Thoughts from Virginia Postrel on the light-bulb ban.
[Update a few minutes later]
More bipartisan stupidity (or crony capitalism, take your pick): the hidden costs of the ethanol subsidy. If you wonder why food prices are going up, this is one of the big factors.
I wonder whether the incandescent ban will survive? I can see a fair number of people who don’t ordinarily pay attention to politics getting angry about this when they figure it out. If I were a greenie, or even a watermelon, I would have opposed this madness as likely to snuff out my brand.
It’s also a contributor to high oil prices since it takes about 1.5 barrels of oil to produce about a barrels worth of ethanol energy from corn.
The light bulb ban is another example of how Bush 2 was Obama 0.5.
Who was it that said “compassionate conservatism is neither”?
Hope the backlash will be early, often and involve tar and feathers.
The Germans came up with a solution. They are selling incandescent bulbs (already banned in the EU) as electric heaters – Heat Balls. The link and site are auf Deutsch: http://heatball.de/
Otherwise I predict smuggling and lots of Canadians and Mexicans making a lot of money manufacturing and selling the product to consumers here in the US. Cheers –
If the bulb ban is NOT rescinded, why bother voting for Republicans?
Dubya was never any economic conservative. Remember, he is the reason why we have Obama. There are GOP who are economic conservatives and there are GOP who are rent-seeking parasites no different from the liberal-left.
philw1776 wrote:
If the bulb ban is NOT rescinded, why bother voting for Republicans?
1) Quantitative Easing
2) ObamaCare
3) Amnesty
4) Cap ‘n’ Trade
5) Stimulus
6) Supreme Court nominees
7) Offshore drilling ban
8) Etc.
9) Etc.
10) Etc.
The light bulb ban is stupid, but it’s not even in the top twenty of issues needing attention. Probably not even in the top fifty.
Sheesh. Stay focused, people.
Mike
I’m no fan of the silly government ban (it is rightfully emblematic of high-handed government regulation and intrusion), but the criticisms of CCFL bulbs are really dated. If Instapundit bought his bulbs back in 2007, I’m not surprised that he was disappointed. Bulbs sold at Target (or better yet, Home Depot) are much, much better than the CCFLs from just a year or two ago. They turn on instantly (while there is still some residual ramp-up for a few moments, it usually is not noticeable), and are available in a variety of color temperatures. I replaced all of my normal bulbs with CCFLs and my electricity bill went WAY down. The prices are also way down (a pack of 6 for $10 or so, although I suspect some subsidization). To be honest my only complaint about them is the mercury hazard when they break.
What I find more exciting, however, at the LED replacement bulbs that are hitting the market. A 100 W-replacement bulb is due out later this year. They are very pricey and still struggle with the issue of directionality, but these will be the ones to have in the next few years as the technology matures and the price comes down.
I agree about the present day CCFLs. We recently bought a bunch of them and found that they are quite bright. They are also reasonably priced. I think they are much better than the ones I bought in 2006. I first bought CCFLs during a heat wave in 2006 when I decided it was stupid to have what were essentially heaters on at the same time as my air conditioning. I do have a problem with the Mercury in them if I should break one of them. It will be good if the LED lamps get better and cheap enough to replace them soon.
I think the ban is stupid. CCFL’s and LED’s will replace incandescent lamps on their own merits once they get good and cheap enough that people want to buy them.
“Bulbs sold at Target (or better yet, Home Depot) are much, much better than the CCFLs from just a year or two ago.”
Yea, I was reading the part in the OP about the blue tinted CFL light and knew instantly that it was a daylight spectrum bulb. The problem with florescents is that you have to actually pay attention to the kelvin temperature of the bulbs color scale. Incandescents blare out light near clear across the continuous visible color spectrum. Incandescents need tinted glasses to help control their spectrum. But Floros emit specific bands of color that can be dialed into differing needs. Your daylight bulb is your outdoor bulb with the hot colors off in the blue end. The bright/cool whites I think are the ones that people associate to the office building with their stale lighting; clean efficient but blaahhhh. The warm/soft bulbs down below the 3000k kelvin spectrum are pretty close to a soft incandescent and that is probably what should be going into your home. The warm spectrum bulbs contain a lot of reds and oranges that keep your rods plenty energized but take it easy on your eye’s cones.
I’ll say this much: since the CFLs have been on the market I haven’t needed to buy very many light bulbs at all.
Of course, the last one I bought was an LED bulb, which has taken over a lighting job originally allocated to three incandescents. With more LED options coming available I don’t expect ever to buy another CFL.
Yeah, it’s the ultimate football bat, cramming a lot of leds into one hotspot just so it can fit in a legacy medium base. Leds like to spread out. I have a rope light in my closet (with electronic eye switch), track lighting in the ceiling, two can lights in the bathroom, etc. The only medium bases I have are exterior lights, and there’s no ban on bug lights or other specialty lights. 🙂 Like most bans, this mostly hits poor people, with their $1.50 table lamp and $4 CFL. (Yes, it’s $1.5 at Home Desperate, but you’ve already paid the $2.5 difference with ratepayer subsidies.)