Arlington, VA – 02/28/2012 – As members of the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce prepare for Tuesday’s joint subcommittee hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) FY 2013 budget, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® raises key questions about EPA’s changes to the direction of its ENERGY STAR program. The following statement is attributable to Doug Johnson, vice president of technology policy, CEA:

“Manufacturer and retailer partners in the ENERGY STAR program continue to be concerned about EPA’s recent and unilateral decisions to fundamentally change the nature and direction of the successful ENERGY STAR program for consumer electronics. Not only is EPA losing its focus with the ENERGY STAR program, but it is also alienating industry partners who have repeatedly voiced opposition to proposed changes.

“CEA opposes EPA’s proposed inclusion of non-energy-related criteria in ENERGY STAR, which could undermine the influence of the label in the consumer market and also undermine the consistent implementation of ENERGY STAR in other countries and regions around the world. This reversal in program policies is particularly counterproductive given the huge success of ENERGY STAR due to collaboration with and cooperation from the CE industry, with the result that more than half of all ENERGY STAR products sold in this country are consumer electronics.

“EPA’s recently mandated third-party certification regime for all ENERGY STAR products, which imposes new costs and burdens on manufacturers, was never justified for consumer electronics based on the compliance track record for our industry. It’s troubling to see that EPA is now asking Congress for new funding to, among other things, provide ‘oversight’ of a costly ENERGY STAR third-party certification system that was never properly justified in the first place. Third-party certification is a disincentive for ENERGY STAR program participation, and now we see that it is rather costly for government as well as industry.

“Today, CEA calls on EPA to strongly consider the concerns of its ENERGY STAR industry partners in order to maintain the health of this popular partnership.”