Trump Scraps Obama-Era Rules For Energy Efficient Bulbs

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Donald Trump’s administration has scrapped a rule that would have phased out incandescent bulbs.

A new rule was issued on Wednesday reversing a requirement, enacted during Barack Obama’s presidency, for all new light bulbs to be energy-efficient by 2020.

The Energy Department said that the rule change “will ensure that the choice of how to light homes and businesses is left to the American people, not the federal government”

The move, welcomed by industry has been strongly criticized by climate change groups. The move is also in line with Donald Trumps 2012 warnings about the dangers of so called “environmentally friendly” light bulbs.

Press TV reports: The rollback represents the latest in the US president’s running battle since taking office against nearly all forms of environmental regulation, coming shortly after his administration axed rules limiting leaks of the greenhouse gas methane and after weakening a key wildlife protection law.

Incandescent light bulbs, which were invented by Thomas Edison in 1878 and lose 90 percent of their energy to heat, have been on the decline since a 2007 law that mandated phased-in energy efficiency targets they could not meet.

LED bulbs, which use 20 to 25 percent of the energy of their traditional pear-shaped counterparts and last 10-25 times longer, now have the bulk of the market share.

Though they cost slightly more ($2.50 compared to $1.50 in a multipack) they make up for this in saved energy costs of $50 to $150 over their lifetime.

Halogen bulbs, a slightly more efficient version of traditional incandescents, represent about a quarter of the market according to the Association of Electrical Equipment and Medical Imaging Manufacturers (NEMA).

On former president Barack Obama’s final day in office, his administration updated definitions under the 2007 law to include items like track lighting, candle-shaped bulbs used in chandeliers, and round globe bulbs used in bathrooms, with this final phase out set to occur by January 1, 2020.

The Trump administration has now deleted this update, arguing it was not in line with Congress’s original legislative intent and would place an extra cost burden on consumers and businesses.

“This action will ensure that the choice of how to light homes and businesses is left to the American people, not the federal government,” the Department of Energy said in a statement welcomed by NEMA, which agreed that the Obama administration had misconstrued the statute.

But the announcement was slammed by environmental groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which called the move illegal because it violated “anti-backsliding” provisions that prevent the energy department from weakening standards.

8 Comments

  1. They rolled them out in South Africa. It is very effective in saving energy, but makes for poor lightning not good on the eyes.
    SO effective that they had to raise tariffs on electricity bills to makeup for their losses. Its now almost impossible to go back, not affordable and difficult to obtain the incandescent bulbs, and when you do they are very expensive.

    • And all I can find are garbage ones like Sylvania. Incandescents should actually last several years. Hopefully the Chinese market will solve that one if demand increases.

  2. Good. While some LEDs are tolerable, the blue light is a health hazard. And the CFLs are nothing but mercury-emitting frequency amplifiers. No reason we ever needed to get rid of real lighting.

    People who argue energy savings are insane. It’s like saying you save energy by running a window fan instead of an AC unit during the summer. Well, of course you would, at the cost of sweating 24/7, constant risk of dehydration, and slowly destroying your home and everything in it!

  3. Now if only we can reverse those regulations for toilet and washing machine water consumption, the coolant for refrigerators and air conditioners, limiting gas cars to 50% of vehicle production, making it so our dishwasher takes twice as long to clean dishes than previously , etc, etc.

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