On June 13, The Miami Herald posted a story about a law recently passed in Texas that would allow people in the state to continue to use incandescent bulbs after 2014.  The 2007 Energy Independence Act begins phasing out incandescent bulbs next year.  Oddly enough, the company that is moving forward to meet the demand for flourescent bulbs is General Electric, the favored child of the Obama Administration (rightwinggranny.com).

The law in Texas would allow incandescent bulbs to be manufactured and sold in Texas for use in Texas, therefore not being subject to federal regulation.  The compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs are expensive, do not provide as much light, and present an environmental hazard if broken. 

The article points out:

“The federal act doesn’t ban incandescent light bulbs, but it creates new standards for them, such as requiring 100-watt bulbs to be 25 percent more efficient.  After that, similar changes will go into effect for 75-, 60- and 40-watt bulbs.  The goal is to make the bulbs more energy efficient because much of the traditional bulbs’ energy leaves the bulb as heat rather than as light.

“The act requires the changes or essentially removes incandescent light bulbs from the market by 2014, leaving consumers to mostly use flourescent bulbs, which some say are more energy efficient and others say are just more expensive.”

The article also reports that Osram Sylvania stated that it has developed a more efficient incandescant bulb that will meet the new federal requirements.  Free enterprise is alive and well in America!

I believe that telling Americans what kind of light bulbs they can buy is government overreach. There is a move in Congress to repeal the 2007 Energy Independence Act, but I would not expect it to go anywhere with a Democrat Senate and a Democrat in the White House.