Free Republic

A compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) is to blame for an accidental electrical fire in Hornell Wednesday morning, said Steuben County Fire Investigator Joe Gerych. “Those are the lights everybody’s been telling us to use,” he said. “It blew up like a bomb. It spattered all over.” A CFL on the ceiling burst, said Gerych, and gas inside the CFL bulb helped start the fire. He added exploding CFLs are rare. The North Hornell Fire Department responded to a call from the McNeill residence, 7185 N. Main St. Ext., Hornellsville, a little before 7 a.m. Wednesday, said North Hornell Fire...

If we want to continue to enjoy the bright, warm light that Thomas Edison's incandescent bulb radiates, Congress will have to repeal Subtitle B of Title III of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Environmental "standards" will start eliminating 276 versions of incandescent light bulbs in 2012, and the drop-dead date for our favorite 100-watt light bulb is just one year away. Then, we will be able to buy only more expensive but allegedly more energy-efficient lighting products such as compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) that are supposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and force us to do our...

Say goodbye to your 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. On Jan. 1, it’ll become increasingly challenging to find one on a store shelf in California. That’s because the state has ordered a phaseout of the high energy-consuming light bulb. The state is pressing to have the old incandescents replaced with newer, more efficient bulbs, such as compact fluorescents, halogens and light-emitting diode light bulbs, or LEDs. And beginning in 2012, 100-watt incandescents will be off the shelves completely. As is typical, California is getting a jump-start on a trend that will begin nationwide in a few years. Three years ago, the...

Republican Co-Author of Incandescent-Bulb Ban Seeks Chair of House Energy Committee Monday, November 08, 2010 By Matt Cover Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) seeks the chairmanship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee (CNSNews.com) – Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) may have some explaining to do to fellow GOP colleagues as he seeks the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, given the incoming wave of new conservatives who may not appreciate some aspects of Upton's voting record. Upton joined with Rep. Jane Harman (D.-Calif.) in 2007 to co-author the legislation that effectively banned indoor incandescent light bulbs in the...

So, are you ready to comply with the federal government's ban on incandescent light bulbs? Me neither. Starting in January 2012, a little over a year from now, the phase-out begins. Simple, inexpensive lighting will become a time-capsule item. Compact-fluorescent lights, or CFLs - the bulbs that look like a twisted ice-cream cone (and won't fit in many light fixtures where space is tight) - will become the new norm. Anyone who has priced CFLs knows they're not cheap. Supposedly they're worth the extra money because they'll last longer. That's cold comfort, though, given the dull, unnatural glow that these...

The Cambridge Energy Alliance is going door to door in North Cambridge, Massachusetts next month, handing out free compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) in return for "inefficient incandescent bulbs." Well, they're not actually free. The Cambridge Energy Alliance is "sponsored  by the City of Cambridge," so I guess that Cambridge taxpayers are footing the bill. The event is part of Bill McKibben's 350.org "global work party" on October 10, 2010, which is a really excellent date because you can write it as "10/10/10." CFLs use around 30% of the energy of an incandescent bulb, and everyone should switch over,...

Eco-Extremism: A light bulb factory closes in Virginia as mandated fluorescents are made in China. It's now a crime to make or ship for sale 75-watt incandescent bulbs in the European Union. Welcome to green hell. Thomas Alva Edison was a genius credited with the invention of many things — the phonograph, the motion picture, the incandescent light bulb, global warming. That last credit was given by those who rank light bulbs right up there with the internal combustion engine as ravagers of the planet. The General Electric light bulb factory in Winchester, Va., closed this month, a victim, along...

Dengue fever has infected a handful of people in Central Florida, health officials said. “This is not a regular flu virus that you get, you feel a lot worse,” said Dr. Todd Husty. “You get a real great fever, a horrible fever; it's called ‘break bone fever.’ You feel like your bones are breaking, but it's really joint pain,” Husty said. Health officials said more than a dozen people have picked up the virus from Mosquitoes in the Keys. More than 30 more across the state of Florida have the fever after picking it up out of the country.

Paul Krugman recently declared that our real economics problem is this: "What's limiting employment now is lack of demand for the things workers produce." Not surprisingly, this issue has been thrown about in socialist literature for more than a century. The idea that an economy operates only if workers are paid "enough to buy back the product" is an important assumption behind Marxism. Keynesians have embraced this fallacy, and the pursuit of solutions based on "buy back the product" is the main reason our economy today is in crisis and will remain so for years to come. It has been...

Venezuela has been suffering through its worst energy crisis in the last 50 years. President Hugo Chavez’s solution? Change all the light bulbs! Well, that might not be the only action the country is taking (they’ve also put electricity rationing into effect) but an army of Venezuelan soldiers has been given direct orders from the president to distribute thousands of Firefly energy-efficient CFL bulbs. In terms of slashing electricity use, it doesn’t help that Venezuelans are the highest energy consumers per capita in Latin America. In fact, state run electricity company Corpoelec says Venezuelans use more than 1,000 kilowatt hours...

The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) issued long-awaited waivers for several lighting products from the Buy American requirements that apply to manufactured goods to be used in projects funded by EERE under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the “Recovery Act”). The EERE document, includes a waiver for screw-base and pin-base compact fluorescent lamps (with the exception of pin-based CFLs longer than 10 inches). The waiver excludes the plug-in CFLs longer than 10 inches since these products are made in the U.S. EERE agreed with the lamp industry and determined that CFLs...

Much has been made recently about the supposed economic recovery. A few blips in a few statistics and many believe our troubles are all over. Of course, they have to redefine recovery as “jobless” to account for the lack of improvement on Main Street. But the banks have money, Wall Street is chugging along, and the administration would like to get on with other agendae. They have even set up a commission to investigate the crisis as if it were all in the past. The truth is that Americans are still losing jobs, the Fed is still inflating, and more...

As we start the new year 2010, the establishment politicians, economists and Wall Street are trying to convince themselves that we have turned the corner and economic growth has once again begun. The predictions that conditions are getting back to normal come from those who never saw the crisis coming and don't have the vaguest notion what caused it. Some of them concede that it could be a jobless recovery. That will establish a new definition for a recovery. Official unemployment is at 10% but even the government knows that if everyone is counted, including those individuals that are too...

Having been among the economic engines of Europe for much of the past decade, it appears as if the British economy has run out of steam. Inflation is rising while bankruptcies and unemployment continue to swell. It is a problem that would have left Lord Keynes' head spinning. In many ways, the responses of the U.S. and U.K. governments to the financial crisis have been very similar. So far, the American advantages in size and reserve currency status have allowed us to avoid the storm-clouds now descending upon Britain. But these advantages only provide a temporary respite. In the meantime,...

In its recent look back on the first ten years of the century, Time Magazine proclaimed the period to be "the decade from hell." The editors made their case based on what they saw as the signature events of the last ten years, notably the ravages of terrorism, failed wars, and a global financial crisis. Taken together, these factors produced an era that Time is convinced will be remembered as one of the low points in our history. As the media hates to dwell on the negative, the commentary was rife with notes of optimism about pending recovery. It could...

This talk was originally delivered to a Campaign of Liberty chapter on December 3, 2009. Video will be available shortly. Today President Obama will tour Allentown, Pennsylvania, in my home congressional district as part of a "Main Street Tour" to show his concern for economic plight of the masses. Many of the people I have spoken with while campaigning innately realize that government is at fault — or at least complain a lot about how the government should "fix" the economy. Unfortunately, many do not have enough of a grasp of economics to understand exactly how the government is ruining...

It was one of the more bizarre scenes one will see in professional sports. The Saskatchewan Roughriders were in full party mode, galloping onto the field to celebrate the franchise’s second Grey Cup win in three seasons after Montreal’s Damon Duval missed a 43-yard field-goal attempt that would have won the game for the heavily-favoured Alouettes. But the Riders’ celebration stopped colder than a Regina winter night when the players suddenly noticed a red flag lying under the goalpost, followed by the announcement that Saskatchewan had lined up with too many men on the field. That gave Duval another shot...

Upset about FirstEnergy's pricey, hand-delivered light bulbs? You ain't seen nothing yetBy Kevin OBrien October 08, 2009, 3:59AM There was a time when you and I could be trusted to change a light bulb. In those days, powerful people who made weighty decisions understood that if a light bulb burned out, even the dimmest of us common folk would know enough to remove it from its socket, choose a suitable replacement and install it. Apparently all of the weighty decisions have been made, because powerful people have now worked their way down to telling us what kind of light bulb...

The central bank doesn't need more political interference as it decides when to move against inflation. BY ANIL K. KASHYAP and FREDERIC S. MISHKIN Under the banner of increasing Federal Reserve transparency, Congressman Ron Paul has sponsored a bill that would subject the Fed's monetary policies to an audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The bill is a veiled attempt to undermine the Fed's independence. If it passes, it will cripple policy making—particularly when it comes to inflation. It is completely appropriate to hold the Fed accountable for its decisions. But the Paul bill, H.R. 1207, will only produce...

Last week a new bill was introduced in the Senate to audit the Federal Reserve. Some backers of my bill HR1207 and the existing Senate companion bill S.604 were a little miffed at this, but depending on how you think about it, this new legislation poses no great threat to our efforts. With the economy in shambles, people are looking for answers - not just because of lost savings on Wall Street, but because of lost houses on Main Street. Because of the many problems we face, the Federal Reserve and its powers over the economy have come under scrutiny....