Posted on 12/16/2011 8:29:47 AM PST by CedarDave
As part of last night's omnibus budget bill which prevented government shutdown, Republicans won a small victory: they suspended the incandescent light bulb ban. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle bowed to widespread public pressure, as the American people made it clear they weren't interested in this literal government intrusion into their livingrooms.
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.
The 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
I do my damnedest to find any brand other than GE.
As good as this news is, the last manufacturing facility of incandescent light bulbs in the U.S. (a GE plant in Winchester, VA) was closed this past year in anticipation of this ban going into effect. About 150 manufacturing jobs went away.
That’s right. This is no victory. If it were, the RATs never would have let it into the bill. I’m glad I stocked up...big time...enough for family and friends if they want them.
I'd kind of hoped to make a killing off those in preparation for the End of the Universe in December 2012, but nobody's buying. Must be one of those "can't eat MREs after the world ends anyway, think I'll buy booze instead" kind of things.
Exactly. Too little, too late (by design).
But since they didn't do a damn thing about the coal plant shut downs, or the Gulf drilling ban, or the XL pipeline suspension there will be no way to power these bulbs.
They all suck! They ALL MUST GO!
Are they still climing the nonexistent authority to ban or restrict this product, and just CHOOSING not to do so (yet)?
Are they still climing the nonexistent authority to ban or restrict this product, and just CHOOSING not to do so (yet)?
Perfect quote. Thanks.
Except of course GE has moved off shore and closed it’s incandescent factory in the US (with the exception of light bulbs that meet the EPA standards set by the 2007 law). You cannot find a 100W incandescent save for the multi wattage version ( which I use proudly). This is one of those that looks pretty but is nothing more than sound and fury signifying nothing.
I’d like to amend your very apt question:
“How did THE REPUBLICAN SOURCE OF THIS FOOLISHNESS Fred Upton vote?”
“The Tea party is in full retreat”....???
What you smokin?
Not to look a Gift Horse in the mouth, but a PERMANENT cancellation of this silly regulation would have been far more reassuring.
yay. The Democrats win the lottery, and the Republicans got the “moral victory” of getting the spare change the Democrats took from us given back. meh.
At almost the same time, the Republicans gave away both the 4th Amendment and Posse Comitatus. So at least we can have incandescent light bulbs in our homes as soldiers break through our doors and keep us in detention without arrest, indictment or trial. At least for what, another year?
I bet they use mercury bulbs in the detention centers, anyway.
Face it, that no matter the intentions of W. Bush, almost all the Patriot Act has been used for is to oppress honest American citizens, not fight terrorists. At this rate, living under Sharia Law will look freer than living in secular America.
And the Republicans are showing no signs of stopping anything the Democrats want to do, because the leadership AGREES with everything the Democrats are doing.
This is irrelevant. The US factories that used to manufacture them have been shut down for years. Only 2nd and 3rd tier overseas manufacturers actually manufacture incandescent bulbs anymore, and quality and reliability have plummeted.
Republicans didn’t win anything here.
Republicans were the source of this stupidity. As CrippleCreek points out for those in the know, Fred Upton, R-MI, was the sponsor of the legislation that banned 100W incandescent light bulbs from sale in the US.
Upton, moron that he is, attempted to reverse the ban this year, when it became abundantly clear that voters were furious about this meddling nonsense. He failed.
So now we’re left with the results of a law that people hold in contempt.
This is why the Republicans should be run out of DC at bayonet point... directly following the Democrats.
BUT, I bet you got a huge discount !
Keystone XL was approved in the house, still has to be debated in the senate and will be opposed by Obama. He is choosing environmentalists over unions in a gamble that he has the union vote no matter what, but greens would abandon him if he approves the project (which he will do anyway after the election).
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