The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA®) today applauded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) announcement of an updated ENERGY STAR specification for digital televisions (DTVs), a move CEA says will lead to further reductions in the amount of energy consumed by digital televisions. “CEA and its members are proud to have worked directly with the EPA to develop a specification so new-generation televisions can bear the well-recognized Energy Star label,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA. “The consumer electronics industry has been committed to ENERGY STAR since its inception in 1992, and together we have developed market-oriented energy efficiency incentives covering major categories of consumer electronics.” The new specification, which addresses all digital television display technologies, will grant the ENERGY STAR label only to the top 25-30 percent most energy efficient TV models. In addition, for the first time, the new ENERGY STAR specification will take into account active mode or “on” mode power consumption in addition to standby mode energy use. “EPA is thrilled to announce the completion of the new On Mode ENERGY STAR specification for televisions. This specification has the potential to save Americans billions of dollars and avoid millions of metric tons of carbon being released into the environment,” said Katharine Kaplan, EPA Product Manager, ENERGY STAR Consumer Electronics and IT Products. “EPA thanks partners like CEA and its member companies for their contributions to this specification and now challenges them to do what they do so well--bring consumers the very best in terms of feature-rich, high-quality, energy efficient TVs.” Of the two billion ENERGY STAR products sold since 1992, over one billion have been consumer electronics. In 2007 alone, ENERGY STAR helped Americans save about $14 billion on their energy bills while protecting our environment through greenhouse gas emissions reductions equivalent to the emissions of 25 million vehicles.