In the US, battle of the bulbs far from over

The good news for US energy efficiency is that an effort to repeal legislation mandating more efficient light bulbs failed this week in a vote in the House of Representatives.

The bad news is that, had the repeal effort not required a two-thirds majority, the measure would have passed … at least in the House.

The vote on the “Better Use of Light Bulbs Act” was 233 in favor, 193 against, with one representative voting present and four not voting. While the bill received a majority vote of approval — mostly from Republicans — it fell short of the two-thirds needed to pass as an expedited piece of legislation.

The proposal sponsored by Texas GOP Rep. Joe Barton would have repealed parts of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which was signed into law by then-President George W. Bush. The targeted parts of the 2007 act call for light bulbs to be more efficient than they are today — 25 to 30 percent more efficient starting in 2012, and 65 percent more by 2020 — and does not “outlaw” incandescent light bulbs as some “BULB Act” proponents suggest. In a political atmosphere in which every stand is viewed through a highly polarized lens, though, light bulbs have become not a source of illumination or a consumer of electricity, but a litmus test. And so a bill signed just a few short years ago by a Republican president is now cast as yet another Big Government infringement on a citizen’s right to waste energy and carbon as much as he or she chooses.

While anti-efficiency pols lost this battle, they’re not yet ready to concede the war. Another bill targeting efficient light bulb standards is still waiting in the wings in Washington, and some states — Texas among them — are looking at ways to protect old-fashioned incandescents that are manufactured within their borders. Such silly actions don’t bode well for a future that needs all the smarts (technology and otherwise) it can get.