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Despite GOP opposition, light bulb standards will phase in on Jan. 1
The Hill ^ | 12-29-2011 | Andrew Restuccia

Posted on 12/29/2011 1:10:50 PM PST by thouworm

New light bulb efficiency standards will begin phasing in on Jan. 1 despite intense opposition from conservatives, who have blasted the rules as a textbook unnecessary federal regulation.

While Republicans secured inclusion of a measure blocking funding for enforcement of the standards in a year-end spending bill, energy efficiency groups say the provision will have little practical impact. The Energy Department rules will nonetheless go into effect at the start of 2012.

"The [spending bill] cut funding for enforcement, however the law is still in effect," said Jack Gillis, spokesman for the Consumer Federation of America. "It is our expectation that companies will still comply with the law."

Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, said companies have been preparing for the new light bulb efficiency standards since Congress passed the 2007 energy law requiring traditional incandescent light bulbs to be 30 percent more efficient starting in 2012.

“The major manufacturers have already made the investments to follow the law,” he said. “They’re law-abiding companies who aren’t going to break the law.”

The GOP-backed measure to cut funding for enforcing the light bulb standards “probably is not going to have much impact,” Nadel said.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cfl; greenreligion; lightbulb; lightbulbs; mercurybulb; pantheism
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1 posted on 12/29/2011 1:10:59 PM PST by thouworm
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To: thouworm; ApplegateRanch; Berlin_Freeper; SolitaryMan; golux; SteamShovel; Bockscar; Thunder90; ...
 


Beam me to Planet Gore !

2 posted on 12/29/2011 1:13:14 PM PST by steelyourfaith (If it's "green" ... it's crap !!!)
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To: thouworm
Despite GOP opposition, light bulb standards will phase in on Jan. 1

The "GOPer" who signed it into law didn't object.

3 posted on 12/29/2011 1:18:18 PM PST by Graybeard58 (No Obama, No Romney, No Paul, No Huntsman. We can do better than that!)
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To: steelyourfaith

More........

While the measure prevents DOE from enforcing the standards through fiscal year 2012, Nadel said that states can still require companies to follow the efficiency rules.

Gillis, of the Consumer Federation of America, added that individual companies can pressure other companies to comply with the standards in order to keep a level playing field.

He said the light bulb standards got caught up in a growing wave of Republican disdain for federal regulations.

“The bottom line is the light bulb became a political victim,” Gillis said. “It was portrayed as an example of overzealous regulation, when in fact none of that is actually true.”

Inclusion of the measure blocking funding for the light bulb standards in the broader year-end spending bill was a political victory for Republicans, who have been targeting the regulations for months.

Republicans often describe the standards as a “light bulb ban,” arguing that the rules would greatly restrict consumer choice by pushing out traditional incandescent bulbs in favor of more expensive, but more efficient, LED (light emitting diode) and CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs.

Environmental and energy-efficiency groups note that the standards do not ban incandescent bulbs, but instead require them to be more efficient. While more efficient light bulbs are often more expensive at the point of sale, experts say they save consumers money on their electricity bills over the long term.


4 posted on 12/29/2011 1:18:18 PM PST by thouworm (.)
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To: thouworm
“They’re law-abiding companies who aren’t going to break the law.”

Stupid legislation like this is welcomed by organized crime. Who thought that Americans would ever have to buy bootlegged 100-watt light bulbs from Canada and Mexico?

5 posted on 12/29/2011 1:19:27 PM PST by Bernard Marx
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To: thouworm

I’m thinking about building a trebuchet and laying siege to Fred Upton’s district. Whos’ wid me?


6 posted on 12/29/2011 1:23:46 PM PST by cripplecreek (Stand with courage or shut up and do as you're told.)
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To: thouworm

We were all supposed to be so grateful to the republicans for standing up for us in opposition to the bureaucrats.

This is happening because republicans went along with it.


7 posted on 12/29/2011 1:25:09 PM PST by DManA
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To: Bernard Marx
What prudent merchant will hazard his fortunes in any new branch of commerce when he knows not that his plans may be rendered unlawful before they can be executed?

-James Madison
8 posted on 12/29/2011 1:26:57 PM PST by cripplecreek (Stand with courage or shut up and do as you're told.)
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To: thouworm
Oh yeah; I remember reading somewhere in the Constitution that "Congress shall make Laws requiring certain light bulbs"....

I musta missed THAT one.

9 posted on 12/29/2011 1:33:52 PM PST by traditional1 (Free speech for me.....not for thee)
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To: traditional1

That’s in the Umpteenth Amendment. It covers everything.


10 posted on 12/29/2011 1:40:42 PM PST by Argus
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To: thouworm

“textbook unnecessary federal regulation.”

No, it’s a textbook payoff to a corrupt corporation that buys and sells government favor like a two dollar hooker. Think Haliburton then envision GE. Where’s the outrage?


11 posted on 12/29/2011 1:41:34 PM PST by Spok (From hope and change to change is hopeless.)
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To: Spok

I’ve got a basement full of Tom Edison’s iconic invention so spin on it DOE


12 posted on 12/29/2011 1:56:42 PM PST by tom paine 2
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To: DManA
Too little, too late for the GOP - as usual. Why wait until the last minute to pass this? Clearly, Obama's DOE intends to ignore this. I knew the GOP were frauds when they couldn't even reverse the low-flow toilet law.
13 posted on 12/29/2011 2:01:20 PM PST by Major Matt Mason (The Chicago Way isn't the American Way.)
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To: cripplecreek
I’m thinking about building a trebuchet and laying siege to Fred Upton’s district. Whos’ wid me?

I am!

We can fling cases of CFLs at them!

14 posted on 12/29/2011 2:09:12 PM PST by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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To: thouworm
Environmental and energy-efficiency groups note that the standards do not ban incandescent bulbs, but instead require them to be more efficient.
A classic example of how leftist scumbags even lie by telling the truth:

Imagine, for example, that I say that leftist scumbags have freedom of speech but they cannot lie, spin the truth, or engage in ad hominem attacks.

They'd be speechless, but but I could say I didn't actually "ban" their right to free speech.

Just like leftist scumbags didn't ban Edison lightbulbs.
15 posted on 12/29/2011 2:35:56 PM PST by Peet (Cogito ergo dubito.)
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To: thouworm

Fred Upton can kiss my arse. May the freshmen and sophomores of the House get together and strip the seniority provisions out of the House rules. Let’s get these intrenched idiots out of the leadership positions. If their districts want to return them to the House, election after election, so be it. But that should not make them any more powerful than a brand new Congresscritter representing their own district.


16 posted on 12/29/2011 2:41:37 PM PST by NonValueAdded ("At a time like this, we can't afford the luxury of thinking!")
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To: cripplecreek

I will be glad to help as long as you guarantee that the first thing we fling at him will be Lindsey Graham.


17 posted on 12/29/2011 2:47:46 PM PST by RipSawyer (This does not end well!)
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To: thouworm
Light bulb manufacturers had already stopped production -- shutting down several U.S. plants in the process -- and retailers were unlikely to search for inventory given that the bill only applied through September.

Too little, too late.

I dearly wish some Tea Partier would challenge Upton next year. Though the rest of the GOP that voted for this ban should be thrown out, too.

Y'know, if we can't get a stupid 100 watt light bulb ban repealed, what makes anyone think Obamacare will go?

18 posted on 12/29/2011 3:01:52 PM PST by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment.)
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To: thouworm

Thank you George Bush.


19 posted on 12/29/2011 3:03:24 PM PST by kabar
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To: Bernard Marx
Stupid legislation like this is welcomed by organized crime.

Like General Electric, Democrats, George Bush and the other RINOs who conspired to push this idiocy on the nation so GE and other companies could sell more high priced CFLs.


20 posted on 12/29/2011 3:19:01 PM PST by Iron Munro ("Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight he'll just kill you." John Steinbeck)
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