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Beginning in 2012, common light bulbs sold in the U.S. will typically use about 25% to 80% less energy. Many bulbs meet these new standards, including incandescents, CFLs, and LEDs, and are already available for purchase today. The newer bulbs provide a wide range of choices in color and brightness, and many of them will last much longer than traditional light bulbs. The lighting standards, which phase in from 2012-2014, do not ban incandescent or any specific bulb type; they say that bulbs need to use about 25% less energy. The bipartisan Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA...

Of the 6,100 Edison customers in the San Gabriel Valley still without power after last week's windstorm, few suffered like 40-year-old Tim Cutress of Altadena. When the power came back on Sunday, Cutress celebrated along with his wife, 4-year-old son and elderly mother visiting from New Zealand. After four days of darkness, the family eagerly cleaned out their stinky refrigerator, heated up the home and bought $400 worth of groceries to replace the food that had spoiled. "Everybody rejoices," Cutress said. But then at 1 p.m. Monday, the power went out again. And more than 24 hours later, as the...

Should energy consumers pay extra taxes to fund government-mandated and subsidized renewable energy technologies? "Absolutely yes," says John Bryson, President Obama's nominee for Commerce Secretary. He made the remark at a meeting of the Commonwealth Club of California in 2009 and went on to extol the virtues of hidden rates in California, a state encumbered with some of the nation's highest electricity and unemployment rates. Bryson, retired CEO of the electric utility Southern California Edison (SCE) and its parent company Edison International, excused the practice, saying, "That's been a part of the regulatory environment for the investor-owned utilities for as...

The wise man smiled and proclaimed that government should use "regulatory steps" as well as market forces to intervene in the power generation sector. The man also told his UC Berkeley audience that government should set higher targets for non-fossil-fuel-based energy production and penalize producers that don't comply. The issuer of these decrees was John Bryson, who at the time just happened to be CEO of Edison International, a company whose fortunes would increase under alternative energy mandates. Bryson now happens to be President Obama's nominee to head the Commerce Department. Just another day in Barack Obama's crony capitalist paradise....

FULL TITLE: Voice of Thomas Edison's talking doll is heard again after 123 years as scientists crack the code of mysterious metal ring For decades it lay in the bottom of a secretary's desk drawer, its purpose unknown. But now, 123 year after it was made, the secret of this bent metal ring, which was found in Thomas Edison's laboratory, has finally been uncovered. Scientists have found that the microscopic grooves on the ring make up the tune of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' and mark the world's first attempt at a talking doll and the dawn of America's recording industry...

The light bulb is dead. The incandescent bulb which has pushed back the night since an American named Thomas Edison invented it, will soon be no more. It was killed, like the innovation it symbolizes, by the federal government. In one more demonstration of the we-know-better-than-you arrogance which has come to define Washington, the switch has been flipped on the light bulb’s last chance at life. In a vote earlier this week, 233 voted to keep the bulb and 193 voted to get rid of it, but in the new-math world of parliamentary procedure, the bulb still lost. Actually, the...

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama will nominate businessman John Bryson to lead the Commerce Department, a White House official said Tuesday. Bryson's appointment brings another private sector player into an administration that has been making a concerted effort to improve its relationship with the business community.

On June 23, 1911 the Miami Metropolis published predictions about the year 2011 from the one and only Tommy "Dumbo Killah" Edison. Edison makes some amazing predictions about a future of golden automobiles, the discontinuation of gold as currency, the rise of steel and the death of the steam engine. I'm especially interested in his prediction about books of the year 2011. Edison claimed that books would be printed on leaves of nickel, "so light to hold that the reader can enjoy a small library in a single volume." On June 23, 1911 the Miami Metropolis published predictions about the...

Why is Paris known as the City of Lights ? Is it because the U.S. Congress banned Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulbs, so he had to take his invention offshore? Well, not actually. Thomas Edison was an honoree at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition and he did go up in the Eiffel Tower . The Italian government conferred a knighthood at that event on the man who gave the world a brighter idea. No, Congress in the 1880s would not have been so foolish as to extinguish Edison ’s light bulb. But the liberal Congress in 2007 was so foolish....

San Jose-based SunPower, Silicon Valley's dominant solar panel manufacturer, on Monday announced three power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison to deliver 711 megawatts of solar power. The deal, one of the largest for photovoltaic solar power in the United States, would produce enough power for about 460,000 California homes. "This is an unprecedented time for solar photovoltaic," Marc Ulrich, the utility's vice president of renewable and alternative power, said in a statement. "We're seeing growth in technological advances and manufacturing efficiencies that result in competitive prices for green, emission-free energy for our customers." ... California's three largest utilities have...

Yesterday’s Politico article: “Our work on light bulbs wasn’t an arbitrary mandate,” he said. “We didn’t just pick a standard out of the air, or look for a catchy sounding standard like 25 by 2025 not based in science or feasibility. Instead, we worked with both industry and environmental groups to come up with a standard that made sense and was doable.” Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45059.html#ixzz15AsSPtxL Congressman Fred Upton's work with environmental groups is what needs to be highlighted in this article. Global Warming theory is thoroughly debunked. It is not only not caused by human industry, it is not happening....

Congressman Fred Upton has been receiving harsh criticism of his quest to become chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Republican has co-sponsored a bill with a liberal Democrat to ban the incandescent light bulb, which was originally made available to the masses by Thomas Edison, because, in Upton’s view, it uses too much energy. Upton believes we, as a society, must focus on energy savings since our energy needs will double in a certain time frame due to a study done by God knows who, and paid for probably by a green group. Upton argued that only...

Congressman Fred Upton is the grandson of the co-founder of Whirlpool. I find that interesting. Thomas Edison has been credited with bringing light to a world of darkness, but he also has been credited with coming up with the FIRST MODEL OF A COMPLETE CENTRAL POWER STATION.Power generation to the masses gave rise to many more inventions, like the electric clothes washer. So, basically if not for Edison, Whirlpool may never have been founded, because at the time, Edison was competing with other scientists in both America and Europe. If Edison had not exhibited electric generation to the masses in...

Lunacy dims Edison's inventionAlan Levine Casa Grande Dispatch Published: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 10:33 AM MST The General Electric factory in Winchester, Va., the last major U.S. plant making standard incandescent light bulbs, is scheduled to close at the end of the month. When it does, the remaining 200 workers will lose their jobs, marking a rather ignominious end for a company that produced a product that Thomas Alva Edison gave to us and the rest of the world back in the late 1870s. This is a direct result of Al Gore’s global-warming scare tactic, which is largely responsible for...

As the U.S.A. celebrates its 234th birthday, the plight of a quintessentially American innovation says volumes about the state of the union. As American as the grand slam, the Mustang convertible, and the constitutional republic, Thomas Alva Edison’s incandescent light bulb is among this nation’s most enduring gifts to mankind. Granted U.S. Patent No. 223,898 on January 27, 1880 (after some 1,200 experiments), Edison’s “Electric-Lamp” essentially made night optional for most Earthlings. Days stopped ending at sunset. Simple, convenient, and cheap, Edison’s greatest invention also was far safer than the flammable kerosene lamps they replaced. Today’s federal government, naturally, had...

His Name Is Branding Magic; Thomas Edison Is 'So 20th Century' Decades after he died penniless, Nikola Tesla is elbowing aside his old adversary Thomas Edison in the pantheon of geek gods. When California engineers wanted to brand their new $100,000 electric sports car, one name stood out: Tesla. When circuit designers at microchip producer Nvidia Corp. in 2007 launched a new line of advanced processors, they called them Tesla. And when videogame writers at Capcom Entertainment in Silicon Valley needed a character who could understand alien spaceships for their new Dark Void saga, they found him in Nikola Tesla....

Energy Savings: Europe's ban on the incandescent light bulb began phasing in this month, and the U.S. will soon follow. Is Thomas Edison to blame for global warming? And why are we exporting green jobs?When the warm-mongers assemble in Copenhagen this December to hammer out a successor to the failed Kyoto Protocol, no doubt their work to save the earth from the carbon dioxide that gives it life will take place under the eerie light thrown off by compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) mandated by the European Union to fight climate change. The bulbs are more expensive, costing up to...

The utility's ratepayer-financed plan to outfit 150 buildings with the panels is cheered by business owners but criticized by consumer activists. Southern California Edison on Monday unveiled its newest power plant: 33,700 solar panels atop a warehouse in Fontana that will feed green energy directly into the grid. It's the first piece of what the utility says could become the largest rooftop solar installation in the world, a swath of photovoltaic panels spanning two square miles. The 600,000-square-foot warehouse rooftop, owned by logistics firm ProLogis Inc., is the first of 150 commercial buildings that Edison is looking to outfit with...

A three-day erotica convention may have found a new home, but it's not being welcomed with open arms. In fact, Edison Mayor Jun Choi sounded remarkably like his counterpart in Secaucus, Mayor Dennis Elwell, in expressing his displeasure. “We strongly object to this type of gathering in Edison.There is no place for it here,” Choi said this afternoon. However, he said, “we’re not in the same legal position as Secaucus. We don’t have the legal standing to stop it.” Elwell got his wish today when organizers of the "sex-po" pulled out of Secaucus and moved the event nearly 30 miles...

Today, Con Edison will end 125 years of direct current electricity service that began when Thomas Edison opened his Pearl Street power station on Sept. 4, 1882. Con Ed will now only provide alternating current, in a final, vestigial triumph by Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse, Mr. Edison’s rivals who were the main proponents of alternating current in the AC/DC debates of the turn of the 20th century.

If U.S. lawmakers have their way, the lights may soon go out on Thomas Edison's greatest invention -- the incandescent light bulb. The 19th-century inventor brought illumination to the world's fingertips, but according to Congress, his invention isn't efficient enough for an age anxious about energy supplies. "Only 10% of the power used by today's incandescent bulbs is emitted as light, while the other 90% is released as heat," Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said when she introduced her legislation to ban standard light bulbs. To eliminate this waste, Harman has proposed legislation that would effectively eliminate incandescent light bulbs from...

Oil giant BP is expected to announce today the construction of a second, clean-burning power plant, this time in the United States, a BP executive told an Anchorage audience this week. BP and some partners moved forward last year with a similar but smaller plant in Scotland. In all, BP plans to spend $8 billion to build a total of 10 plants worldwide that generate "carbon-free" power, the executive said. Charles Christopher, BP's CO2 program manager, spoke Wednesday at the Alaska Forum on the Environment about the oil company's efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and make money doing it. BP...

The Grinch stole Christmas, at least in one Edison church. Someone stole close to $8,000 in cash and checks from the collection basket at The Church of the Guardian Angels just after a crowded Christmas Eve Mass Saturday afternoon, according to police and church officials. "I don't know how someone does this and lives with their own conscience," Monsignor James Moran said yesterday. "We do have programs for the poor and needy." The large, brown wicker basket, lined with a white cloth and filled with donations, had been placed on the altar during the service and was left there while...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (Dec. 9, 2005) -- One year after the city was secured by Coalition Forces as part of a major counter-insurgency offensive, parts of Fallujah are still in disrepair. Bullet holes in buildings, piles of rubble and the smell of burning trash permeates the air throughout the city. Despite the unpleasant living conditions, children roam the streets here playing with their new friends, the U.S. Marines. A group of laughing kids surrounds one Marine in the street. The Marine, Lance Cpl. Felipe SantosMesquita, a squad automatic weapon gunner with 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine...

SAN FRANCISCO - Citing the need for jobs, the state Public Utilities Commission decided Thursday to let PG&E and Southern California Edison offer 25 percent electricity rate discounts to persuade employers to stay or expand in California or move here. Job losses are "a hidden tax on every Californian," said PUC member Susan Kennedy, who sponsored the discount proposal aimed especially at light manufacturers, steel and plastic makers, food processors and cement producers.The panel voted unanimously to overturn an administrative law judge's decision that termed the discounts "an attractive lure that will draw free riders" and cause a multimillion-dollar revenue...

ROSEMEAD, CA, USA -- A Stirling engine is commonly referred to as an "external combustion engine" in contrast to the "internal combustion engines" found in most vehicles. Combine a Stirling engine with solar as the source of heat, and you have a highly efficient means of converting solar power into usable energy. That is what Stirling Energy Systems has been perfecting for the past 20 years. On Aug. 8, 2005, President Bush toured the DOE's National Solar Thermal Test Facility at the Sandia National Laboratories complex, situated on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., where he signed the energy...

CHESTER, Pa. (AP) - A veteran principal and school administrator has been suspended while officials investigate allegations that she helped students cheat on tests. Jayne Gibbs was placed on a paid leave Thursday after eighth graders at Edward E. Parry Edison Junior Academy said she had given them answers to questions on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test, said Wayne Emsley, Chester Upland School District assessment director. Gibbs is an administrator with the for-profit education company Edison Schools, which has run most of Chester Upland's schools for the last several years but recently announced it was severing its relationship...

As someone who sat on the energy crisis task force for one of the state's largest utilities, I believe Doug Gamble ["Let's hope feds lay into Lay," California Focus, July 20] fails to understand that the political responses to the California energy crisis of 2000-02 were comprised of governmental gambling schemes much worse than Enron's legal gaming of the system. Enron charged less on average for electricity than most of the municipally owned utilities in the Pacific West during the crisis. Enron committed accounting and securities fraud that was not uncovered by regulators but by investors who learned Enron was...

Week of May 29, 2004; Vol. 165, No. 22 , p. 339 Groovy Pictures: Extracting sound from images of old audio recordings Peter Weiss Songs and words preserved on antique vinyl records and wax cylinders become more precious with each passing day. They also grow increasingly fragile and are especially vulnerable to damage if played. Now, researchers using optical-scanning equipment have made exquisitely detailed maps of the grooves of such recordings. By simulating how a stylus moves along those contours, the team has reproduced the encoded sounds with high fidelity. Libraries with collections of old recordings "don't want to queue...

<p>Federal authorities in New Jersey and three other states charged members of an animal rights organization yesterday with domestic terrorism after a probe into what they said has been a surge in crimes by militant activists fighting to stop product testing on animals.</p>

LAS VEGAS - It may be too early to write the obituary for the experiment of using private companies to run public schools. After years of questions about the effectiveness of their teaching methods and the recent humiliation of watching the value of their stock plummet, Edison Schools Inc. enjoyed a much-needed public relations boost last week when a surge in test scores for their Las Vegas students showed that private management of some public schools could be beneficial. Edison, a New York-based education management company, is in the third year of a $30-million, five-year contract to manage six elementary...

<p>Shaun Chichester says he was just expressing his outrage when he wore a "Whaq Iraq" T-shirt to J.P. Stevens High School in Edison last spring.</p> <p>But when school officials asked him to remove the shirt, he really got mad.</p> <p>Chichester, then a sophomore, removed the shirt without incident but vowed to change the school district's dress code, saying it violated his First Amendment rights to free speech. He petitioned school authorities shortly after the March 21 incident, asking them to adopt rules "reflecting students' free speech rights."</p>

Florida's state pension fund is investing $174-million in a controversial for-profit school management company. Through one of its money managers, Liberty Partners, the pension fund has agreed to buy out the shareholders of Edison Schools Inc., taking the New York company private. In effect, the fund that provides for the retirement pensions of Florida teachers and other public employees will own a company that has played a leading role in privatizing school management. Liberty's buyout was announced in July, but it was not until this week that the Wall Street Journal reported that the pension fund was the source of...

Keep The Lights On Two things all of us should learn from the big blackout: (1) We are addicted to electricity and cannot function without it. (2) Politicians have neglected America's infrastructure, which — like everything else — ages, wears out or gets outgrown. When Thomas Alva Edison invented the electric light bulb, the primary use of electricity was to provide illumination. My mother remembered the first time she ever saw an electric light bulb. She looked at it with awe and wonder. If illumination were still the only use we made of electricity, then power losses would be a...

<p>EDISON, NJ -- Hundreds of workers filed out the Electrolux Home Products gates onto Route 27 under gray skies Thursday afternoon on their final day of work at the plant.</p> <p>About 800 workers lost their jobs over the past two days, as production ended at the air-conditioner factory. Since last year, 1,500 jobs have been cut, with 80 employees remaining until the plant closes later this year, the company said.</p>

<p>The utility and its opponent square off before the state Supreme Court today over bailout and refunds.</p> <p>Southern California Edison attorneys go before the California Supreme Court today to defend the utility's ratepayer-financed bailout.</p> <p>A consumer group, The Utility Reform Network, is shooting for a court victory that could lead to refunds worth billions of dollars for consumers and raise anew the specter of bankruptcy for Edison.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California, armed with what it calls hard, new evidence of rampant power market manipulation, handed federal regulators on Monday the names of about 60 energy companies it alleges were behind the state's 2000-2001 energy crisis. Loretta Lynch, a member of the California Public Utilities Commission, told Reuters a 1,000-page final report on the crisis filed Monday at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission names "almost 60 companies that participated in gaming our energy market." The crisis, triggered by a badly flawed attempt to open the electric industry to competition, cost California billions of dollars, bankrupted the state's...

<p>We have the War Against Poverty, the War Against Drugs and the War Against Terrorism. Needless to say, we're losing all of them. I say let's make a war that we can win. My proposal? The War Against Stupidity.</p> <p>Now you might think this would be the most difficult of all wars to win, but as a schoolteacher, I have hope. I'm fortunate to work in a school where the teachers think—they read books, they write poems, essays, songs and stories, they discuss current affairs and even timeless questions. They think about how they think and they think about how to help children to think. And the results are impressive. The children do think and they show promise of growing into adults who will continue to think.</p>

<p>BREA – An electricity-generating plant in the Olinda Alpha landfill in Brea is sitting idle because the plant's owner has been unable to find a buyer for the power.</p> <p>The 2.5-megawatt plant, built a year ago at a cost of $3.5 million, burns methane gas produced by decomposing garbage in the landfill. An older 5-megawatt plant in the same landfill continues to sell power to Southern California Edison under a long-term contract. Both plants are owned by Ridgewood Renewable Power LLC of New Jersey.</p>

The CMRC reported the following outages for today (12/17 Daily Report): Due to multiple Transmission outages in the ISO Control area they have declared a Restricted Maintenance Operation from 0600-2159 PST today. Other Comments: The Pinto Phase Shifter is out of service due to possible oil leaks with no ETR. Monday’s Notable Events: At 0800 MST the Laramie River-DJ 230-kV Line relayed to permanent fault. At 1905 MST the line was back in service. At 1042 PST the Midway-Vincent #3 500-kV Line relayed with the Midway-Vincent #1 line out of service for scheduled work. At 1125 the Midway-Vincent #1 Line...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court has referred a lawsuit over a $3.3billion settlement between California and one of the state's largest utilities to the state Supreme Court.</p> <p>Both sides called the decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a victory in the battle over whether the California Public Utilities Commission could use a court settlement to maintain record-high electricity rates for customers of Southern California Edison.</p>