Posted on 05/07/2012 4:09:16 PM PDT by Libloather
Republican to revive lightbulb war
By Andrew Restuccia - 05/07/12 04:43 PM ET
A House Republican is planning in the coming weeks to revive the GOP offensive against federal lightbulb efficiency standards.
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) will offer an amendment to Energy Department spending legislation that would block funding for implementation of the standards, the lawmaker's office told The Hill. The standards have come under fire from conservatives in recent years.
Republicans won the inclusion of a similar provision in an omnibus spending compromise that House and Senate lawmakers agreed to in December. The provision blocked funding for implementation of the law for fiscal year 2012. Burgess’ amendment would apply to fiscal year 2013.
Advocates of the law, including Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), have said the GOP provision blocking funding for implementation will have little effect.
Bingaman noted in December that lightbulb manufacturers have been working for years to make their products more efficient in anticipation of complying with the rules.
Republicans in Congress, joined by powerful conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, have spent months railing against provisions in a 2007 energy law that require traditional incandescent lightbulbs to be 30 percent more efficient starting in this year.
Opponents often describe the standards as a “lightbulb ban,” arguing that the rules would greatly restrict consumer choice by pushing out traditional incandescent bulbs in favor of more expensive, but more efficient, LED (light emitting diode) and CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs.
But the standards do not ban incandescent bulbs. They instead require them to be more efficient. While more efficient lightbulbs are often more expensive at the point of sale, experts note they save consumers money on their electricity bills over the long term.
The House Appropriations committee approved the Energy Department’s fiscal 2013 spending bill late last month. The legislation is expected to come up for a floor vote in the coming weeks.
Not to worry, soon even more personal freedoms will be taken to resolve that situation created to save us from ourselves created by taking away personal freedoms.
I’m surprised that congressmen in the northern states aren’t up in arms about this. Their constituents may actually need the heat!
CFL’s make sense in some applications. I had already converted to CFL’s in my exterior fixtures which were not designed for good air flow. The incandescent bulbs would overheat and burn out. Also, external lighting is left on all night for security reasons and the bulbs are cycled once a day. However, anywhere you actually want heat, then an incandescent should be fine.
In our house in Payson we use electric zone heating in order to reduce the use of propane required to heat the entire house. It turns out that an incandescent bulb or two can take the chill off a room just like a few human bodies.
Environmentalists have a habit of ignoring the benefits of the things they want to ban or control. Ignoring beneficial heat from incandescents is similar to choosing to ignore the benefits from the rise of global temperatures.
Those damnable republicans are trying to keep expensive lightbulbs out of the hands of the poor!
[ CFL’s make sense in some applications. I had already converted to CFL’s in my exterior fixtures which were not designed for good air flow. The incandescent bulbs would overheat and burn out. Also, external lighting is left on all night for security reasons and the bulbs are cycled once a day. However, anywhere you actually want heat, then an incandescent should be fine. ]
I use LED light bulbs outside because it gets really really cold in winter where I live and they are not temprature dependant.
I also use LED accent light bulbs in my refidgerator and freezer as they don’t generate excess heat that my freezers and refidgeration doesn’t have to work against. Lowering the energy my freezer needs.
http://www.feit.com/feit_led_accent.html
The BPA15/LED ‘s fit exactly where a Appliance bulb would fit and work very well in that role.
I also use the BPG161/2/CL/LED bulbs in my ceiling fans in two of my rooms, I use the staggered with the CFL bulbs as they provide a decent amount of light and in summer put off WAY less heat than the CFL bulbs that my AC would have to work against.
Never had a LED bulb go out on me, yet....
Like you said it matters WHERE you use them and it is a customer’s choice NOT a govt’ mandate.
After having two CFL bulbs blow up, one over my bed, another over the couch, I ripped them out and tossed them in the trash. At least with the ordinary incandescents I never worried about a shower of glass and toxic dust.
[ While more efficient lightbulbs are often more expensive at the point of sale, experts note they save consumers money on their electricity bills over the long term.
I can take care of myself thank you. ]
I use CFLs and LEDs but I don’t use them because the government tells me to. I hate being told WHAT I can and cannot do by the government if they force the issue and make regular bulbs illegal to own, I am going to switch back just to spite them.
I’m with you. I use some CFLs but its a matter of choice.
I had two of them catch on fire and run everyone out of the house because the smoke was very painful to our lungs. The ceiling was scorched with the second fire. And I can’t tell that the fool things last any longer than the incandescently.
Certain LEDs are awesome for porch lights in cold climates because when CFLs get below 40 degrees they don’t put out jack crap for light.
I have mine on a day/night switch for the front porch and it puts out some nice light for the porch area during the middle of the night no matter if it is 90 degrees or negative 20 outside.
I like LEDs better than most CFLs because they don;t care what temprature it is outside.
Would someone kindly point out to me the Constitutional language that would allow the U.S. government to tell me, or anyone else for that matter, what kind of light bulb I can manufacture or purchase!
Was in Wallyworld today. They have regular 90 watt light bulbs since the 100’s are outlawed.
Problem solved here’s a company making gubmint approved incandesent bulbs!
http://www.newcandescent.com/incandescent-light-bulb-order.html
More than a few times lightening storms have burnt out bulbs in my home....i guess if these expensive contraptions get zapped im out a ton of replacement money for them all....
HERE’S an fyi folks....if you have arthrities and have trouble with turning lamp switches....there is an adapter available at any hardware store that turns a metal lamp into a ‘touch lamp’ [you plug the adapter into your outlet and plug the metal based lamp into the adapter]
Of course the new bulbs will not work with this adaptor so the arthritic elderly are out of luck....nice...
Everything about these “green” light sources is a lie. They are underpowered and give off little light. You need a bunch of them to light up a room. Then they overheat and prematurely fail. We also tried LED bulbs. Very expensive, and the amount of light given was inadequate. Five LED bulbs each supposedly equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent, but the five combined was like having little candles lit in the room. We returned them and got a refund. All the lib politicians acomplished is to drive light bulb manufactureres out of the U.S.A.
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