This week the EPA and the Department of Energy started requiring complete lab reports to review before approving products for Energy Star labels.(Photo courtesy of Energy Star)
The agencies in charge of the Energy Star Program are making it less vulnerable to fraud. Lester Graham reports, a covert investigation revealed corporate self-reporting could be faked.
Transcript
The agencies in charge of the Energy Star Program are making it less vulnerable to fraud. Lester Graham reports, a covert investigation revealed corporate self-reporting could be faked.
The Energy Star Program certifies whether appliances and other products lower energy costs. But, it was based on the honor system. If the company said its product qualified, it got the Energy Star label.
The Government Accountability Office submitted fake products to the Energy Star program. Jonathan Meyer was one of the investigators.
Meyer: We initiated our work by submitting fairly common products and those made it through the certification process without any real scrutiny, so we increased the level of, you know, ODD products toward the end of our investigation to see if there’s any type of information that would raise red flags.
Even a phony gas-powered alarm clock was certified as Energy Star compliant.
This week the EPA and the Department of Energy started requiring complete lab reports to review before approving products for Energy Star labels.
For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.