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Sigh, wasting a good thread for modding by replying to this but since no one else has I'll bite.

Why legislate? If the lamps were cost effective, then the municipalities would make the switch. Right now in central Ohio the primary electric provider charges in the neighborhood of $5 per lamp per month for power. The muni is responsible for purchasing the bulbs if I am remembering correctly.

First, you legislate it since its the only way to get it done. Sad but true. Next, you only need LED light bulbs. You don't have to replace the full lamp, at least if these consumer sites are anything to go by.

If the cost of power and the cost of the bulb are figured in, the LED street lamps take an insane amount of time to recoup the cost. Even when you figure in the labor to replace the bulbs every couple of years it still doesn't add up.

Per the source Wikipedia provided the extra initial cost is paid off within two years just from the electricity savings, and barring a physical disaster (such as the streetlamp falling over or getting shot with a gun) you don't have to change the bulb for 20 years. Really, it is a better choice but it would require work by city employees to actually make the change happen. They may even have to do a slide show!

When many budgets are being stretched to the breaking point would you advocate for your town to install LED street lights that will cost more? Would you vote for your taxes to be increased to purchase the lights, or would you prefer that a couple of employees be terminated to pay for the cost difference? I, myself, am not opposed to the idea of installing power saving, pollution reducing equipment, but there has to be a balance somewhere.

Hell yes I would advocate for this. Budgets don't magically get bigger on their own. You have to work for it. You have to plan and invest for it. This is a very, fucking, simple, means to save the city/town a lot of money and power, and it cuts down on light pollution as an added bonus!

Oh and something else to chew on: as more demand for LED lights increases, in the form of cities and towns using them for streetlights, the manufacturing process will be improved as companies compete with one another to produce a cheaper light bulb to sell. That's basic market principles. Demand drives innovation. Yet another long term economic bonus by mandating a switch to LED lights.

Apparently the Department of Energy in the US thinks they're a damn good thing that should be improved so they can become the defacto light source. They're hosting a contest since May 2008 to create a better LED light bulb. They call it the L-Prize.

Really, once you look at the known facts and the future potential you have to ask yourself why not? A handful of employees might lose their job? Taxes may go up a fraction of a percent? You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and you can't make improvements for the future without paying for it. To hold back on something as simple as this for the reasons you gave is petty, just petty.

It could descend to lower, muddier depths when people sue for breach of merchantability/fit for purpose for over-clocked use of toilet paper.

With names like these, we should sue (or could be sued for making fun of):

Encore (give a hand, bravo, bravo)
Windsoft (windy day in Arizona?)
White Cloud (certainly not heavenly)
Scotch (don't wipe too fast)

I wonder if there is one called "Ogive", Octave, Harmony, Spiral Graph, Heap...

There's a camouflaged paper design (or pun)

http://www.productdose.com/article.php?article_id=6567

Regardless of how bullshit this article is, I bemoan the big push for CFL's. They are lame.

http://www.productdose.com/article.php?article_id= 1142

See above link for comparison (perhaps not incredibly current numbers, but there is an Excel spreadsheet so you can work it out yourself) of different light bulb types for cost-efficiency.

I will not buy CFL's. I'm going with LED's. They will last next to forever, use way less power, and they won't pollute the way CFL's do.

I'm really pissed that the Canadian gov't is banning incandescents and pushing CFLs. They should be pushing alternatives, not a particular product. If there was market push for LED the prices would go down and the business case would improve hugely, especially when you factor in lifespan.

Oh, I don't know...

http://www.besthomeledlighting.com/all_led_bulbs?g clid=CJ-Mrc7-t4kCFQsEVAodnlYvPg

Here's a 4 watt light bulb for example.

http://www.besthomeledlighting.com/product/G32-120 -E27-70-W

And a host of LED alternatives:
http://www.ccrane.com/lights/led-light-bulbs/index .aspx

And here's a spreadsheet to compare all three:

http://www.productdose.com/article.php?article_id= 1142

Anything else?

...you have to use the original/a. What is this world coming to?

And for those of us who can't access Coral (because of work restrictions), the story is also available here.