On 6/15/2011 9:31 PM, Jeff M wrote:

It’s as though, to spur innovation and encourage Americans to lose
weight, Washington had decreed that no beer shall contain more than 8
calories an ounce. That wouldn’t technically be a ban on traditional
brews, but nobody but a pedant or a flack would call it anything else.

"8 calories an ounce" is about what's in a Bud Light, but the analogy is
weak because, first, the many exemptions for specialty bulbs, and
second, because, unlike perhaps certain "traditional brews," there are
fully satisfactory alternatives to incandescent bulbs already available.
In fact, most users find that LEDs actually provide superior
illumination quite apart from other considerations, and prefer them to
incandescent bulbs. Finally, if there's still a market for incandescent
bulbs for general illumination after the law is fully implemented, all
the maufacturers need to do is increase their efficiency about 25-30%
and they can sell all they want.

However, LED
technology, with its drastically greater efficiency, is currently the
easiest way for manufacturers to meet the new energy conservation
requirement. Some current incandescent bulbs, particularly the
special-purpose types, are exempt.

Colored incandescent lamps are okay, but the white ones are banned.
Reverse discrimination as well as crony capitalism.

Not quite - low wattage, high wattage, 3-way, rough service, appliance
and other specialty incandescent bulbs, including white ones, are also
exempted, IIRC.


These guys can't see beyond the end of their own noses. All they care
about is themselves. They don't want anyone to tell them anything or to
deny them anything. They're libertarians, meaning they're goofballs.
They never see the big picture just how they're affected personally. We
want incandescent bulbs like when we were little kids and we never want
that changed. That's their thinking. The idea that energy conservation
is something good for the country is beyond their understanding. They
used to call my generation the "me" generation. They were wrong. It's
the libertarians who should get that label because nothing matters
except them.

Hawke