Saturday, February 03, 2007

California Light Bulb Legislation

A legislator named Lloyd Levine wants to outlaw incandescent bulbs in California. I am very much opposed to this. Not because I'm against energy efficiency, but because I'm Pro Choice. I want to be able to choose any light bulb I want. This is America, not a totalitarian regime.

I'm against this also because I don't like fluorescent light. It's from the "cold" end of the spectrum, and I like "warm" light. Is that okay? I guess not.

Saving energy is a good idea. It is conceivable even that there should be legislation related to total energy use, or an economic approach, like taxing gasoline: higher rates for usage above a certain baseline. Then I, as a consumer, can perhaps choose a gas dryer instead of an electric dryer, to save electricity. But to tell me I'm allowed to have an electric dryer and an electric water heater and electric baseboard heat, but I'm not allowed to use incandescent light bulbs, is patently ridiculous.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG. This has been a HUGE issue for me lately, as I am in the midst of a remodel. I hate fluorescent light, and make no apologies for it. My current plan it to leave the crappy fluorescents in for the inspection, and then switch them out to incandescents as fixtures allow. What a royal pain........

Anonymous said...

dude, dude, dude!

you used to be my friend! how can you bask in the wasteful glow of incandescence with a clean conscience?!

i am shocked and personally destroyed by your twisted ethics!

ok, you can still be my friend anyway.

Anonymous said...

I'm right there with you, my friend....is it not bad enough that I have to look sallow all day at work? I rarely use heat in my "glass" house, so why can't I have flattering lighting if I want it? I'm sure I save a helluva lot more by not using heat than I would by subbing fluorescents for incandescents. This is probably the same guy that wanted to silence the fog horn after moving to the Coast....don't get me started.....

Mark Groen said...

CFL's come in different ranges of the light spectrum, the ones in our bathroom are a bright white like old fluorescents, but the one above me right now is a very nice incandescent yellow/amber colour and very easy on the eyes.

I don't like the idea of being legislated into using CFL's myself, but they make a lot more economic and environmental sense in most cases than incandescents:

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp

Russ Nelson said...

I'd be happy to sell you some black market white light incandescent bulbs, to feed your habit.

Anonymous said...

I wonder whether those oh-so-green legislators know how much worse the toxic disposal problem is with fluorescents than incandescents? I saw an article in late April somewhere online that reported severe contamination (thousands of dollars cleanup needed) because of a dropped fluorescent lamp that broke, releasing the mercury all fluorescents contain. That was just one lamp. Think of what thousands of old fluorescent lamps tossed into the landfill are going to do! Stupid, grandstanding legislators -- of course they'll be gone, on to bigger misdeeds by the time that problem bubbles up to public conciousness.