Weiye Loh's Library tagged Green Energy →  View Popular, Search in Google

The lighting industry has been gearing up since 2007 -- when the  standards were originally enacted -- to make light bulbs that meet the  requirements.
 
 All five of the major light bulb manufacturers are already selling  new incandescent bulbs that give off the same amount of light as a  traditional 100-watt bulb using about 30 percent less energy. And while  they are not planning to pull those bulbs from the shelves if the  controversial language is enacted, they are faced with numerous  questions moving forward.
 
 "Eliminating funding for light bulb efficiency standards is  especially poor policy as it would leave the policy in place but make it  impossible to enforce, undercutting domestic manufacturers who have  invested millions of dollars in U.S. plants to make new incandescent  bulbs that meet the standards," a group of dozens of lighting  manufacturers, efficiency groups and environmentalists said in a letter  yesterday to senators.

 "In the real world, outside talk radio's echo chamber, lighting  manufacturers such as GE, Philips and Sylvania have tooled up to produce  new incandescent light bulbs that look and operate exactly the same as  old incandescent bulbs and give off just as much warm light,"  Republicans for Environmental Protection Policy Director Jim DiPeso said  in a statement. "The only different is they produce less excess heat  and are therefore 30 percent more efficient. What's not to like?"
 
 Blocking the standards effectively serves as a slap in the face to  light bulb manufacturers, who have been working since 2007 to produce  the new bulbs.