CE Groups Urge EPA to Lift ‘Freeze’ on New Product Energy Star Registrations
The EPA’s decision to suspend new product registrations as part of immediate steps it announced to tighten Energy Star qualification rules (CED April 2 p6) will “place onerous and unreasonable burdens and delays” on CE makers and retailers and “limit consumer access to and confidence in the most efficient consumer electronics products available,” three trade groups said. CEA President Gary Shapiro, CE Retailers Coalition Executive Director Christopher McLean and Sandra Kennedy, president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, wrote EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Monday voicing their “immediate and serious concern” over the agency’s announcement of an “indefinite hold” on new Energy Star product registrations.
The EPA moved to tighten Energy Star rules after a GAO investigation managed to get certification for 15 bogus products, including a gas-powered alarm clock. Among immediate measures the agency took was to suspend the “online product submittal” system. Energy Star certification for new products is given when they're well into their “manufacture and shipping cycle,” the groups said. So a sudden “freeze” on new product registration would entail removal of the Energy Star labels from products, packaging and instruction manuals, they said. “Such removal is virtually impossible once products have left their point of manufacture.” Some products even have the Energy Star mark indelibly etched into their bezel or casing, they said.
The industry backs “reasonable efforts” to maintain the credibility and “accuracy” of Energy Star, the groups said, but the EPA’s response to the issues raised by the GAO probe is “disproportionate.” Instead of an “absolute ban” on new product registrations, the agency should review and list “product registrations currently ‘in process’ at EPA, as well as products in production or planned production but not yet registered at EPA.” Manufacturing of products meeting Energy Star specifications that are under way shouldn’t be “subjected to unnecessary de-labeling, forced repackaging, and removal of product manual literature,” the groups said.
They also wanted the agency to prepare for a spike in product submissions once the online system is reopened and ensure it’s “sufficiently resourced to handle this expected increased volume.” The EPA should talk with CE makers and other stakeholders to “ensure the integrity of Energy Star without causing undue disruption to commerce,” they said.