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Bill to Ban Regular Light Bulbs Introduced in House
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
March 21, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - A Democratic lawmaker has introduced a bill that would ban the sale of traditional incandescent light bulbs - which are less energy-efficient, prompting claims that they contribute to “global warming” - one day after a colleague told a press conference that legislating a ban would be a “last choice.”

As Cybercast News Service reported last week, Rep. Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) held a news conference Wednesday calling for more efficient lighting options, and Manzullo said “the last thing we want to do is force legislation down people’s throats.”

One day later, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) introduced legislation that would set target dates for certain types of light bulbs to be prohibited for sale in the United States.

Harman calls the bill “an important first step toward making every household, business and public building in America more energy-efficient.”

“This legislation, while a small step, could have an enormous impact,” she said in a posting on the liberal Huffington Post blog. “And hopefully, it can help transform America into an energy-efficient and energy-independent nation.”

An average traditional incandescent bulb based on a filament emits 12-15 lumens per watt (a measurement of the bulb’s lighting output.) Harman’s bill would require all bulbs to produce 60 lumens-per-watt by January 2012; 90 lumens-per-watt by January 2016; and 120 lumens-per-watt by January 2020.

Currently available compact fluorescent bulbs (CFL) are about halfway to the ultimate goal, offering approximately 60 lumens-per-watt. A 20-watt CFL produces about as much light as a 100-watt incandescent bulb.

Philips Lighting, the world’s largest producers of light bulbs, has joined with environmental groups to encourage legislation banning incandescent bulbs. Some skeptics believe the company is in the debate simply for its own profit.

Brian Darling, director of Senate relations at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told Cybercast News Service it is “unusual” for a company to ask for federal regulation of their product unless it will benefit them financially.

In this case, a federal standard would ensure that incandescent bulbs would not be available from any manufacturer, so if Philips stopped producing the bulbs, it would not lose business to other companies still producing them.

“This company conceivably could be using environmentalism as a pretext to market their more expensive and more energy efficient bulbs to the detriment of their competition, who produce cheaper bulbs,” Darling said.

Steve Goldmacher, a spokesman for Philips Lighting, acknowledged Tuesday that the company supports legislating efficiency standards as a way to prevent competitors from offering the traditional bulbs.

“If we stopped [producing the bulbs] … somebody else would just jump into the breach and continue to manufacture them and continue to fill that gap,” he told Cybercast News Service.

“Given the choice of a 25 cent incandescent [bulb] to a $2 or $3 or $5 product … consumers have made that choice already over the years - they choose the more inefficient type,” Goldmacher said, “so here we need to lead them a little by the hand and take those inefficient types off the market.”

Goldmacher dismissed skeptics’ claims that the company merely wants to require consumers to purchase more expensive products so it can legislate higher profits for itself.

“That’s not the driving force here,” he said, adding that the company’s goal is “to reduce the footprint of the lighting industry and create a more sustainable product.”

While the bulbs cost more up-front, they will last longer, Goldmacher said. “If we make a technology that’s going to last 25 years, we’re not going to make that much money on that purchase, are we?”

Cuba two years ago began phasing out incandescent light bulbs in a reported bid to ease the strain on the communist-ruled island’s overtaxed electricity grid. Following Havana’s example, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last November launched a program to distribute millions of energy-saving bulbs, for free, to the country’s citizens.

And Australia last month announced a plan that would gradually ban light bulbs that do not comply with energy-efficiency targets.

A spokesman for Harman declined to provide comment for this report.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200703/NAT20070321a.html

http://www.genesislamp.com/fllibu.html

Produced by: www.news.com.au

Date of Production: Tuesday, 20th February 2007

Abstract:

The humble incandescent light bulb is about to become history as Australia dumps it in favour of more energy efficient technology.

Household light bulbs get the flick

The humble incandescent light bulb is about to become history as Australia dumps it in favour of more energy efficient technology.

The standard incandescent light bulb – a metal filament glowing white-hot in a vacuum, which wastes up to 95 per cent of the energy it uses – will be phased out within three years.

“We are introducing new energy efficiency standards and these old lights simply won’t comply, they will be phased out and basically over a period of time they will no longer be for sale,” Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said today.

The move to sell the electorate a simpler environment policy contrasts with Labor’s plan to introduce emissions trading, increase mandatory renewable energy targets and sign the international Kyoto climate agreement.

It is understood the Government has decided the old light globe, developed for the mass market more than 125 years ago, should be replaced with modern “compact fluorescent lights”, also known as low-wattage bulbs.

The Government will work with major manufacturers and importers to bring about the change.

While the new technology lights are more expensive at $4-$6 each, they cost considerably less to run and have a much longer life than incandescent bulbs, which can sell for less than $1.

Incandescent bulbs waste up to 95 per cent of the energy they use, mainly in the form of heat. Compact fluorescent lights use about a fifth of the electricity to produce the same illumination.

Details of the plan, including costs, have not been made available, but a source said it was expected the purchase cost of the new technology lights would come down as the volume of sales dramatically increased.

Compact fluorescent lights can produce savings of 66 per cent of the cost of the older technology and the new lights last between four to 10 times longer.

Federal Government figures suggest energy used for household lighting in Australia contributes up to 12 per cent of coal-energy greenhouse gas emissions and around 25 per cent of emissions from commercial and public lighting.

It is felt the change to fluorescent lighting could cut greenhouse gas emissions by the order of 800,000 tonnes a year by 2012.

Full text at http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21255435-2,00.html

This article can be found on the Australian Christian Lobby website at http://www.acl.org.au/sa/browse.stw?article_id=13436

© Australian Christian Lobby, 2003 - 2007
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Change a bulb, Change Everything. It only takes 18 seconds to change a light. Have energy and cash now by swithcing to Energy Star CFL bulbs, available from Genesis Lamp.

By Bernie Woodall
Tue Jan 30, 9:05 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California lawmaker wants to make his state the first to ban incandescent lightbulbs as part of California’s groundbreaking initiatives to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

The “How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act” would ban incandescent lightbulbs by 2012 in favor of energy-saving compact fluorescent lightbulbs.

“Incandescent lightbulbs were first developed almost 125 years ago, and since that time they have undergone no major modifications,” California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine said on Tuesday.

“Meanwhile, they remain incredibly inefficient, converting only about 5 percent of the energy they receive into light.”

Levine is expected to introduce the legislation this week, his office said.

If passed, it would be another pioneering environmental effort in California, the most populous U.S. state. It became the first state to mandate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, targeting a 25 percent reduction in emissions by 2020.

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) use about 25 percent of the energy of conventional lightbulbs.

Many CFLs have a spiral shape, which was introduced in 1980. By 2005, about 100 million CFLs were sold in the United States, or about 5 percent of the 2-billion-lightbulb market, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

That number could more than double this year. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. alone wants to sell 100 million CFLs at its stores by the end of 2007, the world’s biggest retailer said in November.

While it will not give opinion on the possible California law, the EPA recommends CFLs.

“They save money and energy,” EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said. “They are more convenient than other alternatives and come in different sizes and shapes to fit almost any fixture.”

Also, CFLs generate 70 percent less heat than incandescent lights, Jones said.

About a fifth of the average U.S. home’s electricity costs pays for lighting, which means even if CFLs initially cost more than conventional lightbulbs, consumers will save, Jones said.

A 20-watt CFL gives as much light as a 75-watt conventional bulb, and lasts 13 times longer, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit group studying energy issues.

Southern California Edison, an Edison International subsidiary and one of the state’s biggest utilities, runs a program that cuts the cost of a CFL by $1 to $2.50. In the past year, SCE has helped consumers buy 6 million CFLs, it said.

California Energy Commission member Arthur Rosenfeld said an average home in California will save $40 to $50 per year if CFLs replace all incandescent bulbs.

While not commenting specifically on Levine’s likely legislation, Rosenfeld, winner of the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award in 2006, said the switch from incandescent bulbs became feasible about five years ago when CFL performance improved.

“This is clearly an idea whose time has come,” he said.

Levine, a Democrat from Van Nuys in Los Angeles, last year introduced a bill that will become law in July that requires most grocery stores to have plastic bag recycling.

To view article, visit:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/energy_california_lightbulbs_dc

Commercial Light Bulbs May Provide Potential Way For Fighting Tumors

A new research conducted by scientists from the Ben-Gurion University in southern Israel attempts to tap the potential medical benefits of commercial light bulbs. The beams of light concentrated from an ultra-bright commercial bulb have been used to burn away the healthy tissue in rats, and scientists hope to extend the results to larger animals and
eventually human beings.

To read the full article, see:

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005437576

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