyStar logo from the government website as soon as they are registered as an EnergyStar partner. Many simply pasted the logo on items that had never been submitted for approval.  
• Many approvals are handled by an automated system. EnergyStar officials claim that final approvals are always vetted by a human being, and that the automated system is only used for screening. But this is allegedly not the case in all matters. 
• Many EnergyStar appliances actually use more power than others not carrying the EnergyStar logo. 

In what would make excellent fodder for a movie, the GAO set up four fictitious companies as part of its audit and submitted to EnergyStar various products seeking the EnergyStar seal of approval. Most products just existed on paper. However energy consumption data was issued as if the products were, indeed real. Figures submitted in some cases were 20 percent less than the best-performing appliances out there. That’s quite a feat. 

No red flag. They were approved. 

An air purifier was submitted for approval. Basically it was an electric space heater with a feather duster on top (see photo). 

Approved. 

And here’s the best one…a gasoline-powered alarm clock. An item I suppose for those who are into backwoods camping, who don’t believe in batteries and just HAVE to get up to check their stock options on their Blackberrys… 

Approved. 

Maria Vargas, a spokesperson with the EPA said in comments published in The New York Times last Thursday that the approvals did not pose an injustice to consumers because the products never existed. Thus there was “no fraud” committed, she said. 

Give me a break. 

What’s the point of undertaking a program that is, essentially a government recommendation of products proven to meet strict environmental standards, if you can’t prove that they do? 

What kind of strict, EPA-sanctioned benchmarks does a gasoline-powered alarm clock meet? 10,000 rings per gallon? Oh, and by the way—the application was submitted reflecting dimensions that it was the size of an electric generator. And the ‘air purifier’ was submitted with a picture (see above) of a space heater with a feather duster on top. 

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who requested the study, said in The New York Times that the study shows the EnergyStar program is painfully open to outright fraud. If a description of a gas-powered alarm clock, or a rendering of a space heater with a feather duster on top gets through the EnergyStar pipeline “and red flags don’t get raised,” she said, “That’s a really troubling commentary.” 

Well, that’s an understatement. 

There were also revelations cited that many consumer products that did not carry the EnergyStar logo performed just as well—within the EnergyStar-mandated consumption parameters—as those with the sticker. The audit found that some consumer products lacking the EnergyStar seal of approval used less energy than those that DID sport the proud blue seal. 

Oh, and it gets better. The inspector general of the energy department reported last October that EnergyStar requires manufacturers of windows and fluorescent lights to have their products certified by independent labs. But not so for refrigerators, washers, dishwashers, water heaters and room air conditioners. The energy consumption of such units is far more critical. Some of them run all the time. But does EnergyStar require independent certification of those? 

Nope. Not according to the Energy Department, anyway. Just check a box on the application form, and you’re good. 

And oh, with the gas-powered alarm clock as an imposing backdrop, rest assured that EnergyStar promotes honesty and accuracy by reminding corporate applicants that it is a crime to intentionally submit false information under Title 18 of the United States Code. 

It’s Title 19. 

Who the hell is running the show down there? And what does the EnergyStar logo really mean? Where is the value, given the approval process? It would be better to spend your money on a subscription to Consumer Reports, and buy your stuff based on their own independent tests. 

As for EnergyStar? Bah, Oh sure, they’ll clean up their act now that they’ve been shamed. But how does that impact on the last 18 years? How many EnergyStar appliances and products have YOU bought in that time? Were they the best value? Were they the most efficient? 

You may never know. 

But rest assured if you’re ever in the market for a gas-powered alarm clock, there is one that carries the coveted EnergyStar seal of approval.

Tags: EnergyStar, EPA, GAO

This was posted on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Consumer Fraud . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.