Real Tech News reports on a really stupid idea out of the UK: elimination of standby mode for electronics:

Basically in an effort to save energy, the British government is planning to outlaw the standby mode in most home and office electronics - arguing that they eat up about 8% of all energy costs each year. This means that every TV set, home computer, office printer, and so on will not longer have a standby mode but will only offer on and off.

Hmm. I suspect that standby mode saves power on balance - people forget to turn things off, and their devices sleep, consuming less power. Most people will probably just leave things on so as to not get delayed by lengthy startups (especially computers). I wonder if they included laptops in that - the original story doesn't make it clear.