Posted on 09/08/2010 1:40:25 PM PDT by freespirited
WINCHESTER, VA. - The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison's innovations in the 1870s.
The remaining 200 workers at the plant here will lose their jobs.
"Now what're we going to do?" said Toby Savolainen, 49, who like many others worked for decades at the factory, making bulbs now deemed wasteful.
During the recession, political and business leaders have held out the promise that American advances, particularly in green technology, might stem the decades-long decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs. But as the lighting industry shows, even when the government pushes companies toward environmental innovations and Americans come up with them, the manufacture of the next generation technology can still end up overseas.
What made the plant here vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014. The law will force millions of American households to switch to more efficient bulbs.
The resulting savings in energy and greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to be immense. But the move also had unintended consequences.
Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
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Turn out the lights.
The party’s over.
It probably means increased depression, since most people don’t have access to full spectrum lights besides bulbs.
GE are mega wh*res too. MSNBC/CNBC/NBC. They undermine America to curry favor with China and Saudi Arabia.
My youngest DD attends Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester. She is sickened by the news, as should be all Americans. Bob
dont forget who signed it....GWB. another RINO who gave us that and started the whole stimulus crap.
This was nothing but feelgood legislation that accomplished nothing.
Now, the next form of lighting ~ LEDs. US Manufacturers own all the good patents in this technology.
The “replacement lights” GE sells won’t be made in the US, you can take that to the bank.
Yup. GWB believes in GWB (global warming BS).
“a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014.”
A law passed at the behest of GE because they had the patents and investments in China to build the new bulbs.
Freeeeee Trade! China doesn’t play it but its nevertheless Frrreeeeee!
Government electrics is friends with Obama.
They kiss his butt, he promotes green tech that they will profit from.
They close up shop in the USA and sell carbon credits to china.
Move shop to china where labor is cheap and polluting is easy.
The GE bulbs I’ve been seeing are stamped Mexico and don’t seem to last like they used to.
There once was a day that our government protected America and her standard of living.
That's no more.
My daughters live up in the Winchester area, this will hurt the already suppressed local economy.
Yep, Thanx Congress...for all the help.
Oops, I took a compact florescent bulb to my local federal building to ask them how to use it, but I dropped it in the lobby where all the people were returning from lunch. I quickly cleaned up the obvious shards of glass, but there was a whole bunch of powder and other stuff on the floor, and it got tracked all through the building. They had to close the building because the mercury vapor levels were deemed too high. It cost millions to have a remediation company come in and tear up the carpets and epoxy seal the floors.
/”sarcasm”
If only we could get some more government intervetion into the free market to fix the problems caused by government intervention into the free market...
Hate CFLs:
1. Mercury in them will cause a bigger environmental problem than the carbon burned in an incandescent will.
2. They oscillate, which takes its toll on both eyesight and on your head.
3. Far more expensive.
4. Won’t fit into lamps and fixtures that incandescents will.
5. If they last longer, I haven’t been able to bear that out. I’ve labeled the ones I use here and compare them to incandescents - so far they have come out equal in lifespan.
6. Energy savings? I’ve got five flat screen TV’s in the house. The aspect of my power bill spent on lights is minor in comparison to devices with CPUs in them, or with monitors. I don’t have an AC, but in homes that do, the power used by AC’s dwarf that used by lights.
Conclusion: Not backed by science. It’ll create a bigger environmental disaster than the one it seeks to clean up.
Between giant car batteries used by hybrids/prius and these mercury based CFLs, our kids 20 years from now are going to wonder if we put crack in the water supply. Had we actually put the crack in the water supply, it may actually be safer than the chemicals that will leach from the batteries and the lights.
So they’ll make us all buy more expensive bulbs that will take years to pay for themselves. And we’re forced to buy them from overseas.
I’m reminded of one person who many on here hate. His name is Ross Perot. He said “There’s one deficit nobody wants to talk about. And that’s the trade deficit.” Guess they still don’t want to talk about it.
I predict that eventually we will force a repeal of this silly law, but it will be far too late for Americans who made incandescent bulbs for a living.
I went to Shenandoah University also. Great town. Great history.
Too bad for the loss of jobs.
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