California sets new energy standards for big-screen TVs

“Simply put, this is a bad policy -- dangerous for the California economy, dangerous for technology innovation and dangerous for consumer freedom,” the group said in a statement, adding that the regulations would lead to higher prices, lost retail jobs and a decline in state tax revenues.

The regulations should have little effect on consumers for at least the first two years, commissioners said. About three-quarters of television models in stores already comply with the 2011 standards, and 300 on sale meet the tougher 2013 threshold.

“We are in a position to comply with proposed effective dates,” said Kenneth R. Lowe, the co-founder and vice president of Vizio Inc., one of the country's leaders in sales of flat-panel, high-definition televisions. Technology improvements, he predicted in a letter to the commission, would keep price increases to a minimum of “a few tens of dollars.”

Any increase in the cost of TVs would be offset by savings in owners' electric bills, the commission said. More efficient models are expected to shave about US$30 a year off owners' bills and collectively save Californians about US$8 billion in energy costs by 2021.

Making TVs more energy stingy would remove the equivalent of 3.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, environmentalists estimated.

The benefits from such “real, achievable policies” are a hallmark of California's leadership in the fight against global warming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said after the commission vote. The new standards not only are “cost effective” but are “great for the environment” and “good for consumers,” he said.

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