A vulnerable EnergyStar program

A report from the Government Accountability Office finds that the EnergyStar program is highly vulnerable to fraud.

By Matthew L. Wald, NY Times March 29, 2010

Since last June, Congressional auditors posing as companies submitted bogus products for approval for the EnergyStar label, which resulted in these fake companies receiving labels for the products. In a nine-month study , four fictitious companies invented by the Government Accountability Office also sought the EnergyStar label for conventional device like dehumidifiers and heat pump models that only existed on paper.

The fake companies submitted data indicating that the models consumed 20% less energy than even the most efficient ones on the market. Yet those applications were mostly approved without a challenge or even questions, the report said. Auditors concluded that the EnergyStar program was highly vulnerable to fraud.

Read the full NY Times article here .