Energy Star Program Certifies 15 Out of 20 Bogus Products

longacre writes "A Gasoline-Powered Alarm Clock was among 15 bogus products granted the coveted Energy Star seal of approval by the US Environmental Protection Agency during a secret evaluation conducted by the Government Accountability Office. In addition, four fictional manufacturers run by fake people and marketed with crummy websites — Cool Rapport (HVAC equipment), Futurizon Solar Innovations (lighting), Spartan Digital Electronics, and Tropical Thunder Appliances — were granted Energy Star partnerships. The root of the problem: Manufacturers need only submit photos and not actual examples of their products, and they submit their own efficiency ratings, which are not independently verified by the EPA."

Comments

Like patents

[BadAnalogyGuy]

The sheer volume of applicants makes it infeasible for a single bureaucracy to effectively test physical hardware.

Re:Like patents

[santax]

Neh that's totally different. I'm pretty sure there are no bogus patents.

Re:Like patents

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I suspect one of three things(or conceivably some combination):

Regulatory capture: Regulatory entities frequently(out of a mixture of lobbying and the human social processes that come with working together), frequently start to identify with the entities they regulate. It's like Stockholm Syndrome for bureaucracies. Either because you fear the lobbying clout of people upset with your decisions, or because you really don't want to be "not a team player", you start getting really softball regulation.

Bad incentive structure: Defining good metrics for productivity is hard. Defining bad ones is easy. It would be totally believable that, either by design or in practice, the guy who approves 10 products in a day gets more brownie points than the guy who denies 10, or carefully researches 5.

Intentional brokenness: A common(and quite sensible) defensive mechanism used by entities or industries that fear they will face conditions harmful to their interests(either regulation, consumer backlash, or both) is to pre-emptively "show their cooperation" by collaborating with their friends in legislature, or in "objective 3rd party" organizations produced for the purpose, to establish carefully broken softball standards that strongly resemble whatever reform they feared; but have little or none of the punch.

Re:Like patents

[dynamo52]

The sheer volume of applicants makes it infeasible for a single bureaucracy to effectively test physical hardware.

No, the problem is that this was a program written by industry lobbyists. It is completely voluntary and the test results are self reported.

From TFA:

In the instance of a bogus dehumidifier granted certification (an appliance also billed as 20 percent more efficient than the category leader), the EPA did request an e-mail confirmation on the bogus test data. To get the Energy Star stamp, the GAO spies simply had to stick to the story.

On the plus side though,this was discovered by the GAO making it an excellent example of what well reasoned regulation and oversight can accomplish. Now if we can get a few Republicans to vote for the new Consumer Protection Agency that Obama wants in the Financial Regulation Reform bill we would start to see more of these abuses brought to light.

Re:Like patents

[sumdumass]

Actually, I can't think of a single seal of approval, or certification, that means anything.

I'll expand your mind then. Try the UL and the NFPA seals and listings.

Of course if something is not up to spec (lets say a manufacturer certified with one material and used another in production), then most people have a right to sue the manufacturers for not following the standards they were certified under as well as it being known that the problem wasn't the certification but the production afterward.

Re:Like patents

[Idarubicin]

Actually, I can't think of a single seal of approval, or certification, that means anything.

Underwriters Laboratories.

Re:Like patents

[digitalunity]

Not sure, but sumdumass is entirely correct.

OSHA runs the rigidly enforced Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory program for product safety certification program, including companies such as UL, ETL and CSA who routinely test products for compliance with UL, CSA, NFPA and FCC testing. For an additional fee, I'm sure these companies would be happy to provide energy efficiency ratings as well.

As a part of the certification program for most companies, manufacturers receive regular inspections to continue using the UL, ETL and CSA certification marks to verify that the products that they make continue to comply with the requirements originally used to establish conformity to nationally recognized product safety standards.

Once a certification is established, manufacturers cannot modify their product designs in ways that affect the safety of the product without a recertification review.

Never, ever, ever, ever trust the government

[Lost Found]

Bernie Madoff stole 50 billion dollars right under the SEC and FINRA's noses. Unlike private agencies like the UL that face the threat of extinction if they ruin their brand, government agencies routinely screw up, screw the people they're supposed to protect and get more money for their failures.

Re:Never, ever, ever, ever trust the government

[PineGreen]

This kind of comments make me want to return to Europe. I've been living in US for a couple of years now, I have a 6 figure salary and you know what: I hate paying so little in taxes. Because you get what you pay for. In USA you have small government, no taxes and hence everyone gets routinely screwed up by private sector: I have never paid so much in telecommunications, so much in healthcare costs for the shittiest service ever and I just punctured tire on my audi last week because of a massive pothole on a *freeway*. But as long as you get screwed by private sector everyone is happy. And then because one gov service is bad, everybody starts screaming big government is the root of all evil. For fuck sake, have you people ever tried trains in germany or healthcare in UK? USA could have been such a good country, food can be so amazing in NY and multiculturalism beats everybody else, but if people were just a little bit more sensible brained....

Re:Never, ever, ever, ever trust the government

[moosesocks]

As somebody who works for the government, I take your comment as a personal insult.

If anything, the efficiency of the government is greater than private industry, thanks to the intense level of scrutiny we're put through. (If anything, the extensive accountability measures that we have to undergo are the one thing that hinders our efficiency)

Re:Never, ever, ever, ever trust the government

[superdave80]

I don't think it is necessarily a question of HOW MUCH in taxes, but what it is spent on. Why do we even have a government agency to put a damn energy star sticker on the side of an appliance? Simply make all manufacturers print the power draw of their item on the side of the package. Done. Anyone who gives two craps about how much power something uses can look on the package. Anyone who doesn't bother to probably wouldn't care about the whole energy star thing anyways.

That money wasted on the 'energy star' bureaucracy could have been used to fill the pothole that you hit.

Re:Never, ever, ever, ever trust the government

[Fujisawa Sensei]

Bernie Madoff stole 50 billion dollars right under the SEC and FINRA's noses. Unlike private agencies like the UL that face the threat of extinction if they ruin their brand, government agencies routinely screw up, screw the people they're supposed to protect and get more money for their failures.

That's because the free market Republicans and Libertarians want to make sure the government can't do anything; because the market is self regulating.

When the head of the SEC doesn't believe in regulation, you can be certain that very little will be regulated.

Re:Never, ever, ever, ever trust the government

[Idiomatick]

"a secret evaluation conducted by the Government Accountability Office."

From that I take it that you just closed your eyes and fled from this story? Government busting government doing bad things. BTW, there was nothing stopping a private company from trying this, but government did it. I guess it isn't all bad? They are improving or does that anger you? I don't know these days with anti-government types.

Re:Never, ever, ever, ever trust the government

[dynamo52]

Regulation and oversight is a tradition weakness of government anywhere. Sure, this can have beneficial results, but only if it is done.

Exactly my point. Instead of continuing down the path of smaller and more ineffective government that has put us in this position, it is time to start rebuilding the regulatory structures that the corporate right has methodically dismantled over the last thirty years with the incessant mantra of deregulation. A well reasoned regulatory structure operating as an independent agency as Obama is proposing could expose hundreds of these types of abuses. Why do you think the Republicans are opposing it so strongly? If their contributors had to actually earn their money their fundraisers might not go so well.

Re:So, its a marketing label only

[mysidia]

Ah, but they are energy efficient.............. compared to a short circuit, or a 100 ohm resistor in parallel with the device.

Lawl.

[cosm]

It is a sad state of affairs that our government has to set up a separate agency to analyze the (in)efficiency of a government organization that is setup to analyze the (in)efficiencys of other organizations. The U.S government is becoming a conglomerate of Department of Redundancy Departments, whose productivity is measured in how much money is thrown down the chasm. Glad to see my tax dollars at work.

Re:Lawl.

[moosesocks]

Pretty much every company bigger than 10-20 employees has some sort of auditing system in place. Auditing is a good practice, and catches things such as this -- the only difference with the government is that audits are made public.

The question is,

[mobby_6kl]

Where the hell can I buy the gasoline powered alarm clock? That's an awesome idea and I don't care how many energy stars it gets, I just want it right now.

Re:So, its a marketing label only

[Un pobre guey]

That is a political non-starter. Cap and trade will come because it creates a vast new speculative market. Look forward to iterative securitization, credit default swaps and other wacky derivatives, market cornering, toxic assets, etc. etc. etc.

The people who will make the money in that market will be both the driving force and the authors of the legislation.

Re:So, its a marketing label only

[Sir_Lewk]

They should tax having sex. After all, babies are made of carbon.

gasoline alarm clock

[gomatt]

i had a friend with a gasoline powered alarm clock. he started it up when we went to sleep. guess its no good, because no matter how loud it was, he never woke up.

wow! Nicely done!

[CFD339]

I'm a firefighter and I've seen these guys work. They sent someone out to test our 75 foot ladder -- and the guy spent two days with magnets, iron dust, and a damn magnifying glass going over every single inch of the metal -- he found half a dozen micro stress cracks, marked them, and we were able to have them welded and re-checked.