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GE Closes Last US Light Bulb Factory
pickens writes "The Washington Post reports that last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the US is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison's innovations in the 1870s. What made the plant vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014 but rather than setting off a boom in the US manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas. GE developed a plan to see what it would take to retrofit a plant that makes traditional incandescents into one that makes CFLs but even with a $40 million investment the new plant's CFLs would have cost about 50 percent more than those from China. 'Everybody's jumping on the green bandwagon,' says Pat Doyle, 54, who has worked at the plant for 26 years. But 'we've been sold out. First sold out by the government. Then sold out by GE.'"
'Everybody's jumping on the green bandwagon,' says Pat Doyle, 54, These bulbs are far from environmentally friendly or “so called green” and is another example of how foolish laws attempting to “manage” people’s behavior create more long term problems. Each bulb contains about 5 milligrams (mg) of mercury, a toxic heavy metal that can interfere with the development of children and unborn fetuses and may cause a wide range of health issues in adults, including brain, kidney and liver damage. Large commercial users of fluorescent lights are required to recycle, proper disposal of CFLs, but not home owners. Huh?????? Let’s just assume that 7 million people in NYC dispose of one bulb a month, that is 35 Kilos of Mercury introduced into the environment each month in NYC alone. If I have my numbers wrong I am sorry, it has been awhile since I have done those types of calculations, regardless the amount of Mercury is not insignificant. I personally would rather live with the consequences of the incandescent lamp for a while longer.
So the solution is to *again* require the people to pay more. Typical really.
"Hey it hurts if I push my hand down on the barbecue. Hey, what's that ? A blowtorch ? Where do I stick my hand ?"
You see it'll stop hurting if you just do more of it. In *exactly* the same way. (which is why all statist governments, whether socialist or nazist, if they're really so different, started killing their own people on a large scale).
It was hell getting a cooking surface in vitro-ceramics.
Gas is more efficient.
Convection oven?
http://reviews.walmart.com/1336/9222614/euro-pro-0-75-cu-ft-convection-oven-with-rotisserie-reviews/reviews.htm
It is a huge joke.
If you're talking about your comment, then yeah, it is. Although you have perfectly demonstrated your own premise - people hate change.