Light Bulb Prohibition

In case you didn’t know, stores in the European Union were banned from selling incandescent light bulbs as of August 1, 2009.. The environmental whackos decided that the light bulbs we know and love are destroying the environment. For several years leading up to the ban on “trafficking” in light bulbs, stores, museums and regular folks hoarded light bulbs to the point where some larger retail establishments and museums have years of light bulbs stashed away. Funny, isn’t it?

Don’t laugh. It is coming here. As of January 1, 2012, the United States is imposing energy standards on a light bulb producer’s "fleet." Each bulb has to meet certain energy standards. The standards are written so that the incandescent light bulb can’t meet them, effectively banning their sale.

Beginning January 1, 2011, packages of bulbs have to contain so much information as to lumens and such, that stores are concerned about how much shelf space the packages will take up. And the information will have to be in English, Spanish and French. Watch out for the small print.

The goal is to direct you to what green monster environmentalists call energy efficient bulbs. You have two choices…the squiggly fluorescent bulbs, and the uber expensive LED “bulbs” which aren’t bulbs at all, but a series of individual LED lights in an electric base. I bought one LED “bulb”…it cost me $40.00. It isn’t too bright, but I can turn it on and it will last for about 100 years and cost me next to nothing.

A more serious issue is the squiggly bulbs, which contain mercury. Break them, you are in trouble…you literally, I kid you not, have to call in the hazmat team to clean up the breakage. When they burn out, and they do burn out, you are going to have follow specific instructions on how to dispose of them, otherwise the dump will leach the mercury into the water table and we will all be glowing green.

This isn’t funny. This isn’t a joke. This is serious stuff with the nanny state once again sticking its nose where it ought not to be. Trading one theoretical problem for a bona fide real problem is not good government policy, especially when that policy is being determined by a bunch of pseudo-scientific do-gooders. Trumped up global warming v. mercury in the water...let's balance that.

These new light bulbs just don’t fit the bill. If you have a three way lamp, fuggetaboutit! If you have a dimmer, fuggetaboutit! They will make these bulbs “for” these types of lamps and ceiling fixtures. But that only means they will work in that kind of a socket. They won’t have three levels of light, and you won’t be able to dim them. And when you turn them on, in case you didn’t know, there is a delay as they light up. It is disconcerting.

And what is even more disturbing are the light bulb factories that are now closing down. GE closed the last of its Mahoning Valley plants this past year, as well as other lamp factories throughout the United States costing thousands upon thousands of jobs. Those jobs have been exported to China, where the new light bulbs are being made. So much for Barack Obama’s green jobs…for China maybe… but not here!!

In all fairness, I have bought several of the squiggly lights, which now come encased in a regular light bulb casing. The coating on the outer casing gives off different kinds of light…you have to pick which type of light casing you want. I have to be honest. I use these lights in our bathroom fixtures, some ceiling fixtures without dimmers, and outside the house spotlights which make the house look much better than the incandescent spotlights. I have purchased several expensive LED bulbs for light fixtures we leave on all the time (yes…I know I am a tad deranged about the dark). And they work just fine.

But for the other everyday fixtures, they are not satisfactory. You should be outraged. Even if Congress steps back from this craziness, it will be difficult for the companies like GE to restart the plants they are closing down as I write this.

I guess we are all going to be in the dark. Hoarders...start your engines.