Edison Bulb Ban Means Lights Out On Freedom: Importing 40 & 60 Watt incandescents illegal in 2014

IBD ^ | 12/30/2013

[SeekAndFind]

Bulb Ban: As of Wednesday, the manufacture and import of 60- and 40-watt incandescent light bulbs will be illegal — one more setback in the fight against government interference into the daily lives of the American people.

First they came for our light bulbs. Before the onset of ObamaCare and its mandate to buy health insurance as a condition of citizenship, there was the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), one of the first things Democrats took up on retaking the House of Representatives in the 2006 elections.

A well-intentioned President George W. Bush signed the incandescent bulb ban in 2007. After all, Edison bulbs were old technology and a little energy efficiency couldn't hurt.

[ltc8k6]

They are coming down a lot, though. They are getting close to $1 each in 6 or 8 packs at Sam’s.

[Leaning Right]

I also recall it being said that this was added into a bill that the president really wanted.

Personal freedoms should not be traded away. Bush and most of the GOP just don't seem to get that.

[Flick Lives]

We don’t need to get our lightbulbs back - we need to get the government out of the business of telling people how to live their lives. And to accomplish that, we need to cure a large part of the population of their perverse need to have someone else tell them how their lives should be run.

A majority of the American public is now permanently frozen in "childhood" and this public looks to the Nanny State to tell them what to do. Pajama Boy is the perfect embodiment of the age.

[VRW Conspirator]

I wonder if the gestapo police in Connecticut will confiscate incandescent light bulbs when they raid houses to seize non-registered guns.

For crying out loud! It will probably go down like they "heard" someone had incandescent bulbs, so they raid a house for this illegal contraband and, lo and behold, they find guns.

[turducken]

Another colossal FUBAR by the fake conservative Bush

[Bob]

Rough figures - with a 12 watt energy difference (rated output versus input power), you save almost 100 watt-hours per 8-hour daily use. That’s about 0.1 KW-hr or a penny per day.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Thank You, REPUBLICAN POTUS George W. Bush and Michigan REPUBLICAN Fred Upton.

[Arlis]

Of course, halogen’s are filament types - but expensive with the halogen gas in them.......

[libertarian27]

Halogens are still legal and will be for some time. Just like your old bulbs.

6 years
They are banned in 2020

[TribalPrincess2U]

No more fireplaces, no more air conditioners down the road. When will they outlaw those billions of pools or maybe that’s another thing they will tax.

[TribalPrincess2U]

When the ice age kicks in maybe they’ll bring back our bulbs.

[varyouga]

The price is higher but the rough bulbs are made to last several times longer. Even longer than good quality CFL

[lighthouse10]

SeekAndFind re your comment GE (Bush/Obama chief policy advisers GE Welch/Immelt) also Philips (Moorehead) a freely admitted involvement

Strange to ban a popular safe product and push arguably unsafe ones - the opposite to usual practice.

New bulbs are good = no point banning old ones
New bulbs are not good = no point banning old ones.

Also, it is simply a ban to reduce electricity consumption.
But light bulbs don’t burn coal or release CO2 gas.
Power plants might, and might not.
If there’s a problem, deal with the problem.

Dept Energy grid data, mainly small off-peak evening surplus electricity use, and base loading coal plants on minimum night cycle basically burn the same coal anyway regardless of bulb used.

The light bulb ban makes no sense (except for major manufacturers who together as NEMA lobbied for and got ban on cheap patent expired generic lighting, relatively unprofitable compared to complex patented expensive alternatives)

14 points why the light bulb ban arguments don’t hold up:
http://freedomlightbulb.org/p/how-bans-are-wrongly-justified.html#ban
.

[central_va]

Payback on a $30 bulb at saving 1 penny per day is $3.65 / yr. So the payback time is over 8 years? How long do these things last?

[healy61]

For the relative: purchase a lamp, and while installing the flourobulb, accidentally drop it on the floor. The as cleanup progresses, point out the recommended process, beginning with throwing the clothing away. You throw yours away and make sure the relative does the same.

[lighthouse10]

SeekAndFind is also right on halogen replacements being banned

USA EISA 2007 law tier 2 2014-2017 regulation on light bulbs will ban all incandescents for general service, including halogens, based on the 45 lumen per Watt backstop final rule that equates to fluorescent bulbs and that locks down the 2014 review looking at implementation timing.
The aim is 2017, but the backstop extends it to 2020 at the latest

Also, while there are exemptions, their sales are monitored:

” Exemption reversal condition:
The Act includes a provision whereby, in cooperation with NEMA, sales of certain exempted lamps will be monitored, specifically:
• rough service
• vibration service
• 2601-3300 lumen general service (150-200W)
• 3-way
• shatter-resistant (”rough service”) lamps

For each of these lamp types, if sales double above the increase modeled for a given year — signaling that consumers are shifting from standard incandescents to these incandescents and thereby supposedly not saving energy — the lamp type will lose the exemption. “

Consequence: A requirement that any such popular lamp type can then only be sold “in a package containing 1 lamp”, and with a maximum 40 watt rating in most cases (95-watt for 2601-3300 lumen lamps, variably reduced for 3-way lamps).

If Newcandescent, Aero-Tech etc bulb sales reach a certain point such measures may kick in.
Still, the rough service types are needed in mines etc so
the plan is then to change the fitting types, although won’t stop determined users.

In EU this is already a problem. German Energy Commissioner Oettinger has ordered and apparently now got 50 inspectors
checking stores in German states. In Nov 25 EU stakeholder meeting dealing with the issue, it may now extend to all of the EU.

The US federal Gov has ban oversight funding which was blocked temporarily by Texan Rep Michael Burgess (amendment to Congress yearly Energy/Water Act) via the House Energy Committee, but will presumably be released sooner or later.

(The Texan Congress oversight blocking efforts also with Joe Barton and other reps is also said to be due to Gov Rick Perry having legalised incandescents in Texas June 2011 in a federal repeal move)
.

Big Brother is watching you.. one way or another ;-)

[MrB]

Lighting, as a category, is a pretty insignificant percentage of the total electricity used in the USA.

This is just another combination of kicking more money to lobbyists for GE,
and making sheeperals feel good about themselves for caring about the erf.

[PATRIOT1876]

More mercury in our streams by order of the SS!

..erm...that is to say the EPA

[The Great RJ]

Every Congressional office as well as the White House better be equipped with these these curly monstrosities by Wednesday...ditto for low flow toilets. My bet is that organized crime will see a new opportunity just like they did with Prohibition. I could see Tony Soprano selling light bulbs and toilets out of an unmarked truck in some back alley.

[Wright Wing]

I posted in the other thread a few days back. The Cree LED bulbs sent at home Depot for $12 a bulb are fantastic. They match the color of incandescents, last longer, are instant on, dimmable and will save some on energy costs.

I was totally against the move away from incandescents when the only option was CFL’s. Changing light bulbs is a PITA and having a bulb that will last a decade is ok by me, even if I am against the measures taken to get the technology to its current place.