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Stonewalling for Fun and Profit
by Lee H Goldberg
I was all set to write about my adventures this week at the OIDA Green Photonics Forum, when a press release from the Telecommunications Industry Association hit my desk that urged the EPA to exempt telephony products from certain requirements of the Energy Star certification program (see full text below). The absurdity of this request jerked my thoughts away from energy-efficient solid-state lighting and carbon-free photovoltaic technologies, as I was reminded how the greed and short-sighted actions of small special interest groups keep pushing back the roadmap for a sustainable future until it approaches the outskirts of Oz.
At first glance, the TIA request might seem to be reasonable, since the latest Energy Star spec will require devices to consume a half-watt or less in their idle state while cordless phones and answering devices must keep enough of their circuitry on to be ready for an incoming or outgoing call. But, hey - wait a minute - don’t cellular phones already enjoy standby power levels far lower than 0.5 W? And what about all the televisions, displays, microwaves and other consumer products that must respond instantly to a user input but are already available with sub-1 W standby modes? Besides, anybody who’s worked with portable wireless products that stretch their battery life by spending much of their standby time in an alert snooze mode can tell you that the same sort of power-saving measures are just as possible for the basestation if a little creative energy is applied.
I’m also mystified at the fact that the TIA is claiming economic hardship when Energy Star compliance is voluntary. If any of their member companies don’t like the requirements for a particular product category, they can build their products to whatever specs they feel are appropriate and let the market decide who’s right.
What appears to be going on here is that the TIA is attempting to use its influence to save consumer electronics manufacturers from actually having to exercise their imaginations or engineering budgets. Even though it’s been well over a decade since I actually designed a product, I’ve got a half-dozen simple ideas about how I’d go about making a cordless basestation and answering machine live quite happily on a half-watt in standby mode.
To let the TIA constituents get away with stamping the Energy Star eco-label on their power-hungry products does serious harm in several ways. First, it would allow hundreds of millions of devices to draw a couple of extra watts (actually, up to five or six watts) during the 90% - 99% of the time they are not being used. When you total up the number of phone gadgets there are lurking around the average home, and then multiply it by 100 million or so, you begin to get a sense of the impact this has on the US alone. The energy wasted by sloppy design of these products would add up to something on the order of one or two full-sized (1 - 2 GW) power plants. Just as important, opening up a loophole in the Energy Star requirements would set a dangerous precedent that every other industry interest group would point to when they found a particular part of the spec covering their products to simply be too difficult, or expensive, to comply with.
Finally, caving in to a special interest group like the TIA would erode the credibility and usefulness of a standard that has become one of the world’s most respected (and useful) eco-labels. With the Consumer Union’s recent allegations that some of the program specifications are out of date, and that their testing procedures may not be accurate or verifiable, Energy Star cannot afford another blow to its reputation or effectiveness. Many other important eco-labels like 80 Plus and EPEAT all use EnergyStar as a part of their specifications, so any weakening of the standard will have a tremendous ripple effect.
We’ve seen this sort of industry pressure slow environmental progress in many other industries, often to the detriment of the very companies that lobbied for the lax regulation. Auto makers Chrysler, Ford, and GM were some of the most vocal opponents of stricter mileage standards because it would force them to do the hard work it took to develop innovative, fuel-efficient drive trains. If they’d put those huge gobs of cash to work on basic R&D instead of spending it lobbying Congress for looser mileage standards, maybe we would not have to rely so heavily on Toyota hybrids or Honda ultra-efficient conventional drive trains to start weaning ourselves off of imported fossil fuels.
In the long run, the millions of dollars TIA's lobbying saves its member companies should the relaxed Energy Star requirements be approved will be small potatoes in comparison to the billions in environmental harm their products will do. Just as important, discouraging manufacturers from finding innovative approaches to energy conservation will eventually hurt them as their products are eclipsed by those of companies who actually understand the importance of the triple bottom line.
Comments? Questions? Contrary opinions from Patrick Sullivan or anyone else at the TIA? Write me at lhg @ en-genius dot net or post your comments on our blog.
Text of TIA press release follows:
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) Urges EPA to Exempt Telephony Products From Inapplicable Rules
ENERGY STAR Standby Usage Requirements Should Not Apply to Devices That Are Never in Standby Mode, Says TIA
Washington, D.C. – The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the leader in advocacy, standards development, business development and intelligence for the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, today urged the EPA to clarify that new ENERGY STAR Telephony “No-Load” rules are inapplicable and irrelevant to telephony products such as cordless telephones, answering machines, and combination cordless phones and answering machines.
TIA called upon the EPA to adopt its own proposal to ensure that external power supply (EPS) units used with ENERGY SAR-qualified telephony products would not be required to meet ENERGY STAR energy consumption requirements of 0.3 or 0.5 watts when in standby or “No-Load” mode (No-Load requirements). Most telephony products use EPS converting AC to DC electrical voltage with a nameplate power that is typically rated between 4 to 7 watts. Thus, the EPS used with many telephony products will not meet the No-Load requirements.
However, TIA noted, the new EPA requirements do not take into account the fact that cordless telephones, answering systems, and combination units are never in standby/No-Load mode. Such products continuously monitor telephone networks for incoming telephone calls and/or monitor radio links to cordless handsets. Thus, TIA argued, the EPS No-Load requirements currently imposed are inapplicable to cordless phones, answering machines, and combination cordless phones and answering machines. TIA stated that the EPA must and will clarify, through its proposal, that the No-Load requirements cannot be applied to cordless phones, answering machines, and combination cordless phones and answering machines.
“TIA applauds the EPA for proposing a policy that will appropriately eliminate the ENERGY STAR No-Load requirements for cordless phones, answering machines, and combination cordless phones and answering machines,” said Danielle Coffey, TIA Vice President of Government Affairs. “Our members, many of whom manufacture these products, should not be burdened by EPA regulations which, when applicable, are of great benefit, but are inapplicable to many of our members’ products and are therefore of no benefit. The EPA’s proposal strikes the important balance of protecting resources and applying regulations only when appropriate from a technology standpoint,” Coffey added.
For more information, please contact Patrick Sullivan at psullivan@tiaonline.org.
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