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 Departments fiscal 2013 spending bill late last month. The legislation is expected to come up for a floor vote in the coming weeks.
As soon as that is done, somebody needs to introduce legislation to tell the federal government to stay out of our sh!t, housing, gasoline, food,light, etc.
Their job is to defend the border and deliver the mail, and they won't even do that.
Reminds me of the stupidity over our big toilets. Please someone stop the insanity —I hate CFLs and I hate my new tiny toilet, but it does flush pretty well.
Yet something else (among MANY) we have our former Compassionate Conservative RINO (BOOSH) to thank for, for not excercising his veto.
Don't be silly.
They contain less mercury than regular fluorescent lamps, and we have used trillions of them over the last 100 years, and continue to use them everywhere.
While he’s at it, how about deregulating toilets, so we can have toilets that flush with just one flush?
Seriously, having to drive to Mexico just to get a working toilet is a drag.
“efficiency standards”
Fudge miners want government out of the bedroom and in the living room, bathroom, kitchen, porch et al.
The lightbulb police have no business dictating what size bulb I can buy nor are they permitted to affect my vision at home.
Fluorescent light is annoying on a subliminal level and not very healthy.
1. Before cleanup Have people and pets leave the room. Air out the room for 5-10 minutes by opening a window or door to the outdoor environment. Shut off the central forced air heating/air-conditioning (H&AC) system, if you have one. Collect materials needed to clean up broken bulbs. 2. During cleanup Be thorough in collecting broken glass and visible powder. Place cleanup materials in a sealable container. 3. After cleanup Promptly place all bulb debris and cleanup materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area until materials can be disposed of properly. Avoid leaving any bulb fragments or cleanup materials indoors. For several hours, continue to air out the room where the bulb was broken and leave the H&AC system shut off.
Don't be silly?? Do you think this is silly? The EPA doesn't.
That's no joke! In the dead of Winter, it's nice to be able to site at my desk with a flexible task lamp for both illumination and heat. It really takes the chill off.
Some communities that switched their traffic lights to LEDs experienced problems with the light coverings icing over in winter because LEDs put out no heat.
[ Some communities that switched their traffic lights to LEDs experienced problems with the light coverings icing over in winter because LEDs put out no heat. ]
Granted you could always make a light that has a heater element in it that would only kick on if it got too cold or something... But yeah, lack of proper usage of the lights.
What isn't reported is that the efficiency required is beyond the performance envelope of the regular incandescent bulbs, so — effectively — the standard DOES, indeed, "ban" incandescent bulbs; beginning at the higher watt rated bulbs, and working its way down. The trusty 100Watt bulbs are already KIA, and you can bet your porch light the 60Watt bulbs are in the crosshairs already.
Burgess is doing the Lord's work, here; don't knock it.
Somewhere George Orwell is smiling.
You are the dim bulb!
Where does the United States of America get off defining light bulb efficiency? It is not the role of the government to arbitrate light-bulb efficiency!
Yes and the incandescent heat benefit is research proven,
Canada, UK, Finland etc research
http://ceolas.net/#li6x
besides, any use with air conditioning cooling is optional, and might be preferred anyway, for light quality or other reasons
An extensive referenced rundown of why the light bulb ban
makes no sense
http://dunday.com/p/deception-behind-banning-light-bulbs.html
- including to save energy
(a fraction of 1% of US energy saved, on referenced DoE data - and the same coal effectively gets burned at night regardless of light bulbs used, from the way coal power plants work)
Another take on that...
Supporting Michael Burgess new bulb bill amendment, and Answering the Critics:
“Typical of Un-Progressive Republicans to want to hang on to Horse and Buggy technology, rather than support Innovation!”, “How many Times do we have to Keep Saying it’s not a Ban!”, etc...
http://freedomlightbulb.blogspot.com/2012/05/bright-burgess-bulb-bill-block-part-2.html
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