This particular topic is one that really has bothered me as I have recently have seen one of these teams in action recently. Well, in action isn't really the proper word so much as how they are just more inactive. What particularly inspired this though was their obvious ignorance with regards to the usage of technology. The end result is that these so called Energy Action Teams are actually promoting the wasting of power due to their ignorance.
First off, let's talk about the common laptop tips these teams spread that are not helpful. One of the common tips shared is to "dim the light on your laptop screen and keyboard if the lights are on." The problem with this though is that their concept of dim is one where the color white is not white anymore which given how dark it is can make it not viewable for some individuals with vision issues such as myself. In addition, with many newer displays that are LED based, there is barely any real energy savings doing that. This isn't the most blatantly retarded tip I have seen though.
The one recommendation they give for computers is to save power by placing them on standby so that work can be resumed quickly instead of leaving them on. One problem though, the point of standby is for short periods of time. If they are going to be away for an extended duration, hibernate modes are supposed to be used instead which saves the session to the hard drive. The moment this is pointed out to them, they'll try to act like their laptop does not have this mode and that the people pointing this out don't know what they are talking about. (Bonus points for showing this mode in person, which I did do to one group for laughs.)
The biggest thing that bothers me are their setups. They have their laptops setup full blast, playing awful music like Sublime, trying to preach about saving power, but at the same time their setups are WASTING POWER! This is hypocrisy and if they want to save power they would make a old school posters of their content. Until these acts of hypocrisy and elitism stop with many of these groups, then they cannot be taken seriously.