The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Last night, House and Senate negotiators came to an agreement on a $1 trillion spending bill that would avoid a government shutdown. Not only that, but when all was said and done, a rider that would prevent the extinction of the incandescent light bulb (my favorite invention) was kept in the bill.
The Washington Times headline dramatically states "Congress Overturns Incandescent Light Bulb Ban"
Congressional negotiators struck a deal Thursday that overturns the new rules that were to have banned sales of traditional incandescent light bulbs beginning next year.
That agreement is tucked inside the massive 1,200-page spending bill that funds the government through the rest of this fiscal year, and which both houses of Congress will vote on Friday. Mr. Obama is expected to sign the bill, which heads off a looming government shutdown.
Congressional Republicans dropped almost all of the policy restrictions they tried to attach to the bill, but won inclusion of the light bulb provision, which prevents the Obama administration from carrying through a 2007 law that would have set energy efficiency standards that effectively made the traditional light bulb obsolete.
But this part I don't quite understand:
The bill doesn’t actually amend the 2007 law, but does prohibit the administration from spending any money to carry out the light bulb standards — which amounts to at least a temporary reprieve.
So, we're not out of the woods yet? Enemies of my favorite invention could still win the day? The ban is still in place, but money to enforce standards won't be allocated? How does this work, exactly? Anyone know?
Anyway, I mentioned last night during the live chat that I was planning to give 100-watt incandescent bulbs as Christmas presents. (Sigh.) So much for that great idea. I guess I've got to go out shopping again.
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Nov '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Sorry about the snag in your gift giving plan (genius idea by the way!), but wonderful news nonetheless!
May '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
If it's true, then HORRAY!
Still appalling that it came down to the wire like this.
Aug '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Bad news is your clever light-bulbs-as-Christmas-gifts idea got ruined.
Good news is your clever light-bulbs-as-Christmas-gifts idea got ruined.
Mar '11
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
As Melissa Clouthier just noted on Facebook, Congress succeeds in overturning the ban now that all the lightbulb manufacturers have fled to China. Geniuses!
Mar '11
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Good. Congress never should have enacted it in the first place.
Apr '11
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
I've got an idea! Go ahead and give lightbulbs for gifts this year. Goverment, like CFL bulbs, is notoriously mercurial.
Edited on December 16, 2011 at 5:46pmJun '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Ready, fire, aim.
At least, even if we have to buy them from China, we've been relieved of the modern equivalent of a "world lit only by fire."
Edited on December 16, 2011 at 5:50pmMay '11
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
I actually saw 100W incandescents at the store a month or so ago. I didn't need them, but I bought them anyway. I was betting on the EZ Bake Oven black market.
Yet another of my "Invest in exactly the opposite of what I do and you'll be rich" moments.
May '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
My thoughts, exactly.
DrewInWisconsin
But this part I don't quite understand:
In other words, there will be no factory stings, but police are free to fine a retailer if they happen to be in the store while incandescents are being sold? Such enforcement requires no funding. This might not be over yet.
If it is, let's move on to abolishing the TSA.
May '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
I still don't trust Congress to do anything but wreck our lives.
May '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
It's been said before, but I will keep pointing this out every chance I get. Energy "efficiency" is not a rational basis for this ridiculous ban. If you live in a climate where you heat your home, on days where you use any heat at all these bulbs have 100% efficiency. The heat they produce that the government calls "waste" directly offsets the need to use the furnace.
And better yet, the light bulb produces radiant heat that warms the rooms you are immediately in, because that's where you have the lights on.
May '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
As I mentioned on Ricochet a last summer (and slightly improved upon in my blog) incandescent lamps are only inefficient if the heat they produce is not used. More typically the heat contributes to heating the house, and in those cases incandescent lamps are roughly 100% efficient.
Don Tillman's Blog: Banning Zero-Waste Light Bulbs
http://www.till.com/blog/archives/2011/07/banning_zerowas.html
May '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Mark Wilson: It's been said before, but I will keep pointing this out every chance I get. Energy "efficiency" is not a rational basis for this ridiculous ban. If you live in a climate where you heat your home, on days where you use any heat at all these bulbs have 100% efficiency. The heat they produce that the government calls "waste" directly offsets the need to use the furnace.
And better yet, the light bulb produces radiant heat that warms the rooms you are immediately in, because that's where you have the lights on. · Dec 16 at 9:16am
Smart!
Oct '11
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Kervinlee
Mark Wilson: It's been said before, but I will keep pointing this out every chance I get. Energy "efficiency" is not a rational basis for this ridiculous ban. If you live in a climate where you heat your home, on days where you use any heat at all these bulbs have 100% efficiency. The heat they produce that the government calls "waste" directly offsets the need to use the furnace.
And better yet, the light bulb produces radiant heat that warms the rooms you are immediately in, because that's where you have the lights on. · Dec 16 at 9:16am
Smart! · Dec 16 at 9:22am
Expanding on that, these new efficient light bulbs are Mercury filled. You have to call in the Hazmat unit if you break one.
Apr '11
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Though I applaud the effort, and I do like my cheap incandescent lights in the home, I have to wonder ...
If they don't do a permanent overturn, will this really bring the bulbs we want back? Would a company manufacture a product which they wouldn't know whether it'll be banned in the near future or not?
Aug '11
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Last year a German manufacturer devised a clever way of getting around the EU ban on incandescent bulbs by declaring them "heat globes" and marketing them as such. They're heating devices that just happen to give off light.
Mar '11
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Maybe I'm a conspiratorial freak, but I always believed the ban would be overturned at the last minute - AFTER a lot of people bought dozens or hundreds of bulbs to build a stockpile. All you people with cases of these things in your basement, how are you feeling right now?
Aug '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Agreed. And that's what makes Rick perry's concept of a "part-time" Congress so appealing. the less time they spend in Washington, the less damage they can do.
Nov '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
After reading this news I got a huge surge of optimism. Every time I went into Walmart and down the lighting isle I got so infuriated with the whole ban. Quite a Christmas present! The battle is not over though. Edison Lives!
Nov '10
Re: The Incandescent Light Bulb: Saved From Extinction?!
Cutting of the money cuts off the ban, at least until September 30th. The Democrat congress never said the president could not send troops to Vietnam after 1975, they just defunded it and that effectively ended American involvement in Vietnam. Defunding the light bulb ban does the same thing.
Congress almost never outright repeals laws because it’s easier to get defunding though, it allows the supporters the believe their is some hope of bringing it back. Bringing this back on September 30th next year, in the middle of the election, is not likely. It’s unpopular and while Democrats are autocratic, they aren’t stupid.
But Republicans are sometimes, and it will be imperative for them to act before September 30th or it will come automatically. They must put Democrats in a position of having to act against allowing the ban to die.