US Congress tries to slow down transition to efficient bulbs as India strikes deal to buy 13 million of them

“This is an early Christmas present for all Americans. It restores the freedom, at least temporarily, for you to choose the light bulbs you want to illuminate your home,” Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said in a statement after the House voted Friday. (The Senate followed on Saturday.) Barton said the spending bill delays enforcement less than a year, but he would seek a permanent ban on the lighting rules.

Congress’ bill may slow switch to efficiency lighting bulbs

Never heard of a more stupid argument for not moving to an efficient technology – ‘freedom to choose which bulb they want to use’. Commentators would surely be running out of words to highlight the bizarre statements the Republicans have been giving. The article mentions that there are several energy efficient lighting systems available and while the initial cost is higher than incandescent bulbs they being significant financial and energy savings.

If economics of the bulbs is an issue, the administration should provide subsidised bulbs. They’ll surely get all they money back in vey short period of time which the electricity savings. The United States has very high per capita energy usage as well as per capita carbon emissions. These small steps would not only help mitigate these emissions but also bring economic benefits.

They must learn from India which has lower emissions, lower per capita emissions and energy use. India has launched massive nationwide effort to replace incandescent bulbs with CFLs. The government asks private companies like America’s CQuest to finance procurement of CFLs which will be sold to the people at about a sixth of the original price. The whole project would generate carbon credits and a part of the revenues would be given back to the private companies.

The US is way, way behind most developing countries in the willingness to act on issues like climate change, clean energy and energy efficiency.