And these are the people who tell you how to live your lives

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
All you have to do is trust them to make the right decisions for you.

SOURCE

Obama’s EPA Gave Energy Star Certification to ‘Gas-Powered Clock Radio’ and 14 Other Phony Products, GAO Says
Thursday, April 01, 2010
By Matt Cover, Staff Writer

63639.jpg

One of the phony products certified by the
EPA as an energy-efficient air cleaner was
pictured on a phony Web site as nothing
more than a space heater with a feather
duster taped to it. (Photo from GAO report)


(CNSNews.com) – The Environmental Protection Agency certified that a “gas-powered clock radio” was an energy-efficient product under the government’s Energy Star program, despite the fact that neither the clock nor its manufacturer ever existed.

The clock and 14 other phony products were part of an investigation into the Energy Star program conducted by the Government Accountability Office, which submitted 20 fraudulent Energy Star applications from four fake companies. The EPA evaluated 16 of those products while the Department of Energy (DOE) evaluated four.

Fifteen of the phony products – including the gas-powered alarm clock – and all four of the fake companies were certified by EPA/DOE under the Energy Star program.

GAO conducted the investigation between June 2009 to March 2010, setting up fake Web sites and using rented post office boxes and cell phones to make it look like its fake companies were real. (See fake companies’ Web sites: Cool Rapport, Futurizon Solar Innovations, Spartan Digital Electronics, and Tropical Thunder.)

One of the phony products, which GAO submitted as an energy-efficient air cleaner, was pictured on a phony Web site as nothing more than a space heater with a feather duster taped to it.

“Using fictitious information, we were able to obtain Energy Star partnership for four bogus manufacturing firms, using only Web sites, commercial mailboxes, and cell phones to serve as a backstop corporate presence,” GAO reported. “All four bogus companies were granted Energy Star partnership by EPA and/or DOE within 2 weeks.”

In addition to certifying 15 of the 20 bogus products, EPA/DOE rejected only two and failed to act on three.

One of the products that EPA failed to act on was described by the GAO as an “electric office hammer.” The others were a battery charging system and a decorative lighting string, both of which submitted fake test results. The lighting string cited a nonexistent testing laboratory.

GAO said the fact that it could so easily dupe the government showed that the Energy Star program, designed to inform the public about which products are the most energy efficient, provides scant assurance for consumers.

“Our investigation found that companies can easily submit fictitious energy-efficiency claims in order to obtain Energy Star qualifications for a broad range of consumer products,” the GAO report said. “[T]he current process for becoming an Energy Star partner and certifying specific products as Energy Star compliant provides little assurance that products with the Energy Star label are some of the most efficient on the market.”

Launched in 1992, Energy Star was designed to promote, and help consumers identify, energy-efficient products in over 60 categories by certifying that they meet certain efficiency requirements. Generally, such products are up to 25 percent more efficient than the federal minimum standard, GAO said.

Energy Star is administered jointly by the EPA and the Department of Energy, which provides grants and certifications for some products. GAO said it submitted most of the fake products to the EPA.

Products that meet the government’s standards get access to Energy Star marketing materials, including stickers placed on their products that tell consumers they are energy efficient. However, as GAO discovered, manufacturers are allowed to provide their own proof of energy efficiency, claims that EPA and DOE do not regularly verify.

Nearly all of the phony products submitted by the GAO -- including the air cleaner – were listed as Energy Star products on the Energy Star Web site, energystar.gov.

Most of the fake products, had they been real, would have qualified consumers for federal and/or state tax credits and rebates. Tax credits can range up to $1,500 on products such as home insulation, windows, doors, and furnaces.

One of the fake products, a phony geothermal heat pump approved by EPA, would have qualified a consumer for a tax credit of 30 percent of the pump’s cost, with no upper dollar limit, meaning that a taxpayer could write off up to 30 percent of the pump’s cost, no matter how much that amount turned out to be.

As for the gas-powered alarm clock, EPA admitted to GAO that it goofed: “EPA officials confirmed that because the energy efficiency information was plausible, it was likely that no one read the product description information,” the GAO said in its report.

The description read: “Gas-powered clock radio is sleek, durable, easy on your electric bill, and surprisingly quiet.”

In a joint statement, EPA and DOE said that consumers should have “no doubt” that Energy Star products are actually energy efficient, and the agencies vowed to tighten the “loopholes” the GAO discovered.

“This report highlights a number of issues that must be addressed to ensure no one is exploiting the program and inappropriately receiving Energy Star certification,” the agencies told CNSNews.com in a statement. “We will continue to eliminate loopholes and strengthen this program -- but consumers should have no doubt that products with the Energy Star label will save them money and reduce carbon pollution.”

Greg Kutz, managing director of GAO’s Forensic Audits and Special Investigations division, told CNSNews.com that the phony products ranged from the apparently legitimate to the “ridiculous,” yet the GAO was never questioned about any of the fake products approved by EPA and DOE.

“In a couple of cases we got emails [from the government],” Kutz said. “I don’t think we ever spoke to anybody. In some cases they asked us for additional information, and we simply emailed them a response and they accepted it.”

Kutz said the lack of actual investigation by the federal government is a common occurrence. There is rarely any “human intervention” in evaluating programs, he added.

“Often times there is no human intervention, it’s simply mail or e-mail or something else and there’s no face-to-face or site visits or due diligence. In this case there were clearly no site visits and no phone calls and in most cases – except the two – no real independent third-party validation.”

Kutz said his investigation showed that consumers could not assume that products and companies earning Energy Star certifications have actually been verified by the government.

“The point is that they are assuming that that Energy Star label means someone’s validated the manufacturers’ claims, and I think what we’ve clearly shown here is that that’s not the case in most of these instances.”
 

2minkey

bootlicker
they don't tell me how to live my life, jim.

not sure where all this oppression comes from.

you know, as much as i thought bush was a twit, i never thought he was doing anything to me personally or telling me how to live.

must be really tough living with the shadow of oppression cast over you at every moment.
 

valkyrie

Well-Known Member
So we don't really have to do that whole census thing?
I'm not making the connection between completing a census which will help your area get the proper representation it deserves in government and the EPA. I don't think either one of them tells you how to live your life.

Now if this thread were about fraudulently getting an Energy Star Certification from the EPA then I'd know where to start participating in this thread, but "...tell you how to live your lives" doesn't really help me know what we're discussing. :shrug:
 

catocom

Well-Known Member
So, we aren't required to buy health insurance?

There are penaties for NOT doing these things. That's control.

No matter what the 'ends' are, the 'means' by which they are being achived
IS definitly control of aspects of your life.

I'm on SS, so personally I'm used to it, and expect it in my case,
but I'm not for blanket controls.
If one prefers to live a certain way, not to have to comply with certain
'regulations' they should be able to have that choice.
 

Winky

Well-Known Member
These people will tell you how to live your lives.

Is there any one who can deny that every decade the government
invades our private lives to a greater extent?

The healthcare bill is so far over the line that nothing really matters anymore.

Ayn Rand was right.
Now we are all criminals.
 

catocom

Well-Known Member
Guilty, until proven innocent.

The burden of proof has been shifting for some time now.
 

Winky

Well-Known Member
I firmly believe that once the government ceases to be lawful
it provides me license to behave in a wanton and criminal manner.
 

valkyrie

Well-Known Member
Guilty, until proven innocent.

The burden of proof has been shifting for some time now.
This is very much true for a DWI/DUI.

There is a monetary incentive for police to book citizens for DWI/DUI, even if the citizen passes the sobriety tests and breathalyzer. They are counting on the citizen to plead guilty rather than to fight the charges with a lawyer. Fighting the charges will cost a minimum of $10K.

I had a friend who spent the last year fighting his DWI. He admitted to the cop that he had a beer 2 hour prior to driving. He was tested and passed. The cop brought him in (in handcuffs) anyway. My friend lost his license until the trial t as a condition for bail and had to attend group AA meetings, even though he has no alcohol problem. He was finally found not guilty but had a huge lawyer's fee for his trouble. He found out from the clerk that the arresting officer made 40% of his $100K+ salary last year on DWI arrests alone.
 

JTP

New Member
This is very much true for a DWI/DUI.

There is a monetary incentive for police to book citizens for DWI/DUI, even if the citizen passes the sobriety tests and breathalyzer. They are counting on the citizen to plead guilty rather than to fight the charges with a lawyer. Fighting the charges will cost a minimum of $10K.

I had a friend who spent the last year fighting his DWI. He admitted to the cop that he had a beer 2 hour prior to driving. He was tested and passed. The cop brought him in (in handcuffs) anyway. My friend lost his license until the trial t as a condition for bail and had to attend group AA meetings, even though he has no alcohol problem. He was finally found not guilty but had a huge lawyer's fee for his trouble. He found out from the clerk that the arresting officer made 40% of his $100K+ salary last year on DWI arrests alone.
You can get a DUI for sitting or sleeping in a parked car, engine off, with the keys in your pocket. You can expect Texting While Driving to be the new Cash Cow for lawyers as well.
 

2minkey

bootlicker
Excuse me? The EPA has no affect on how you live your life? You sir, might be the only American where that is true.

please, tell me how the EPA has interfered with the destiny i choose to pursue...

hmmm. EPA hasn't impacted my income, what i eat, what i read, my sex life, my cat's litterbox habits, my stinking THOUGHTs... yeah can't really think of much there dude.

really, i'll be fascinated to hear your explanation on this one.
 

2minkey

bootlicker
you've got to be kidding. again, tell me how the EPA impacts me. other than "if you wanted to dump toxic waste, you couldn't."
 

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
How about OSHA?

Where can I get some leaded gasoline?

The EPA affects damn near everything we do. It's for our future, doncha know.
 

ResearchMonkey

Well-Known Member
Let see, some of the areas where I live have 40% unemployment. This is related to your food supply.

edak1071sanjod200909011.jpg

EPA loves little fishy's

The central valley is a dust bowl with no water. The shore-story is about this little fish. This was brought to us by the same folks, who for decades, wanted the water to wash the pollution out of SF Bay.

Enjoy your more expensive food.
 
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