Why You Can't Buy an Energy Star Car and Other War Stories from Washington
Andrew Fanara, a long-time manager in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program spoke to UC Davis students on November 18th about this "world premier" volunteer labeling program for energy efficiency. He described the initial concepts around inception of this ten-year-old program, design and development of standards for labeling and the intense negotiations that can take place between Energy Star and manufacturers. Fanara also talked about internal thinking about re-conceptualizing the program in the future. He noted that the success of the Energy Star brand is embedded in consumer confidence and non-dilution of the label. Fanara raised an alarm saying that significant focus needs to be on energy efficiency as the cheapest energy "source." "It will serve as the life jacket," noted Fanara, "and unless we aggressively pursue energy efficiency, we won't be able to get to the renewables as we need to."