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Light bulb factory closes; End of era for U.S. means more jobs overseas
Wapo ^ | 09/08/10 | Peter Whorisky

Posted on 09/08/2010 1:40:25 PM PDT by freespirited

WINCHESTER, VA. - The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison's innovations in the 1870s.

The remaining 200 workers at the plant here will lose their jobs.

"Now what're we going to do?" said Toby Savolainen, 49, who like many others worked for decades at the factory, making bulbs now deemed wasteful.

During the recession, political and business leaders have held out the promise that American advances, particularly in green technology, might stem the decades-long decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs. But as the lighting industry shows, even when the government pushes companies toward environmental innovations and Americans come up with them, the manufacture of the next generation technology can still end up overseas.

What made the plant here vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014. The law will force millions of American households to switch to more efficient bulbs.

The resulting savings in energy and greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to be immense. But the move also had unintended consequences.

Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: china; corruption; economy; energy; ge; generalelectric; incandescent; jobkiller; lightbulbs; manufacturing; obama; virginia; winchester
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Way to go, Congress!

/s

1 posted on 09/08/2010 1:40:28 PM PDT by freespirited
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To: freespirited

Turn out the lights.
The party’s over.


2 posted on 09/08/2010 1:41:52 PM PDT by No Truce With Kings (I can see November from my house.)
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To: freespirited

It probably means increased depression, since most people don’t have access to full spectrum lights besides bulbs.


3 posted on 09/08/2010 1:42:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: freespirited

GE are mega wh*res too. MSNBC/CNBC/NBC. They undermine America to curry favor with China and Saudi Arabia.


4 posted on 09/08/2010 1:42:44 PM PDT by Frantzie (Imam Ob*m* & Democrats support the VICTORY MOSQUE & TV supports Imam)
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To: freespirited

My youngest DD attends Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester. She is sickened by the news, as should be all Americans. Bob


5 posted on 09/08/2010 1:43:03 PM PDT by alstewartfan ("If I should live to be seven, I might forget Stephanie!" Al Stewart)
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To: freespirited
Way to go, Congress!
/s

dont forget who signed it....GWB. another RINO who gave us that and started the whole stimulus crap.

6 posted on 09/08/2010 1:43:30 PM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: freespirited
Congress was a day late and a dollar short in that change. The big switch to fluorescent lighting happened over half a century ago ~ in factories, stores, offices, public places, etc.

This was nothing but feelgood legislation that accomplished nothing.

Now, the next form of lighting ~ LEDs. US Manufacturers own all the good patents in this technology.

7 posted on 09/08/2010 1:44:15 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: freespirited

The “replacement lights” GE sells won’t be made in the US, you can take that to the bank.


8 posted on 09/08/2010 1:44:29 PM PDT by bigbob
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To: Vaquero
dont forget who signed it....GWB. another RINO who gave us that

Yup. GWB believes in GWB (global warming BS).

9 posted on 09/08/2010 1:44:29 PM PDT by freespirited
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To: freespirited

“a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014.”

A law passed at the behest of GE because they had the patents and investments in China to build the new bulbs.

Freeeeee Trade! China doesn’t play it but its nevertheless Frrreeeeee!


10 posted on 09/08/2010 1:45:29 PM PDT by Shermy (Smoot Hawley caused the Depression, FDR saved us from the Depression. Two Big Lies.)
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To: freespirited

Government electrics is friends with Obama.

They kiss his butt, he promotes green tech that they will profit from.

They close up shop in the USA and sell carbon credits to china.

Move shop to china where labor is cheap and polluting is easy.


11 posted on 09/08/2010 1:45:37 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: No Truce With Kings

http://www.johnspeedie.com/healy/cospre.wav


12 posted on 09/08/2010 1:45:58 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This post is not a statement of fact. It is merely a personal opinion -- or humor -- or both.)
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To: freespirited

The GE bulbs I’ve been seeing are stamped Mexico and don’t seem to last like they used to.


13 posted on 09/08/2010 1:46:21 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (I want IMPROVEMENT, not just CHANGE.)
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To: freespirited
>>Way to go, Congress!<<

There once was a day that our government protected America and her standard of living.

That's no more.

My daughters live up in the Winchester area, this will hurt the already suppressed local economy.

Yep, Thanx Congress...for all the help.

14 posted on 09/08/2010 1:47:48 PM PDT by servantboy777
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To: freespirited

Oops, I took a compact florescent bulb to my local federal building to ask them how to use it, but I dropped it in the lobby where all the people were returning from lunch. I quickly cleaned up the obvious shards of glass, but there was a whole bunch of powder and other stuff on the floor, and it got tracked all through the building. They had to close the building because the mercury vapor levels were deemed too high. It cost millions to have a remediation company come in and tear up the carpets and epoxy seal the floors.

/”sarcasm”


15 posted on 09/08/2010 1:49:30 PM PDT by Born to Conserve
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To: freespirited; 1rudeboy
"Light bulb factory closes; End of era for U.S. means more jobs overseas"

If only we could get some more government intervetion into the free market to fix the problems caused by government intervention into the free market...

16 posted on 09/08/2010 1:49:51 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the next one...)
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To: freespirited

Hate CFLs:

1. Mercury in them will cause a bigger environmental problem than the carbon burned in an incandescent will.

2. They oscillate, which takes its toll on both eyesight and on your head.

3. Far more expensive.

4. Won’t fit into lamps and fixtures that incandescents will.

5. If they last longer, I haven’t been able to bear that out. I’ve labeled the ones I use here and compare them to incandescents - so far they have come out equal in lifespan.

6. Energy savings? I’ve got five flat screen TV’s in the house. The aspect of my power bill spent on lights is minor in comparison to devices with CPUs in them, or with monitors. I don’t have an AC, but in homes that do, the power used by AC’s dwarf that used by lights.

Conclusion: Not backed by science. It’ll create a bigger environmental disaster than the one it seeks to clean up.

Between giant car batteries used by hybrids/prius and these mercury based CFLs, our kids 20 years from now are going to wonder if we put crack in the water supply. Had we actually put the crack in the water supply, it may actually be safer than the chemicals that will leach from the batteries and the lights.


17 posted on 09/08/2010 1:49:56 PM PDT by RinaseaofDs (Does beheading qualify as 'breaking my back', in the Jeffersonian sense of the expression?)
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To: freespirited

So they’ll make us all buy more expensive bulbs that will take years to pay for themselves. And we’re forced to buy them from overseas.

I’m reminded of one person who many on here hate. His name is Ross Perot. He said “There’s one deficit nobody wants to talk about. And that’s the trade deficit.” Guess they still don’t want to talk about it.


18 posted on 09/08/2010 1:50:17 PM PDT by Terry Mross (o)
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To: freespirited

I predict that eventually we will force a repeal of this silly law, but it will be far too late for Americans who made incandescent bulbs for a living.


19 posted on 09/08/2010 1:51:42 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: alstewartfan

I went to Shenandoah University also. Great town. Great history.

Too bad for the loss of jobs.


20 posted on 09/08/2010 1:52:41 PM PDT by 30Moves
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