Over the past few days we have seen a couple different posts in this blog (one by Libby Spencer and another by Henry Payne) about the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which includes the phasing out of the incandescent light bulb.
As Libby points out, this legislation was originally passed in 2007 with bi-partisan support and then signed into law by then President George W. Bush. With this in mind it seems disingenuous of Henry to make a statement like “The light bulb ban was a dark symbol of the Obama Administration’s zealous appeasement of the green god of Global Warming.” The fact that this legislation has become a lightning rod for conservative zealots doesn’t mean they get to blame Obama for it. The worst you can say is that as a Senator Obama voted for this legislation.
Henry’s classification of the legislation as “sneaky backdoor regulation” also seems inaccurate given the bill itself is called the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and included many efficiency improvements across a wide range of industries which included light bulbs.
In keeping with the current conservative rhetoric Mr. Payne laments the jobs lost by this legislation. In particular he mentions a GE facility in Virginia which lost 200 jobs. It should be noted that these lost jobs paid around $30 per hour for highly skilled workers to do things like place cardboard sleeves in a machine. Odd that a conservative who seems to believe that union employees and teachers are overpaid is defending 200 overpaid employees. Also, I thought conservatives believed in putting more money in the pockets of Americans? According to Energystar.gov the average consumer will save $40 per light bulb they replace over the life of the bulb. Australia figures upgrading to CFL bulbs will save the average household $46 per year.
Additionally, suggesting that the EISA 2007 is the reason that GE is shutting down its facility is an uninformed view. According to a spokesman for the American Lighting Association, “The industry has moved on.” They have moved on because of the multitude of countries that are either banning incandescent bulbs or moving toward more efficient bulbs. This list includes China, India, Philippines, Malaysia, The European Union, Switzerland, The UK, Canada, Cuba, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Venezuela. If Mr. Payne thinks the job losses are bad now, he should understand that insisting on using a product that the rest of the world has deemed inferior under the guise of “personal freedom” will only put us further behind.
But the thing I really don’t get is why conservatives who complain that President Obama doesn’t demonstrate enough American exceptionalism whine that we can’t compete in the CFL market. The reality is the CFL bulb was an American invention from 1973 that GE shelved. Twenty years later a Chinese company started producing CFL bulbs and continues to work on more cost-effective ways to manufacturer the units. There is no reason to think that if GE had invested in the CFL bulb back in 1973 that we wouldn’t have discovered the same cost-cutting measures that the Chinese did and we could be the world leader in CFL manufacturing. We can’t compete now because we chose not to be the leaders when we had the chance.
It is certainly debatable whether this is good policy or government overreach, but acting like this legislation is a job killer ignores reality.