CEA Says It Might Not Fight DOE on Federal TV-Energy Limits

It’s not necessarily true, as a Natural Resources Defense Council blogger suggested this week, that CEA would fight federal TV energy limits tooth and nail as it did in California, Doug Johnson, CEA senior director of technology policy, told us Tuesday.

The blogger, Lane Burt, an NRDC policy official in Washington, said Monday that the U.S. Department of Energy schedule calls for completing a federal rulemaking on TV energy limits in June 2013 (CED March 9 p4). Assuming that CEA “is not successful at derailing the federal process -- you can bet they will try -- that means federal standards would take effect in May 2016, at the earliest,” Burt said.

But “government-imposed, mandatory energy-use limits on TVs, PCs, set-top boxes and other electronic products and systems may or may not make sense for a variety of reasons,” CEA’s Johnson said. “Indeed, there are a variety of ways to achieve and sustain energy efficiency depending on the products in question."

Burt was wrong to draw parallels between CEA’s fierce opposition to the California Energy Commission’s TV energy limits and the stand it may take in connection with a federal rulemaking, Johnson said. “There is an enormous difference between the DOE examining these issues, and the California Energy Commission recent attempt to regulate televisions,” he said. “The CEC’s TV regulations are clearly based on old data, false assumptions, misinformation and hyperbole. In addition, the CEC relied solely on a non-peer reviewed report submitted by a stakeholder with obvious vested interests.” In contrast, Johnson said, the DOE “undertakes a rigorous and thorough process, based on independent analysis, which considers both economic and technical issues in addition to other factors. CEA looks forward to working with the DOE as the agency considers measures for TVs."

CEA has been “on the vanguard of energy efficiency for many years, with industry initiatives focused on research and analysis, public policy, industry standards and consumer education,” Johnson said. “In the meantime, it’s important to recognize the existing and successful government programs that are already in place, such as Energy Star, which advance energy efficiency without adverse impacts on consumers, innovation, competition or economic growth. In fact, in less than two years, the energy efficiency of Energy Star digital TVs has been improved by more than 41 percent. These successful efforts occurred not because of any government mandates or regulation. They resulted from competition among manufacturers to reduce costs to consumers in the global marketplace.”