When Republicans took back control of the House in 2010 they were able to push back the default ban on incandescent light bulbs, but it was too little too late. Soon you won’t be able to buy them.
The free market operates by offering incentives to consumers to change their behavior. Cutting prices, advertising and developing new products redirect the public’s impulses in a natural, painless way. The government, on the other hand, has no passion or patience for this sort of thing.
Words like “must,” “shall,” and “mandate” pepper the texts of laws like Obamacare. The incandescent light-bulb ban, which goes into effect in March, is another case in point. The bulbs aren’t officially banned, just artificially obsolete. As part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Congress mandated that light bulbs have 25 percent greater efficiency, phased in starting in 2012 and continuing until 2014. The law also includes a slew of mandates on appliances and energy use in federal buildings.
A 310-page masterpiece of micromanagement, the law was promoted heavily by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco Democrat, and signed by President George W. Bush. The bill was driven by a consortium of manufacturers that stand to profit from forcing people to buy more expensive bulbs and fixtures, plus the environmental lobby, which likes to pretend government regulations can lower the planet’s temperature.
Alarmed at the prospect of being forced by law to purchase expensive, squiggly compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs instead of cheap, warm incandescent bulbs, Americans complained loudly. In the face of a popular revolt, Congress pushed the start date back to October 2012 and defunded enforcement of efficiency standards as part of the 2012 and 2013 appropriations bills.
However, seeing the writing on the wall, manufacturers began phasing out incandescents. The last major General Electric factory that made them closed in Winchester, Va., in September 2010, putting 200 people out of work. One hundred-watt bulbs are already gone in some stores. (Read More)
Not only do those new squiggly bulbs give off hideous light, they’re also dangerous if they break because they contain mercury. You’re supposed to clear the building and wear a hazmat suit if you break one. But those are the bulbs the ruling class wants us to use. So you better stock up now, while you still can. I just found some 60 watt
bulbs that Amazon has in stock. I bought another 24 pack the other day and added them to our little stockpile.
Via iOwnTheWorld
@lonelycon http://t.co/pMLJCvGD
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@lonelycon Does anyone realize There Is Mercury in the new forced Lightbulbs.. Read the Labels..please All read
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[...] Remember liberty? When Republicans took back control of the House in 2010 they were able to push back the default ban on incandescent light bulbs, but it was too little too late. Soon you won’t be able to buy them. The free market operates by offering incentives to consumers to change their behavior. Cutting prices, advertising and developing new products redirect the public’s impulses in a natural, painless way. The government, on the other hand, has no passion or patience for this sort of thing. [...]
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@lonelycon Got you linked. This is what happens when we elect buffoons
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@lonelycon New light bulbs hazard to humans.. How will they even trash them Also solar panels!
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A light bulb for you:
After reading articles screaming about the NRA and thinking about what the Journal News did – I have a suggestion. Think of the NRA as an “expert system”. There are millions of people in the NRA and I doubt that ‘all their kids are above average’ , so they very likely have constructive suggestions, or basic rules of thumb, for how a parent might deal with potentially dangerous kids. And some ideas might be as simple as parents going step by step. If your kid can’t handle a BB gun responsibly, then you probably do not want to get a 22. The NRA does an excellent job promoting safety, but I bet there is some sage advice and wisdom that Lanza’s mother could have used – to steer him away from trouble. Your mother can say “you will poke your eye out” – and passing more stupid laws can never have the effect a mother has. And frankly, the socalled mental health professionals are not there either. They are not surrogate parents. They might have something valid to say, but they might have their own agenda. The important thing is that Americans have been dealing with Problem Children for 400 years, and there are effective ways to avoid trouble. It might take a few days of remembering how your parents dealt with problems with adolescents, and collecting anecdotes, to distill some advice, and do’s and don’ts. which can spread into the culture. It is the culture that makes most of America safe – and obviously, it is the “culture” that makes lots of other places very unsafe. The culture is slower but a whole lot more effective than legalistic wishful thinking. Once the ball gets rolling, the advice which works spreads around. Anyway – it is just a rough outline of an idea. Maybe the NRA might consider a kind of ‘dear abbey’ blog for distraught parents who are at their wit’s end. Of course, a lot of the culture problem involves language barriers too.One would have to worry about trolls too, and creepy types who would use advice to mask their evil intentions, remembering that No Good Deed Ever Goes Unpunished. So it might be non-trivial, but it might be worth considering.
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@lonelycon My electric supplier give free cfl bulbs for an energy efficient home also sold for $1. at Dollar Tree. Save The Planet-conserve!
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@lonelycon There Is MERCURY In these Light Bulbs.The warning Label Is Tiny No One Is Aware! People Read with Magnifying Glass.
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The other dirty little secret the government doesn’t tell you about the CFL’s is that there is NO PLACE to throw them away. My trash company won’t take them. Even the days my town as Waste Day for old computers, etc, it specifically says, no CFLs. The ONLY ONLY place they can be discarded is by returning them to the store, like Home Depot. Of course, what THEY do with them after that……:-)
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[...] Read [...]
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We wisely stocked up a long time ago. Light bulbs take surprisingly little room.
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Don’t forget, it may be debatable, but there are alleged adverse health effects that have been associated with exposure to fluorescent lighting.
I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they may be found to be at least partly to blame for setting off psycho’s on killing sprees such as Sandy Hook.
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I bought about 100 six months ago when they were very cheap. And, unfortunately, this is just the beginning of Phase II of Obamamania. What you can eat, what you can drink, what kind of car you can buy, can you use your own property, etc., etc., etc. It’s all coming to a theater near you–at your house.
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All too often, the Government mandates something before it’s fully proven. The results aren’t good.
The Government mandated the phasing out of incandescents in favor of CFLs, even though consumers were finding out the hard way that the first generation of CFLs stunk. The high color temperature was more suited to an office than a living room. Many burned out in half the claimed lifetime. And they were too big to fit in many lamp fixtures.
In a free market, the CFLs would be drastically revised–or if that failed, withdrawn from the market. But that took a lot longer, no doubt because the manufacturers were counting on the government mandate rather than consumer appeal to boost sales.
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