Light bulbs in spotlight as senators lambaste US efficiency standards

The lowly light bulb came in for closer congressional scrutiny Thursday, amid claims that federal energy-efficiency standards are a dim bulb idea.

At the center of the matter is the BULB Act, legislation that has 27 cosponsors in the Senate and a companion bill in the House. It would repeal the part of a 2007 law that toughened energy-efficiency standards for light bulbs, lambasting the standard as overregulation that is paternalistic and anticonsumer.

The hearing on the legislation, like the incandescent bulb at the center of the fight, produced about 95 percent heat and 5 percent light. Even as freshman Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky, a tea party favorite, argued against the need for efficiency standards for light bulbs, the industry's representatives said the 2007 law had improved their competitiveness and created more consumer choice.

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Lighting represents about 10 percent of a typical US household’s electric bill, and new-style light bulbs that meet standards set by Congress in 2007 could save consumers nearly $6 billion in 2015, Kathleen Hogan, deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency, told the committee. One household that upgraded 15 inefficient incandescent light bulbs could save as much as $50 per year, she said.

That did not sway supporters of the Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act, who characterized their bill as a bid to throw off heavy-handed federal regulation and a government-knows-all approach, while widening consumer choice.

"You're really anti-choice on every other consumer item that you've listed here, including light bulbs, refrigerators, toilets, you name it," Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky chided Ms. Hogen. "You can't go around your house without being told what to buy. You restrict my purchases. You don't care about my choices. You don't care about the consumer, frankly. You raise the cost of all the items with all your rules, all your notions that you know what's best for me."

Senator Paul also declared that the light bulb and other efficiency standards for appliances, beside being anticonsumer choice, had sent jobs overseas.

"I find it insulting that a lot of these products you're going to make us buy – and you won't let us buy what we want to buy," he said. "These things you want us to buy are often made in foreign countries. You ship jobs overseas."

Appliance and lighting industry representatives and efficiency experts, however, testified that tougher energy-efficiency standards had prompted an industrywide retooling. That retooling, they said, created many thousands of new jobs in the US and increased consumer choice of light bulbs.

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