Battle of the Bulb Continues

An EPA rule that would have spelled the end of the classic incandescent light bulb got defanged by Congress at the 11th hour.

News4's Liz Crenshaw reported that the new standards that are set to take effect in 2011 require a minimum efficiency that the incandescent bulb does not meet.  The incandescent light bulb expends about 90 percent of the energy it uses as heat, and just ten percent actually producing light.

That standard is still in place, but in a vote Friday, members of Congress stripped funding for the rule's implementation from a 2012 water and energy spending bill.  That means Congress is allocating no money for the rule's enforcement next year, a move that would effectively nullify the new standard.

Earlier this week, conservative members of Congress made a failed attempt to write the rule out of law altogether.

Maryland Democrat said the attempts to undo the new light bulb standards is, "a political appeal to the far right wing of the Republican party," the New York Times reported.

Conservative opponents of the standards, which would effectively force consumers to purchase compact fluorescent, halogen or LED bulbs, an overreach of federal authority. 

"Now the government wants to tell consumers what type of light bulb they use to read, cook, watch television or light their garage," Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said about the issue, the AP reported.

The bill preserves the sale of light bulbs that have advanced very little from the days of their invention by Thomas Edison.  Several descendants of Edison, the AP reported, said that the inventor would be "mortified" that the nation would choose not to adopt newer technology.

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