{"id":553,"date":"2010-09-29T08:44:41","date_gmt":"2010-09-29T12:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/?p=553"},"modified":"2010-09-29T08:44:41","modified_gmt":"2010-09-29T12:44:41","slug":"the-lightbulb-switchover-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/?p=553","title":{"rendered":"The Lightbulb Switchover: In The Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Light Bulb Switchover: In the Dark<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a> by Ed Feulner<\/a>, \u00a0from Townhall.com of 28 September 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, are you ready to comply with the federal government\u2019s ban on incandescent light bulbs? Me neither.<\/p>\n

Starting in January 2012, a little over a year from now, the phase-out begins. Simple, inexpensive lighting will become a time-capsule item. Compact-fluorescent lights, or CFLs — the bulbs that look like a twisted ice-cream cone (and won\u2019t fit in many light fixtures where space is tight) — will become the new norm.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has priced CFLs knows they\u2019re not cheap. Supposedly they\u2019re worth the extra money because they\u2019ll last longer. That\u2019s cold comfort, though, given the dull, unnatural glow that these bulbs throw off.<\/p>\n

Worse, CFLs are full of mercury. If one breaks — and who hasn\u2019t dropped a light bulb now and then? — you have an elaborate clean-up process ahead of you. It\u2019s on the EPA\u2019s website, and it involves evacuating the area of all people and pets, and using duct tape and damp paper towels to get everything up. (Go to www.epa.gov<\/a> for complete details.) And no vacuuming, or you may disperse the mercury \u2013 which, after all, is a toxic substance.<\/p>\n

So why are we making the switch? It was mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The theory, of course, is that we\u2019ll consume less energy. It\u2019s all part of the green agenda. The same agenda that the president insists will produce scads of high-paying, earth-friendly \u201cgreen jobs.\u201d Tell that to the 200 workers in Winchester, Va., who are losing their jobs as General Electric closes its incandescent-bulb factory there. Or to the Americans who work in other plants that have been shuttered.<\/p>\n

Yes, some jobs will be created, thanks to the ban. Unfortunately, those jobs won\u2019t be here in the U.S. — they\u2019ll be in China, where CFLs can be made cheaper.<\/p>\n

Half of all the compact florescent bulbs sold in the U.S. come from just one Chinese manufacturer. \u201cThis is not an anomaly,\u201d notes Heritage energy expert David Kreutzer. \u201cSolar panel production is moving to China, as is windmill production.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps what President Obama means by \u201cgreen jobs\u201d is that we\u2019ll be moving lots of American greenbacks overseas to create jobs elsewhere. But at least we\u2019ll be saving energy, right? Not according to a recent study sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. It found that energy use under newer \u201cefficient\u201d lighting will actually go up rather than down.<\/p>\n

This whole affair is a prime example of bad \u201cunintended consequences\u201d resulting from well-intentioned plans — plans imposed by devotees of big-government solutions for nearly every problem.<\/p>\n

Some lawmakers are trying to reverse this part of the 2007 law. Texas Reps. Joe Barton (R) and Michael Burgess (R), along with Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), have introduced legislation to repeal the ban on incandescent bulbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWashington-mandated layoffs in the middle of a desperate recession is one of many examples of what happens when politicians and activists think they know better than consumers and workers,\u201d Barton said.<\/p>\n

The question is: Will their fellow policymakers finally see the light?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Light Bulb Switchover: In the Dark by Ed Feulner, \u00a0from Townhall.com of 28 September 2010 So, are you ready to comply with the federal government\u2019s ban on incandescent light bulbs? Me neither. Starting in January 2012, a little over … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555,"href":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cflimpact.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}