The Steering Committee for the unprecedented Set-Top Box Energy Conservation Agreement that NCTA and CEA announced last December convened its second meeting in Denver last Friday to continue implementation of the significant commitments that will lead to annual energy savings of $1.5 billion for American consumers. All of the Agreement Signatory companies participated in the meeting: Comcast, DIRECTV, DISH Network, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Verizon, Charter, AT&T, Cablevision, Bright House Networks and CenturyLink, and manufacturers Cisco, ARRIS, and EchoStar Technologies.
The Committee continued its work on developing more aggressive energy efficiency targets for next generation set-top boxes.
It also finalized a Request for Proposal to be issued next week, seeking bids for an Independent Administrator that will annually assess each company’s compliance, produce an annual report, and handle many other transparency and verification functions. Potential candidates are invited to contact Paul Glist at the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine (PaulGlist@dwt.com) to request a copy of the RFP.
The voluntary agreement is already accomplishing real and significant energy savings for millions of Americans as companies roll out energy-saving features to set-top boxes in the field and purchase new set-top boxes that meet the standards of ENERGY STAR version 3.0, and is poised to deliver much more. Effective voluntary energy efficiency measures can be applied more quickly, creatively, flexibly, and can adjust more rapidly to changing technology than can regulatory measures. Regulatory approaches can set back progress and undermine the voluntary measures that U.S. policy seeks to encourage.
