I really, really hope I never get audited like this.

Surely you know of EnergyStar – if you’re a PC user, you probably see their logo every time you boot up your machine. They’re the guys in charge of setting up guidelines to regulate the power consumption and efficiency of products.

Recently, a bunch of Congressional auditors went to work to test the thoroughness of the EnergyStar program. And they were hella sneaky about it.

…If you can call this sneaky: they submitted a bunch of very-clearly-fake products for approval, including an ‘air purifier’ that consisted of a feather duster glued to a space heater, and a gas-powered alarm clock, pictured above.

Almost all of them were approved without question.

Of course, EnergyStar has immediately thrown press releases vowing to tighten the ropes and, y’know, actually look at products before slapping their label on, but now there’s just one more organization to be suspicious of.

Seriously, I hope I never get audited like that. Some auditor, dressed as a dancing bag of money, luring me around a corner…

…I think someone should manufacture an alarm clock that at least looks like that, though. Come on. It’s awesome.

[Via the New York Times]