The Battle of the Bulbs

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/the-battle-of-the-bulbs/

Edison's creation of the traditional incadescent light bulb resulted in a revolution in humanities daily actions and methods. The lightbulb obviously allowed for all to be able to see in the dark, which allowed for the possibility of greater productions and prossibilities as work days and leisure hours could be extended. The regular traditional and inefficient incadescent lightbulb is still the primary choice of light-source after over a 100 years, as 3 our 4 lightbulbs in America are generally incadescent. However, there are many other more efficient and, unfortunately, more costly alternatives.

The specific relating topic I would like to bring to attention (as seen in the article) is the newly introduced Better Use of Light Bulbs Act. This piece of legislature would essentially remove the current standard of minimum efficiency for light bulbs. The reasoning behind this is that the minimum standard that was established in 2007, largely restricted the production of incadescent light bulbs and consequently cut many jobs in this sector of the United States.

The issue at hand is the conflict between producing light bulbs at a cheap production cost or rather more energy efficient and technologically advanced light bulbs at greater cost. As can be understood the perspective varies. What is your opinion on whether or not this act should be passed, and furthermore what kind of light bulbs must be produced?

I believe I would be against this act; as with the bigger picture in mind, retaining the minimum effeciency standard for light bulbs is a positive step forward in creating an environmentally friendly and long lasting human civilization. The issue is economic (as most things with green and efficient motives), as large initial investments would be necessary to construct an effective production facility and sale prices would be higher. I think removing the efficiency standard would be a step backwards and may not even compensate the job loss that was resulted in 2007. The amount of energy used by the United States (and the world) for just lighting is enormous and there can be huge savings in energy and in terms of money by making energy efficient light bulbs the standard. The long-term durability and savings can compensate for the initial higher paying price.

Thank you for your time, Cheers.