RUSH: Now here's a story out of Cleveland by Kevin O'Brien in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: "There was a time when you and I could be trusted to change a light bulb. In those days, powerful people who made weighty decisions understood that if a light bulb burned out, even the dimmest of us common folk would know enough to remove it from its socket, choose a suitable replacement and install it." We made jokes about it, it was so simple.
"Apparently all of the weighty decisions have been made, because powerful people have now worked their way down to telling us what kind of light bulb we will use -- and even bringing some to us, apparently fearing that even the brightest of us common [people] might botch the job. How is it that an act whose very simplicity spawned a genre of humor, based mostly on ethnic, sexist and sectarian slurs ... has suddenly become a complicated, labor-intensive, expensive, public endeavor? ... In just a few days, people dressed in green T-shirts and green caps will begin the rather enormous task of delivering two 23-watt, warm-white, compact fluorescent light bulbs to every residence FirstEnergy," which is the power company, "serves.
"They won't ask whether you want them." Stick with me, here. This is Cleveland. "They'll just leave them on your doorstep, in a bag that will also contain a brochure called 'More Than 100 Ways to Improve Your Electric Bill.'" Now, don't... Folks, stick with me on this because we haven't even gotten to what's outrageous about this. "They won't ask for payment, though. As you might expect with an electric utility, that's already wired. These whiz-bang new light bulbs -- which cost FirstEnergy $3.50 each, and which you could buy all by yourself at any number of stores for even less if you were still trusted to do that sort of thing -- will cost you $21.60 for the pair." So $3.50 each is what the power companies has to pay for them. They're going to charge their customers 21.60 for the pair of 23-watt bulbs.
"You'll pay it off over the next three years, at 60 cents a month added to your electric bill." Hang on. "The bulbs you would buy at the store might come from China, like FirstEnergy's do, but they wouldn't come with delivery vans, or brochures, or paid bulb valets clad in green shirts emblazoned ... 'Providing energy-efficient light bulbs is just one way we can help our customers save money while also helping the environment,' FirstEnergy's Web site proclaims. Except that FirstEnergy really isn't 'providing' them. You are. FirstEnergy is just inflating your cost tremendously by having them brought to you. And, by the way, the $21.60 you'll pay for those bulbs [in Cleveland] also includes a little assessment to cover the cost of the electricity that FirstEnergy won't be selling you because you use those bulbs.
"Think of it as paying money to save money so FirstEnergy won't lose money." So can I set this up for you? The utility in Cleveland is going to deliver two 23-watt compact fluorescents to every customer. You're going to be charged $21.60 for the two of them when the utility is buying them for $3.50. You will pay for them over the course of three years at 60¢ cents a month added to your bill. But because they ostensibly save power, and you won't be using as much, you are going to be assessed an additional charge to make sure that First Energy does not lose money by having you install the new bulbs; the purpose of which everybody believes is to reduce power consumption, to save the energy or save the climate because we're not going to be emitting as much carbon.
Do you follow that, folks? What? No, it's not insanity, it's liberalism! Pure and simple. It's liberalism. After they rope everybody in on all of this "Save the planet stuff! Save the planet stuff! We gotta reduce our carbon emissions," they're going to charge you for "saving" the planet. They're going to charge you for not using the electricity they tell you that you should not use! They're going to bring the lightbulbs to you. "The General Assembly passed a law last year requiring Ohio's utilities to reduce their customers' energy use by 22 percent, and to shift 12.5 percent of their power production to 'renewable' energy sources -- solar and wind, for instance -- all by 2025." So this utility is just following the law, as passed by the Ohio legislature, folks. Liberalism is behind this.
Now, Snerdley, it's not a question of them getting away with it, it's that they're obligated to do it by the legislature, or what is it called in Ohio? The General Assembly. "The General Assembly passed a law last year requiring Ohio's utilities to reduce their customers' energy use by 22 percent, and to shift 12.5 percent of their power production to 'renewable' energy sources -- solar and wind, for instance -- all by 2025. The Great Light Bulb Boondoggle is the leading edge of an energy-reduction effort to comply with commands the government of Ohio has issued to the tides of technology. Those commands -- to foist immature and inefficient generation methods on consumers and push aside less expensive, more efficient power sources, like coal -- will be enforceable only at great expense to the public.
"People are upset about FirstEnergy's light bulbs, as folks with sore ears at the PUCO will attest. But let's keep this in perspective: $21.60 is nothing, compared to the expenses we'll pay if the greenshirts drop a bag full of cap-and-trade taxes on our front porches. ... Call your senators and your congressional representative instead. Tell them you've had enough of command-economy enviro-thuggery. And invite them to put cap-and-trade in a place where a solar array would be both impractical and painful." The author of this story is Kevin O'Brien at Cleveland.com. I don't know if the legislature or the General Assembly in Ohio mandated the price structure. Could be that the power company did that. I mean, folks, two lightbulbs, $3.50 is what it costs the power company in Cleveland to buy them, and they're going to sell them to you for $21.60. You have no choice. You're going to pay for them whether you put them in or not. And you're going to get billed 60 cents a month for three years, but since you're going to be using less electricity because those two lightbulbs, they're going to assess you a fee so that you will be paying what you would have paying had you not put the lightbulbs in. Huh? Well, but, Snerdley, health care costs aren't going to go down. He's asked me if health care costs go down like the government promises when they run everything, they're going to raise fees to keep the price up.
Health care costs are not going to go down, just like utility costs are not going to. Nothing is going to go down! For crying out loud, no price is going to go down. You have dips in prices and so forth with sales and a number of other factors, but as a general rule, prices of everything go up and they will continue to go up. When is the ban on incandescent lightbulbs go into play? It's not that far down the road, a couple years, right, couple, three years? I don't think anybody knows about this. I mean this is not the same as requiring you to go to digital on your TV. This is not the same as that. This is bringing a lightbulb into your house that requires a hazmat team to throw away because there's mercury in it. And when people find this out this could be one of many tipping points that wake up all these precious moderates and independents out there, say, "What do I have to do? You're telling me I gotta use these little spaghetti lightbulbs here, and you're going to charge me more for it even though I'm supposed to save the planet by using less electricity?" What then?
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_111609/content/01125104.guest.html
This is unbelievably stupid and, as I understand it, we can’t opt out.
I’m tempted to send them back to First Energy, pulverized, in a bag, but I’m afraid they’ll get the EPA on me and probably the postal inspector too, since these bulbs are effectively hazardous materials.
Open to (legal) ideas on how I could make my displeasure known to the powers that be...
There is an orginization doing the same thing type of thing here in New Jersey. If I could find the bulb they left on my door I will post their name.
The first time I just found a bulb on my door but about a week ago they came a second time and this time I confronted the guy.
He had no good answers for anything I threw at him. The conversation went something like this:
Me: No thank-you. You know them bulbs have mercury in them.
Greeenie: So does your watch. (I wasn’t wearing one but..)
Me: Yea but with this push to have everyone use these bulbs there will be billions upon billions of them in the trash. The government now is even mandating we use these bulbs.
Greenie: No there not. Besides you are supposed to bring them to the Home Depot, they do the proper recycling.
Me: People are not going to collect them and drive them to Home Depot. Besides wouldn’t they be killing the earth by driving anyway? What if they break in your car? They are extremely dangerous that way. And yes the government is outlawing the edison lightbulb in 2012.
Greenie: Soon they are going to have a special pickup for these bulbs. (Also admits that he is being paid by tax dollars to hand these out)
Me: So more taxes to pay for pickup? Besides these bulbs do not give off a full spectrum of light. They are no good. Plus you are still going to have billions of these bulbs polluting the earth. Why are you working to kill the earth?
Greenie gets frustrated and leaves.
The entire green movement is a massive scam.
Geeez, these lamps (which are good for *some* uses) are routinely on sale for 50 cents each. I bought a 4-pack for $2 2 weeks ago.
I find the estimates on their lifespan to be grossly overstated. And they can really suck in horizontal or upside down use. To be fair, those positions are counter-recommended. But the SOBs are still under a buck on sale.
TRUE story.
bump
Awesome piece by Kevin O’Brien. I think I’ll write him a “thank you” note.
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that as a child we used to play with the mercury in science class, letting it pool in our palms, and watching it shatter into tiny drops as we poured it onto the table, then pushing all the small drops back into a pool ... but all my lights are compact fluorescent and I feel fine.
I've added something else to my survival closet.....old fashioned light bulbs....
suppose the day will come when it will be illegal to use them...
Now, the question is whether or not there will be someone monitoring to see whether or not you “properly disposed” of your new mercuric tarbabies...Or whether you are in violation of some clause of EPA regulations.