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 ...
Is it okay if I break ranks with all of you FREEPERS and stock up on candles? Are they outlawed?
Nah. We have met the enemy and it is Wall Street.
“We must DEMAND that the Republicans get Big Brother out of our light bulbs, out of our health care, out of what cars we buy, out of our plastic bags, and out of our lives and out of our businesses.”
That statement has some strong Libertarian principles.
The whole thing is sickening. The Chinese flourescent bulbs are filled with mercury and are a rip off. A man in Maine broke a bulb in his house and had to have the Maine EPA come out. Insanity.
I once had a minor dealing with GE and knew doctors buying MRIs who dealt with them. They are like arrogant mobsters with Wharton MBAs.
The joke is GE is essentially broke because they seel short term comml paper (debt) to float the whole thing. Uncle Sam Obama back up the debt about 14 + months ago.
GE was going to have another credit default swap (CDS) run on the bank. This is when the CDS is essentially default insurnace a company pays on the debt.
The manipulators (hedge fund shorts) drive the cost of the CDS up and then the company is essentially insolvent.
They did this in the late summer fall of 2008 to pick off banks and get Hussein elected. Lehman, Wachovia, Bear Stearns, Indy Mac, they just went down the list. Then the hedge funds started to go after Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. They ran to Paulson and the SEC. The sharks were being attacked by other sharks.
I thought Lowes has some of them already. They always seem to blind me when I walk by.
Yup. America was really founded upon people who wanted to be left alone.
TV and Wall Street.
In the speech, he never said humans cause GW. The closest he came was to say that the IPCC said GW was caused by humans.
Econuts were not happy!
http://environment.about.com/od/governmentscorporations/a/bush_plan.htm
That speech was pure genius...no mandatory anything, doing it outside of UN control, a “goal” of an 18% reduction in GHGs, yada, yada, yada....
I believe that GE supported this ban on incandescent bulbs.
The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing... The remaining 200 workers at the plant here will lose their jobs... politicaland businessleaders have held out the promise that American advances, particularly in green technology, might stem the decades-long decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs... 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... 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.
How many Politicians does it take to screw a lightbulb factory?
51, especially if they are all democrats.
Go LEDs
“”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. “
Stop voting for liberals?? Maybe?
Massive 500-LED Extreme Flashlight ( Homemade with controls)
What is that for? Burning holes in the sides of cars?
Just for looking out a ways,...watching for critters....
Yeah, you lookin’ for critters in the next solar system with that thing????
I can’t get a friggin’ decent buggy whip these days.
Didn't Bush sign the bill?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.