House turns off light bulb standards by voice vote

The Politco ^ | July 15, 2011 | DARREN GOODE

[NRG1973]

The House on Friday morning moved to block federal light bulb efficiency standards without even a roll call vote.

An amendment from Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) defunding the Energy Department's standards for traditional incandescent light bulbs to be 30 percent more energy efficient starting next year was approved rather anticlimactically by voice vote.

The success of the amendment appeared inevitable in the House, where the fate of the incandescent light bulb became a symbol in the fight against federal regulations.

Democrats and the White House have opposed the move to block the standards, which were included in a 2007 energy bill signed by President George W. Bush. DOE has said the standards could save consumers $6 billion a year.

[PLMerite]

I was just in the light bulb section grabbing a few more incandescents. Did you know they have blacklight squiggly bulbs now ?

I’m gonna have to dig out my old 1970s posters!

[Lazamataz]

Dude.

The day our country became in danger, is back in 1988 or so, when Reagan (who I otherwise loved) decided to push for civil forfeiture for the mere SUGGESTION the property was involved in a drug crime or proceeds from a drug crime.

I saw the handwriting on the wall even back then. I knew we were trending towards a Police State and that individual freedom was in big trouble.

[kabar]

The other day they couldn’t get the needed super majority. Today, they did. Those who voted no the other day are on record, but the voice vote gives them a pass. They voted against it before they voted for it.

[BunnySlippers]

OMG! I’ve been stockpiling traditionals.

[KantianBurke]

“in a 2007 energy bill signed by President George W. Bush.”

ROTFLMAO! Another gift from Dubya. I wonder how this was explained away on the Daily Dose threads?

[Paradox]

I hope this is it, I hate those little squiggly bulbs!

I love those squiggly bulbs, wherever I can use them, but I would NEVER, EVER want incandescent bulbs banned. I still use em, and they have their uses.

[Notary Sojac]

Whatever you do, DON’T mail poorly packaged CFL’s to the local field offices of Senators and Congressmen who vote to retain this law!!!

[Westbrook]

> I hope this is it, I hate those little squiggly bulbs!

While I use the “little squiggly bulbs” and LEDs where ever I can, I your right to use incandescent, halogen, Aladdin lamps, or torches if you so please.

Neither will I puff myself up with any false piety over those who don’t use CFLs. and LEDs. I use them because I’m cheap, and they have been garnering for me some consistent, long-term savings.

It’s not the gummint’s business how I light my home.

In fact, nothing I do short of damaging another person’s right to life, liberty, or property is the gummint’s business.

The world is basically made up of two kinds of people.

Those who want to be left alone, and the meddling busybodies who won’t leave us alone.

[genetic homophobe]

Democrats and the White House have opposed the move to block the standards, which were included in a 2007 energy bill signed by President George W. Bush.

Well at least this is something that really can be blamed on Bush.

[rlmorel]

When I see these types of threads posted, I usually take the liberty of posting this analysis I did...I hope it doesn't rise to "spam level" behavior...

I don't have an issue with the lights themselves. If people want to use them, that is their business if they want to pay the money and a manufacturer thinks they can make money by producing them. What I take issue with is government bureaucrats taking my money via confiscatory taxes, TELLING me how to spend the money they leave me, then passing legislation to DRIVE up the cost of energy so we are FORCED to spend more money to drive our cars, heat our homes and turn on our lights, whether they be incandescent or CFL. These bastards think they are doing us a big favor because they think they know best, and are trying to twist our arms to accept their utopian crap. They think if energy costs go up high enough, their plans to harness unicorn flatulence or whatever will become economically viable.

Well I don't care to take part in their damned experiments. If my town wants to purchase LED based traffic and street lights because it saves the town money and is a guaranteed return on investment, then power to them. If people want these CFL lights in the marketplace as an alternative to make their homes more energy efficient, then I think is is fine and would never say boo to anyone so inclined. Actually, my issue is not even residential lighting. Making citizens purchase stuff we don't want and don't need is NOT going to solve any kind of energy shortage. It is the equivalent of selling carbon credits or putting a magnetic sticker on the back of a car. It is Jimmy Carter wearing sweaters and telling us to turn our thermostats down.

So to make my point that forcing all of us to use these things, have to pay MORE money to buy them (even though most of us have found they don't last nearly as long as the government says they do) Here an the original unaltered graph from Livermore Labs/DOE which I think is a very, very good graphical representation (reflecting the situation in 2009):

As shown below, I cut out a part of that graph and marked it up. Of the four major sectors, residential is the second smallest using just 4.65% of generated electrical power as shown by the graph. Government statistics say lighting consumes 12% of 4.65% of electricity flowing into a house. In the inset (enlarged) part shows the 4.65% pipeline with the red stripe on it showing the lighting share, and the green stripe showing what it would be if we assume 10% efficiency compared to CFL for incandescent bulbs. (The orange pipe leading into the box signifies the RESIDENTAL SECTOR of the energy grid and is representative of energy generated from all sources)

I didn't get this image from some anti-enviroweenie website. I made it myself after analyzing the data on the graph and government data such as estimates of how much lighting uses. And it illustrates the point I make, backed up with the government's own data, that forcing us to do this via statist legislation is basically ANOTHER camel nose in the figurative tent...BECAUSE THEY CAN.

If the market really wanted these lightbulbs, they would have made it on their own without government legislation. But, in my opinion, buying into this without a fight just exacerbates this statist mess we are in covering everything from legislation against transfats and salt in the diet to the amount of water we can flush down our toilet. Liberals think this is great because it is their pet thing that they have bought hook, line and sinker, running around screaming that we are running out of energy. Surrendering to this just invites the government to intrude into EVERY facet of our life.

I don't disparage people for choosing CFL's as a stand to take. I believe I have the data (shown graphically here) to indicate that using CFL's in houses isn't going to save us from anything. It is just a piece of do-gooder legislation that only does just that...makes guilty people feel good. I readily admit that one can make an argument for commercial/industrial building codes and so on, and I might buy into it and agree, the same as I agree with towns purchasing led-based traffic lights. However, building codes are so top heavy with bureaucracy now that I would fight against mandating these in commercial use on those grounds alone.

By my home is my home. And we have gone far too long allowing the government to dictate what we can and cannot do on our own quarter acre of land, small as it is. I am sick to death of it.

[maryz]

. . . selling real light bulbs on the black market after the ban.

I'd say hang on to them! The left never gives up, and you may have a chance yet to make your fortune on real light bulbs! ;-)

[SUSSA]

Oh, I plan to hold on to them. I’m just not going to buy more til I see what happens.

[Gondring]

Interesting. I wasn’t aware that whale oil had a lower greenhouse gas footprint. What is the reason for that?

It’s funny that cartoons after Drake’s oil well in Pennsylvania showed whales celebrating, as the “oil crisis” of the time was “what are we going to do when we run out of whales?”...something that was coming up rapidly upon them. Thank goodness we had some easy-to-exploit petroleum deposits...I wish we had some nice easy ones left!

[Gondring]

(just like mercury in those curly lightbulbs is poisonous).

Well, not according to some FReepers who want to stop the EPA's court-ordered rules to stop it from being freely spewed from power plants.

[EBH]

It is all for show...

DOE or EPA just needs to create a rule...

until we tackle the problem(s)...too big of government

What Congress does is nothing but theatrics.

[EBH]

Sorry, but in the case of the lightbulb...it was Bush’s fault. He signed the bill, not BO.

[mojitojoe]

I know and it doesn’t matter. Anything I do NOW that is anti govt. is anti Obongo because he’s in the WH now. Illegally, but there until he’s either voted out, arrested or put in a straight jacket and carried out.

Bush did a lot of things in his 2nd term that made me regret voting for his sorry a$$, but the other option was Kerry and knowing then what I know now I would made the same choice. Bush was a total lazy, incompetent 2nd term president. He caved on everything. Now we find out Lara Bush was really a fake conservative.

I don’t believe there is one single politician that I like or trust right now. None!!!!! I do trust Sarah and West, but they aren’t running, at least not yet.

[Freedom_Fighter_2001]

[A Navy Vet]

"Maybe if you have to buy those squiggly lights the next big rally in D.C. would have people throwing them on the capitol steps. Or over the fence at the WH ... what are they going to do? Arrest a million people?"

I've been preaching the same thing for some years! If enough citizens engaged in misdemeanor civil disobedience, the politico elites might start getting the message. The TEA Parties were a good start.

Us Constitutionalists need to take it to the next level. Remember how the hippie protests/sit-ins/marches made us pull out of Vietnam? We could do the same regarding many issues. And with the more gentle DC and Park police, bloodied riots wouldn't happen in this day. Maybe a few may go to jail for failure to disperse or unlawful assembly, but that is a minor misdemeanor and has little affect on a person's record unless you're looking for a FBI, CIA, NSA, or other high security position.

You may think I'm just talking the talk. But some years back I volunteered to lead a group to chain themselves to the Capitol steps about illegal immigration. Sorry can't find the posts.

[Munz]

>Darn!! I have stocked up enough to last me, my children, and grandchildren, the rest of our lives, plus enough to have made some good money selling real light bulbs on the black market after the ban.<

Don’t worry, King Obama still has his pen and executive privilege to enslave us.