House Passes Tea Party Light Bulb Joke By Voice Vote

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/07/15/270390/the-tea-party-light-bulb-joke-is-being-repeated-today/

Rep. Sandy Adams (R-FL) amendment to prohibit federal websites that teach children about energy efficiency

Its time to flush the tea down the potty.

The compact flourscent program was actually introduced in the early 90's when I was working for a major distributor. It was a huge program and was "the thing" they wanted to focus on -- "they being the federal government" at the end of George the father's term. The reasons being:

1. All utilities were starting to use logos, i.e. Philadelphia Electric Company became PECO Energy. The reason for that was that they opened up the grids so that people in other areas could purchase electricity from other states, opening up competition, now of course, they weren't really buying it from PECO, they were just paying the PECO rates. This happened all across the country. The west coast and the northeast corridor being the most expensive places per kilowatt hour.

2. The U.S. power grids are overtaxed in most major metropolitan and suburban areas and the program of reducing wattage in lamps was one effective way to ease the burden.

3. The country was in need of innovation and new technology and new mfg capabilities, as well as new products to get people back to work.

4. GE, Westinghouse, Osram (who owns Sylvania) and the many copycats out there retooled their facilities and made more energy efficient flourescent ballasts, tubes and the age of the compact flourscent came to be. A big marketing tool for these bulbs came from the power/utility companies themselves. Now, why would they purposely do give aways and handouts of something that would, in effect, lessen profit. They knew what we now know, power grids are not only overtaxed but out of date and will eventually, without major infrastructure changes slowly collapse. That's why.

The other fly in the ointment of this lightbulb bill is that now that all these companies have complied with retooling and many, many buildings have replaced old fixtures floor by floor (Empire State Building, Federal, State and City office buildings, courthouses etc), should they change back and go back to the older, inefficient types of fixtures and lamps?

Another reason was safety. An incandescent lamp burns hot. You cannot change an incandescent lamp immediately after it burns out unless you use a pot holder or oven mit. That should be a hint to most people who use them that they are inefficient, but the amount of children who were burned on them is staggering. They also shatter easily when they come in contact with water, making them non-usable without a cover in bathrooms, kitchens and many garages.

It was a program that created many thousands of jobs at a time when needed and made many major cities, towns and states more energy efficient and saved a great deal of money. As they say, you need to change with the times.

What we could use now is a program that would rebuild our power structures and employ hundreds of thousands of the unemployed and the 99ers.

Most importantly, there are things happening of a much greater magnitude right now and repealing legislation already signed into law, while a real favorite of the Republican and Teavangelists, is not productive, a waste of the tax payers money (because we pay for these votes), and it's a waste of valuable electrical resources that we do need to preserve.

GREAT POST Marykay

I do agree spending money to enforce getting rid of the old incandescent light bulbs is a waste of money in times of Federal Deficits. Let them burn out. They did not force old cars to get off the road.

Manufacturing the old bulbs is another thing. None from China should be allowed to come in either, since manufacturing stopped in the USA.

The fact Sandy Adams wants to keep kids from learning about energy efficiency makes
me sick. I am so appauled! Come to find out she is bought and paid for by the energy companies that would lose money if we saved it.

You can't regulate Freedom of the Press. Now are they going to remove these books from the Public Library?