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The environmentalists, the very people standing in the way of new refineries, coal-fired power plants, and nuclear power plants (the people who brought you 1.6 gallon toilets with 3 flushes of water per visit) have succeeded in getting ordinary light bulbs banned in the United States.
The federal ban on incandescent bulbs is a clear violation of the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Unfortunately, there are few people in Washington (or anywhere else) who give that silly little technicality a second thought since now mandating everyone to buy into Obamacare.
The energy bill that will phase out incandescent bulbs was proudly signed into law by, then, President Bush. Consequently, President Obama rubs elbows with regulatory robber barons. Both political parties are duplicitous in Federal Government intervention into trouncing on individual rights.
President Obama on Monday, 6/13/2011, gave a pep talk for American manufacturing at a factory in Durham, N.C., where Cree Inc. makes LED light bulbs. Cree embodies Obama-era capitalism: profiting from government grants, political connections, revolving-door lobbyists and regulations that force people to buy their product.
President Obama doesn't see this as the regulatory robbery it is. He sees it as stimulus. After all, the regulation has helped Cree hire new workers. See? Everyone wins! ...Well, except for the hundreds of former General Electric factory workers who used to make the old incandescents in factories in Winchester, Va., Niles, Ohio, and Lexington, Ky. Those factories closed last summer thanks to the same law that is benefiting Cree. (But don't cry for GE, though -- the company's lobbyists also supported the regulations, which will drive business to their more profitable GE fluorescents and LEDs.)
Jeffrey Immelt, the GE CEO, the Chairman on the Presidential Council on Jobs and Obama's jobs czar, was in Durham who sees government as a "champion" of industry, especially if it greatly enriches his pockets for a bigger annual bonus and stock options.
So, except for about a dozen drawbacks, these fluorescent light bulbs are fine, and if the price of electricity triples, or if I'm forced to run on generator power, or if I want my home to look like a warehouse, I'll buy more of them.
Like the Chandelier...not :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, this ban is fundamentally wrong...
Light bulbs don't burn coal, and they don't release CO2 emissions.
If there is a problem - deal with the problem.
Energy efficiency is always welcome, and as far as electricity is concerned,
it is relevantly and significantly dealt with by appropriate electricity generation, distribution, and consumption policies, to any extent required, as described on http://ceolas.net
It is not relevantly and significantly dealt with by running around people's homes telling them what products they can or can't use: Overall USA energy savings are less than 1% as shown by US Dept of Energy data
http://ceolas.net/#li171x
More about the Deception behind the Light Bulb Ban:
http://freedomlightbulb.blogspot.com
Peter T is right on with his facts and sources. I certainly hope that the EPA and the other Federal Energy Agencies start to realize that the voters are waking up to the excessive regulations! Make a difference in 2012!
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