Watt a bright idea!........................
Posted on 12/16/2011 11:08:18 AM PST by ShadowAce
Congressional negotiators struck a deal Thursday that overturns the new rules that were to have banned sales of traditional incandescent light bulbs beginning next year.
That agreement is tucked inside the massive 1,200-page spending bill that funds the government through the rest of this fiscal year, and which both houses of Congress will vote on Friday. Mr. Obama is expected to sign the bill, which heads off a looming government shutdown.
Congressional Republicans dropped almost all of the policy restrictions they tried to attach to the bill, but won inclusion of the light bulb provision, which prevents the Obama administration from carrying through a 2007 law that would have set energy efficiency standards that effectively made the traditional light bulb obsolete.
Stopping the bulb ban was a chief GOP priority coming into this year, with all of the candidates seeking to become chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee saying they would push through a repeal. That bill cleared the House but Democrats blocked its consideration in the Senate.
House Republicans then insisted on adding a provision into the year-end spending bill, and it was one of the last major sticking-points in the negotiations.
The spending bill doesn’t actually amend the 2007 law, but does prohibit the administration from spending any money to carry out the light bulb standards — which amounts to at least a temporary reprieve.
The spending bill is full of similar provisions that are included year after year to restrict what administrations can do.
At $915 billion in discretionary spending, the bill amounts to $750.6 million per page, and funds the vast majority of government operations, from defense to homeland security to federal parks. Since it is a must-pass bill, it also becomes a major battleground for policy fights such as the light bulbs.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Well, wadda ya know....something good has been accomplished this year.
I’ll wait till the bill is signed before I do the Snoopy “happy dance.”
Now what am I gonna do with the garage filled with soon-to-be black market edisons I stocked up on. I even had my overcoat customized.
“Hey, wanna buy a...”
Watt a bright idea!........................
On the other hand. Light Bulb Futures just went into the toilet ;-)
They did not repeal the law, they just “suspended” it.
Meaningless.
A glimmer of hope that just a little sanity remains in D.C.
Too late to save domestic production, but at least we are spared the dull, dingy emanations of the overpriced worm lights.
” Congress overturns incandescent light bulb ban “
Surprisingly bad headline writing on the part of the WATIMES - even contradicted later in their article —
“The spending bill doesn’t actually amend the 2007 law, but does prohibit the administration from spending any money to carry out the light bulb standards”
The ban on real lightbulbs remains the law of the land - just not enforced.. For now....
Is anyone even making incandescent light bulbs anymore? Maybe the Russians...
I just cleaned out the local market’s supply of incadescents. 2 packs of 4 bulbs for 75 cents. I guess the market didn’t want to be stuck with a pile of bulbs it could not legally sell.
Now we can get them from China.
They did not win a repeal of the measure...they only temporarily defunded enforcement.
Whoooppie! Meanwhile our tax dollars will be spent overseas supporting abortion. So glad to see republicans take a stand!
/s
Walmart probably had 32 one hundred watt bulbs left over across the country so they paid their lobbyist to push for a suspension until the all 32 were sold.
Wonderful. Just the bunch of hard-hitting Pubbies we need for 2012. /S
Yup and since the ban has been coming for a while, the producers have long stopped producing.
They can take the entire Federal bureaucracy and stick it where the incandescents don’t shine.
Close... it is a country south of them... where we are getting most things.
“Now what am I gonna do with the garage filled with soon-to-be black market edisons I stocked up on”
LOL-—my first thought, too.
Great.
I have been hoarding incadincadoo buolbs for 2 years, planning on the black market that was to come.
Now what am I going to do with a garage full of regular price incadincadoo bulbs?
Phht! Gov! Who needs them?
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