Remember a couple months ago when ENERGY STAR shut down their entire labeling program? You know, the gas-powered alarm clock that achieved an ENERGY STAR label.
Well, the program has started back up again as of April 16th, 2010. Wonder what changed? See links below…
EPA/DOE Joint Letter to Administration
Highlights –
- All electronic submissions will require staff review of lab reports showing product meets criteria.
- Self-testing is acceptable until the end of the year, after then the plan is for all products to be tested in a 3rd party accredited lab.
- All manufacturers will soon be required participation in an ongoing verification testing program to ensure continued compliance.
- Stricter rules on use of the ENERGY STAR logo have been implemented.
It's worth noting that ENERGY STAR already had been doing off-the-shelf spot check testing on labeled products and found that 98 percent of the products comply with ENERGY STAR criteria. Also worth noting is that the company that manufactures gas-powered alarm clock is fictitious (as is the alarm clock), created by the GAO to show how vulnerable the program is to fraud. However, with more organizations and communities specifying ENERGY STAR in purchasing policies and development policies, this scrutiny couldn't have come at a better time. Here's to hoping we won't see anything like Tropical Thunder Appliance's "Air Cleaner" on the shelves at Home Depot.
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