Energy Star - Fraud

[masraum]

Energy Star program loses luster

Honestly, did anyone really think that meant anything? Hell, pretty much every computer and electronic gadget in the last 10-15 years has had an E-Star sticker. If it was that easy to get how meaningful could it be?

All this time, shoppers trusted there was more to Energy Star than a shiny sticker.

Government agencies trained them to look for that certification when searching for a water heater, computer monitor or other appliance. Consumers were led to believe they could blindly trust the familiar label, never imagining that the government had a blind spot of its own.

Investigators from the Government Accountability Office found they could easily obtain Energy Star certification for products they made up. Only two of 20 fake items were rejected.

Among the 15 that were approved - three other requests were lost in cyberspace - was a gadget straight out of a science-fiction novel: a gas-powered alarm clock. Just the thing to jolt those bureaucrats out of their snooze.

Bogus new models of existing appliances also snuck through unchallenged. Not surprisingly, the GAO auditors reported earlier this month that the program was ripe for fraud.

The Energy Star tag is supposed to ensure that the energy savings from a particular product will be real. The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy can't even promise that the products are real. Not knowing the companies were imaginary, private firms expressed an interest in ordering their computer monitors.

Officials expressed confidence that the holes in the screening process are minimal. Still, they agreed to expand independent testing of commonly used appliances.

That should become a permanent habit. The 18-year-old program may have cruised along happily on the honor system for a while, but the stakes have gone up.

With $5.4 million in rebates on approved Energy Star items available through stimulus funding in Wisconsin alone, American consumers are likely to be drawn to that label more than ever. So will manufacturers looking to grab a piece of that bulging pie, and some will be willing to tiptoe around the truth to earn that sticker.

There's no better time to sound the alarm - the conventionally powered kind - and awaken the watchdogs.

[Jim Richards]

Just great.

Thanks for posting this, Steve.

[MotoSook]

Fake everything to make green industry promoters happy.

[Noah930]

Hey guys, don't blab this around too much quite yet. I'm still waiting for my $65 rebate for a refrigerator I bought last fall.