California Seen Leading States on TV, Set-top Energy Limits
Conservation groups said they will push again for state energy use standards for DTVs and set-top boxes, even as CE products were stripped from appliance efficiency bills in New Hampshire and New Jersey. The Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships is “getting very close” to writing model laws for TVs, said Isaac Elnecave of that group. Efforts will revive once methods for measuring digital TV energy use are finalized, he said.
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At the federal level, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) is “keeping an eye” on set-top boxes, said Executive Director Steve Nadel. For now, ACEEE is not hanging back, but making suggestions to states like California, whose energy agency is moving to amend appliance regulations, he said. “We are hoping that California will move forward,” Nadel said. “That will provide a path for other states to follow.” State action typically triggers federal laws, but the ACEEE is open to “going directly to federal regulation if that’s what the industry prefers,” he said. Most recently, the group worked with the CEA and others for a national energy standard for external power supplies. That followed more than six states’ enactment of related laws.
Nadel and Elnecave rejected a cable industry contention that federal law preempts state regulation of set-top boxes. Industry bases its argument on the fact that the FCC regulates boxes, meaning states can’t do so, said Elencave. But the FCC doesn’t regulate set-top box energy use, nor does federal law cover that aspect, he said. “It’s like saying, ‘There are safety standards on traffic signals so, therefore you can’t regulate their energy use.'” Noting that industry raised the preemption issue in California and other states, Nadel said set-top boxes aren’t on a Department of Energy list of devices subject to controls, so states can regulate their energy efficiency.
What’s at play here is the interplay of the digital transition and the vogue for large-screen TVs. Once states realize how much energy they can save by limiting big sets’ energy use, they will act, he said, noting that the Washington governor’s Climate Advisory Panel recommends cuts in consumer electronics energy limits, including a 25 percent drop in TV energy use. But the panel hasn’t set out how to go about it, said Elnecave.
Once regulators resolve handling of LCD, plasma and other TV technologies, NEEP will decide whether to put them in a model law, said Elnecave. Some controls exist. A California rule covers TV standby mode, and New York is devising a specification of its own. But those curbs exclude the active mode, leaving energy savings “fairly limited,” he said.
State regulations of set-top boxes should cover service providers as well, said Elnecave. Otherwise, no satellite or cable operator will want to deploy energy- efficient boxes. “They're not paying the electricity bill” and efficient boxes cost more, he said. His group might back incentives for service providers deploying efficient boxes if it means “real” energy savings, he said. The EPA is working to get utilities to offer discounts and other incentives reserved for consumers to cable and satellite providers who deploy Energy Star boxes.
The ACEEE and other groups should get in on EPA efforts to set a set-top box specification, said Douglas Johnson, CEA senior director for technology policy. As California pursues a rulemaking to amend state appliance efficiency rules, it has made no decision on CE, he said. He blamed one conservation group for pushing to impose “new, burdensome and unnecessary regulations.” At a recent California Energy Commission hearing to determine the range of products covered by the rule changes, the Natural Resources Defense Council called for tighter limits on TVs and set-top boxes.