Posted on 09/09/2010 7:47:50 AM PDT by Iron Munro
The last General Electric factory in the U.S. to manufacture incandescent light bulbs is set to close its doors next month, as a federal move toward green technology has made the product obsolete, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The Winchester, Va., plant partly fell victim to energy conservation legislation passed by Congress that will require Americans to start using more efficient bulbs by 2014, the report said.
The 200 workers at the plant will lose their jobs when the doors shut for the final time, as the replacement bulbs, known as compact fluorescents (CL), are manufactured mainly overseas.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, CLs last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, while using about one-fourth the amount of energy.
"Everybody's jumping on the green bandwagon," The Post quoted Pat Doyle, who has worked at the plant for 26 years, as saying.
We've been sold out, Doyle added. First sold out by the government. Then sold out by GE."
President Barack Obama has put an emphasis on creating green jobs, saying he wants the U.S. to create five million over the next ten years, The Wall Street Journal added.
GOVERNMENT CREATES GREEN JOBS - IN CHINA
This article and related stories point out that the "green" CFL's are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in Chins.
These 200 people are losing their jobs thanks to republicans and democrats, who voted for the 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress. That law essentially bans ordinary incandescents by 2014. American households will be forced to switch from American manufactured incandesent bulbs to to CFL's manufactured overseas.
So all American light bulb factories have now been closed and the jobs effectively exported to China.
Great, time to stock up just like when the freon was made obsolete.
Well, time to go shopping again.
I haven't used one yet but I bet it is with 1/4th the light as well.
“Everybody’s jumping on the green bandwagon”
= Everyone has gone insane.
This ticks me off. When my cfl’s burn out, I throw them in the trash. Screw the mercury, Bush said they were ok so they can clean up the mess
CFLs are also a transition technology and will be gone soon. LED’s are being refined for use in home and office lighting and when they hit it will be a rapid transition. Incandescents waste so much energy (they convert most energy to heat, about the inverse proportion to LED’s) it’s no big deal to bid them farewell. CFL’s are not the answer, but may not have to stand in for long.
What gets me about the CFLs is that they
DON’T LAST AS LONG AS INCANDESCENTS
even though they claim to.
I have a dozen bulbs in my basement, and the only ones that burn out are the CFLs.
Bastard leftists try to claim they save money, but at $5 each, and burning out 3 times sooner than incandescents...
well, if they had any shame, they’d have to admit they don’t save any money.
I’m curious about oven lights.
Not me, I haven't found a CFL that matches the color and brightness of an incadescent light. I don't want CFL's and I don't buy them. So much for the Free Market under Dictator Jughead.
Nicely done, loser. Just what this country needs, more jobless workers, less factories working in the USA, more foreign dependance and replaceing a product that has worked well for 100 yrs with a more expensive product that uses hazaardous materials, that doesn't work as well as the original. I'm amazed how much damage this boy has done to the nation, in such a short period of time.
I guess we are going to have to go back to oil lamps...LOL!
Edison’s and Ford’s Winter homes are just down the street here in Ft Myers, I wonder if they’ll try and get the last US made bulb for the museum. See Kids, one time in America we used to make things. Now we leave jobs like that for the Chinese, that way America stays green. You know what green is, it’s the color American money used to be.
You obviously need to go to a re-education camp, and watch Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" a half-dozen times. Critical thinking, logic and rationale have nothing to do with this - it's all about how you feel about saving the planet. Now, appologize for asking an intelligent question.
< /sarcam from me; but I think Jughead would actually mean it>
From the EPA:
Why use CFLs if they contain mercury?
Small amounts of mercury can be released into the environment when CFLs break, or if they are improperly disposed of at the end of their useful lives. The total amount of mercury that could be released into the environment through breakage and improper disposal, however, is small compared to the amount of mercury that doesn't get released into the environment because Americans are choosing energy-efficient CFLs, reducing demand for electricity.
Yet the EPA just issued on July 2010. Final Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) for Elemental Mercury Used in Flow Meters, Natural Gas Manometers, and Pyrometers .
Guess a few flow meters with mercury is bad, billions of CFLs with mercury is good!
Do CFLs work in an oven, or freezer?
I'm a senior, so I sort of sat back and calculated the years left that I'll need light. Figured it out with a 20% margin. I know how many light bulbs I buy a year, easy math. And in my attic, there is my "stash" of REAL light bulbs. It is surprisingly not a large amount. They key was getting some of the different sizes you need, 3-ways, etc. I refuse to let this government ERROR change my life... and on my Jeep is the following bumper sticker:
You can get them at the WND Superstore, that's where I got mine.
You gotta be frickin kidding me
Maybe I will open up a factory then if the big guys are gonna be wusses about it. I can’t stand those stupid twisty bulbs and I don’t want to “recycle” them and I like
You know when I was house hunting, I went in the basement of this 150 yr old house and darned if there wasn’t an ANCIENT lightbulb with clear glass still working....YOU KNOW they can make them last forever, they just WON’T.
It was “W” that started the ban on incandescents.
Jugears definitely isn’t opposed, but he didn’t start the fire.
“According to the U.S. Department of Energy, CLs last up to 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, while using about one-fourth the amount of energy.”
I haven’t used one yet but I bet it is with 1/4th the light as well.
***************
My leftie wife insists on using them, and we have an ongoing lightbulb war. Since I am taller most of the lights are the old incandescents.
The new worm lights have a dingy, dull, obnoxious glow, and there is soimething irritating about them similar to flourescent lights. They do not last much longer than the much cheaper incandescent lights, and they have no effect on the utility bill that I can see.
Government instructs, ergo it lies.
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