Fool me once, fool me twice…fool me 15 times?
One might assume that there’s a rigorous process in place to ensure that the 40,000-plus products certified with the federal government’s Energy Star rating are, well, energy-efficient. The labels influence consumer behavior, and the government subsidizes the purchase of these products.
Thankfully, the Government Accountability Office doesn’t make such assumptions. And neither should we, according to a new GAO report (via John Stossel’s blog on FoxBusiness.com):
GAO’s investigation shows that Energy Star is for the most part a self-certification program vulnerable to fraud and abuse. GAO obtained Energy Star certification for 15 bogus products, including a gas-powered alarm clock. Two bogus products were rejected by the program and 3 did not receive a response.
That’s a .750 batting average — not for Energy Star, but for the fake products.
The manner in which the fake products were certified is alarming. One of the products, a computer monitor, received Energy Star approval within 30 minutes of its application, GAO reports. Four more were approved within 24 hours.
Another product, a geothermal heat pump, elicited no attempt by Energy Star to verify its efficiency claims, even though it was pitched as being “more efficient than any product listed as certified on the Energy Star Web site at the time of the submission.” Ditto for a dehumidifier that claimed to beat the most efficient product on the market by at least 20 percent.
To the left, you can see one of the fake products: Nothing more than a space heater with a feather duster attached to it, described in its application as an “air room cleaner.”
Applications were sent to both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. Each was equally bad, approving three-quarters of the applications.
Worse, the four bogus firms which the GAO set up to market these fake wares all were granted status as “Energy Star partners” without verification within two weeks of applying. Partnership status gives a company “unlimited access to Energy Star logos and other promotional resources,” GAO reports.
GAO notes that Energy Star claims to verify products’ efficiency claims after they are approved for the label, but that previous investigations by GAO and other government agencies have concluded that these controls don’t work.
Somehow, I don’t think this is what scientist James Lovelock meant when he said humans are not “clever enough to handle [as] complex a situation as climate change.”
But don’t worry — health care will be much better, I’m sure.
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63 comments Add your comment
The Austrian Brotherhood
March 30th, 2010
1:50 pm
It was the Federal Reserve central planning the cost of money, making it extremely cheap. People then did exactly what they were supposed to do. Take advantage of circumstances. Expect some different behavior? Take some more acid then.
Free markets and sound money and constitutional government. How ’bouts we give it a shot before the whole damm thing implodes.
Love and hate
March 30th, 2010
4:09 pm
Peter,
If you love people you give them freedom, choice, and most of all, you give them their own money back so that they can manage their own affairs and make their own choices in life.
If you hate people you use the coercive power of govt to take their money, dictate down to them their choices in life, make them subservient to the interests of an ever increasingly autocratic govt, and make them dependency slaves to the govt.
Also, if you really hate them you after forcibly taking their money from them you invest it in a ponzi scheme like Social Security which would make Bernard Madoff proud and which is now broke, you mismanage their money with other govt programs like Medicare and Medicaid which are now also broke, and you uncaringly permit 1 out of 5 dollars year in and year out of their money on Medicare and Medicaid to be knowingly wasted through, waste, fraud, and abuse.
Peter
March 30th, 2010
5:12 pm
Interesting…….stuff…….
If you love people you give them freedom, choice, and most of all, you give them their own money back so that they can manage their own affairs and make their own choices in life.
Michael H. Smith
March 30th, 2010
6:24 pm
Free market? hmm…
When someone finds this so-called FREE MARKET, please let me know where you found it?
How many people believe there is a Constitution? Dumb question, everybody does.
How many people believe that at least this country should abide by its’ Constitution? Another dumb question, everybody says they do.
Okay, how many people ever once read the “commerce clause”? Not such a dumb question, not many huh?
Article One
Section. 8.
Clause 1: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
Clause 2: To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
Clause 3: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
Clause 4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
Clause 6: To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
Clause 7: To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
Still believe the market in this country is “FREE”? Or, was ever meant to be “FREE”?
No it wasn’t meant to ever be “FREE of REGULATION”.
The so-called “FREE MARKET” and the “TOOTH FAIRY” live in the same land folks!
So it really isn’t the market’s fault. Government, BIG GUB’MENT, is failing to do its’ job(again). Its’ correct job of regulation: If it was more of the crooks and the flimflams would get caught, instead of going unnoticed within the public system and in the private sector marketplace.
All we need is an effective government with effective regulations and laws that are enforced, not one the grows by leaps and bounds like an uncontrollable cancer that cannot even begin to regulate itself.
Sorry to have spoiled your evening. Let the mythology resume.
Wally
March 30th, 2010
8:54 pm
And the same government that runs Energy Star will soon be running your health care. Sounds like a great idea, soon Americans will be going to the doctors with pancreatic cancer and the Government Docs will be saying you are doing great.
Cheryl
March 30th, 2010
11:41 pm
You are right Kyle, I was in a hurry reading this am, had to take the child on a college visit, and a few pages were missing in my preview, namely pages 4-6, however, I was able to find them elsewhere on the DOE site, and I correct myself on Energy Star. It IS a program under the EPA and there were problems with it’s allowing private manufacturers to Self Police as the document states, not because there have been so many cases of fraud, but because in the Investigation of the process, still by the GAO under the Obama Administration, it was determined that there is the distinct possibility of a manufacturer taking advantage of the system if they tried to. I still don’t see where this reflects badly against the the current administration? Please explain how you draw this conclusion. I still see this in the report on page 15 under the Sub head Undercover Tests Expose Weakness in Fraud Prevention Controls: Qhote: We found that for most of the bogus products we submitted, the Energy Star program preventive controls were ineffective, rendering the program vulnerable to fraud and abuse. Our work was not designed to systematically test all controls within the Energy Star program, but approval of 15 fictitious products submitted with bogus energy-efficiency data shows weaknesses in the programs preventative controls. A lack of controls over the access to Energy Star product certification labels exposes the program to unauthorized use. Ineffective and nonexistent
controls over validation of claimed energy efficiencies could also allow firms to fraudulently overstate product efficiencies. In addition, the overreliance on manufacturer integrity, industry self-policing, and after- market product testing ignores the potential for products to be put on the
market and sold to consumers before fraudulent activity is identified.
Despite the lack of up-front controls, there have been a few recent examples of successful identifications of fraudulent or inaccurate energy- efficiency claims by manufacturer’s competitors that resulted in action from DOE.
And further, what does this have to do with Health Care! The government found a problem in it’s process and found a loop hole with which a manufacturer could game the system by committing an act of fraud, and is moving to fix it, Is this NOT what we would want them to do?
No More Progressives!
March 31st, 2010
7:48 am
Bombon
March 30th, 2010
10:19 am
What a bunch of meaningless drivel. This article is so typical of right-wing press these days. If the base wasn’t so clueless, people like Kyle wouldn’t have such an easy time pandering to it with this high school fluff-stuff. Kyle, you’re darn lucky that your conservative fans come from a state ranked 40th out of 51 in terms of number of people who graduate from high school. You never have to write a piece that MAKES PEOPLE THINK.
Well then spare us the vitriol and enlighten us, Bombon the rocket scientist. It’s not much of a challenge to throw stones.
No More Progressives!
March 31st, 2010
7:55 am
Introduction
The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.
http://www.sec.gov/about/whatwedo.shtml
Michael H. Smith
March 30th, 2010
6:24 pm
“So it really isn’t the market’s fault. Government, BIG GUB’MENT, is failing to do its’ job(again). Its’ correct job of regulation: If it was more of the crooks and the flimflams would get caught, instead of going unnoticed within the public system and in the private sector marketplace.”
Big Gub’mint has been around since the 30’s. FDR’s SEC was supposed to save us all from ourselves! Don’t you remember?
vel
March 31st, 2010
10:58 am
We need to adapt. Take a look at this article The Great Transition: http://www.scribd.com/doc/21656220/The-Great-Transition-Navigating-Social-Economic-Ecological-Change-in-Turbulent-Times
Michael H. Smith
March 31st, 2010
8:46 pm
No More Progressives!
March 31st, 2010
7:55 am
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Having problems reading my entire comment? Or, did you forget!
“All we need is an effective government with effective regulations and laws that are enforced, not one the grows by leaps and bounds like an uncontrollable cancer that cannot even begin to regulate itself.”
Sorry to have spoiled your evening. Let the mythology resume.
NO MORE LIBRARIANS!!!!!!
No More Progressives!
April 1st, 2010
6:38 am
Michael H. Smith
March 31st, 2010
8:46 pm
“All we need is an effective government with effective regulations and laws that are enforced, not one the grows by leaps and bounds like an uncontrollable cancer that cannot even begin to regulate itself.”
What’s wrong with the thousands of pages of federal & state laws, regulations, mandates, statues, etc. that are on the books now? All you guys want to do is tax and regulate. That’s your answer for everything.
No More Progressives!
April 1st, 2010
6:39 am
Meant “statutes.”
Kera
April 1st, 2010
5:05 pm
Dear Friends, Happy Fool’s Day!!!
A man dies and goes to Heaven. He gets to meet God and asks God if he can ask him a few questions.
“Sure,” God says, “Go right ahead”.
“OK,” the man says. “Why did you make women so pretty?”
God says, “So you would like them.”
“OK,” the guy says. “But how come you made them so beautiful?”
“So you would LOVE them,” God replies.
The man ponders a moment and then asks, “But why did you make them such airheads?”
God says, “So they would love you!”
Happy April Fool’s Day!