CE Industry Restricts Impact of Cal.’s Energy Standards
At the industry’s urging, the Cal. Energy Commission (CEC) adopted changes limiting the impact of its energy efficiency proposals for TVs and DVD players/recorders. The CEC put off until next year consideration of standards for cable and satellite set-top boxes. “We do like the progress that we made, but there still are a few outstanding issues,” Jason Linnell, EIA staff dir.- environmental affairs, told us. Meanwhile, the CEC heard comments at its 2nd public hearing Wed. and prepared for early Dec. adoption of its final rules. The industry said the CEC proposals for external power supplies were still “problematic.”
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The CEC’s standards would not apply to any multifunction TV that has VCR, DVD, DVR or electronic program guide (EPG) capability or POD card slot. The industry was concerned about how broadly the CEC wanted to define DVD player, said Linnell, but the CEC changed the language to make it a device used solely to play DVDs. The CEC also made changes to the definition of compact audio products, standards levels and effective dates for compliance. Home theater products have been excluded.
“At a basic level, we don’t agree with the idea that electronic products should be subject to mandatory standards,” said Linnell: “We think it causes a problem when we make upgrades in the future.” And when that happens and the products don’t meet the standards, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are inefficient, but only they have more functionality to them, he said.
The EIA pointed out that the Davis Energy Group study commissioned by CEC had said “the rapid changes in features and functions makes manufacturers reticent to commit to fixed standard levels on equipment that may need to soon have new functions with unknown standby power implications.” That is a “key drawback” to implementing mandatory energy use limits for electronics, the EIA said. Saying the industry’s tentative solution is to focus on basic equipment, the EIA warned that if a broad definition of basic equipment was developed, it would cover many products with features never envisioned when the standard was set: “This could limit their availability on the California market and lead to consumer frustration.”
Moreover, using Energy Star for mandatory energy limits in one state would “dramatically alter” the negotiations between industry and EPA on new product efficiency levels, EIA said. The EPA tries to set “challenging” energy efficiency levels, it said, but if “these challenging levels are used as the basis for future state-specific mandatory standards, companies would view the Energy Star specification development process in a much different light.”
The EIA raised jurisdictional issues on states’ right to regulate TV standards. TVs are a “covered product” under the Energy Policy & Conservation Act, it said, and the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DoE) has determined that states are preempted from setting energy efficiency standards for covered products. The CEC needs to address federal preemption, it said. A CEC spokesman acknowledged “some ambiguity” over the state’s jurisdiction, but he said the CEC was inclined to pass the regulations anyway and resolve jurisdictional issues later.