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Congress Voting To Repeal Incandescent Bulb Ban
Bob the Super Hamste writes "CNN Money is running as story about a bill Congress is going to vote on today to repeal the 'incandescent light bulb ban' that was put into place during the Bush administration. The bill is supported by Republicans in Congress who are claiming this places unnecessary restrictions on the market. For those of you wondering, it does bring up the standard issues of energy efficiency, mercury (in both the bulbs and that emitted by coal power), and cost of the bulbs. The bill was introduced by Texas Congressman Joe Barton."
How about passing laws that make sense in the first place?
Actually, due to a technicality, you can continue to buy 'heat lamp bulbs' that just happen to emit light as a 'side-effect'. There are companies that are gearing up to sell them to those of us who prefer incandescents.
However, hopefully, the ban on incandescents will be lifted, and I can continue to purchase bulbs from the local grocery store.
Maybe they should get jobs making light-bulbs at companies that make efficient bulbs?
Or at any of the "heat lamp" companies that are springing up to sell incandescent "heat-lamps" that have a side-effect of giving off light.
Any "jobs saved!" by this bill will be offset by the cost of caring for the cancers caused by the increased mercury emissions the less-efficient bulbs will lead to. How many dozen coal-plants won't have to be built without incandescent bulbs? How many with?
Who did what now?
I'm in the same boat ... given the massive increase in cost, and the claims for bulb life ... even one or two failures basically means you've wiped out any savings for the next decade or so. Which means as soon as they start dying anywhere less than the claimed lifespan, you start replacing with old school bulbs.
They might think it, but I seriously doubt people are doing it.
I'm definitely not impressed so far with actual bulb life vs claimed.
How hard is it to take the bulbs to your local Lowes or Home Depot? Both offer CFL recycling. What? You didn't know that? Gee, it sure is hard to find answers to questions. Better just sit around blindly criticizing, it sure is doing wonders for our nation.
And to everyone who insists on the anecdotal "well this one CFL i bought burned out after only a few months" I will go ahead and throw in: "well I keep incandescents or halogens in the 'entertaining' spaces of my house, and the bulbs simply *never* last more than a year (and these are the nice sylvania or GE bulbs that go for $1-$5 each). They must all be trash. Any savings by using incandescents/halogens is pointless!"
Anecdotal check and mate.
How about not passing more laws and REPEALING those that have passed?
Translated from a conversation with one of the "Republican Libertarian" Tee Tardier types recently:
TT: "The government shouldn't tell us what to do. The people in large numbers will always average out to making the right choice."
Me: Oh? Then how about all the studies showing that, in fact, "cheaper", "easier" solutions that are absolutely ruinous to health, environment, and the national welfare were chosen by "the people in large numbers" over and over despite being the completely wrong choice?
TT: "But but... RUSH SAID SO!"
It IS the government's job to "mold behavior" if there is a problem.
Such as smog emissions causing an epidemic of asthma.
Or the overuse of a finite resource that should be conserved.
Or the wasteful use of a resource that overfills landfills and causes hazardous materials to leak into the water table, which is what happen when you put assloads of crappy chinese-made incandescent bulbs (how Ironic that the Republicans are yet again sponsoring a bill whose major net effect would be a boon for China yet again) into landfills when they burn out after two months or less each.