In a speech delivered to Department of Energy employees last week, President Bush said he would sign an executive order requiring federal procurement officers to buy equipment that consumed less than 1 watt of power in standby mode.
Bush also earmarked $85.7 million in federal funds to alternative sources of power, to be created by both the private sector and through university research.
While the president's stance on energy conservation is may be relatively recent, the federal government's attack on power consumption has been in place since 1992. The "Energy Star" program is being extended to include the new one-watt standard, an official at the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday, and will likely include telephony products as well by mid-summer.
In his speech, Bush referred to so-called "energy vampires", that when plugged into the wall still consume power even when not being used. According to Bush, the devices eat up about 4 percent of the electricity used by then average U.S. home. If the energy usage was extrapolated to a national scale, he said, the total would be about 52 billion kilowatt hours, or the energy produced by 26 average-size power plants.
"Because of our desire for instant convenience, many of the appliances in our homes carry unnecessarily high energy costs," Bush said, according to a transcript of the speech on the White House's web site. "Because we're used to a computer coming on instantly or a TV snapping on as a result of a remote switch, common day appliances eat enormous amounts of energy. And yet we're developing the technologies necessary to have both convenience and energy savings."
The EPA official, who asked that her name not be used, said Bush was referring to "wall warts" or "soap on a rope", transformers that convert the electrical current and voltage of a wall socket into the actual operating current and voltage used by the device.
"These devices still use power when plugged into a wall," she said. "You can tell; they're warm to the touch."
The Energy Star label is already used with about 30 different product types, including some office equipment and home electronics, including the CRT monitors used in PCs. Intel Corp.'s Instantly-Available PC standard, for example, has been approved by the Energy Star standard, according to the EPA's Web site.
The EPA official explained that the program has two goals: to work with electronics manufacturers to reduce standby power consumption, and to establish technologically feasible goals for power consumption.
Currently, the EPA is trying to fashion a set of standards to extend the "Energy Star" label to telephony devices like the devices used to recharge a cellular telephone, answering machine, or cordless telephone. The target is to have those devices consume less than 0.5 watts when in standby mode. "Wall warts" are also used by other types of peripherals, such as PC speakers or business-card scanners.
"What can we do to set the clear example?" Bush asked. "Well, first, I'm going to sign an executive order directing all federal agencies to purchase appliances that meet the one-watt standard, wherever cost-effective.
"I say wherever cost effective, because I don't want the manufacturers of the new products to feel that they've got an easy market when it comes to the federal government," Bush continued. "We will purchase the new technologies, but we will make sure we do so without getting gouged. We'll be reasonable purchasers. But the federal government must set the example.
The EPA is also working with manufacturers of ceiling fans, air cleaners and walk-in refrigerators, among other areas.