Orange Cat: Act II: With a little searching, I was able to locate an Active Copper Cable that uses < 1 watt per cable (not per port).

Yes, but that's an active copper cable, i. e. it has some additional electronics that help saving some energy. Of course customers have to pay for the "active" part of the game, so …

You should have a look at the POET Transceiver White Paper. Unfortunately it isn't on the POET website anymore after the relaunch, but – ha! – I saved a copy and just uploaded it to my blog server: https://rainerklute.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/2015-10-08_-_poet-transceiver-white-paper.pdf.