Americans must bid farewell to incandescent lightbulbs as a federal rule allowing manufacturers to produce and sell only LED lights comes into effect on August 1.
Under the initiative of the Biden administration, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced in April 2022 that new regulations would be applied to the lighting industry in a bid to “conserve energy and help consumers save on their energy bills.”
While the average incandescent bulb offers 12 to 18 lumens — a measure of brightness — per watt, the change enacts a new minimum standard for bulbs at 45 lumens per watt.
Consumers will only have access to energy-efficient LED bulbs from this point forward, but they can continue using any bulbs they might have purchased prior to the ban.
Although LED bulbs tend to cost a few dollars more than incandescent bulbs, the DOE said they last up to 50 times longer and consume significantly less electricity.
Moreover, according to the DOE, the change is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 222 million metric tons over the next 30 years.
“By raising energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs, we’re putting $3 billion back in the pockets of American consumers every year and substantially reducing domestic carbon emissions,” suggested U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm in the news release.
In 2007, former President George W. Bush took the first step to phase out less efficient bulbs through the Energy Independence and Security Act, requiring that household lightbulbs be approximately 25% more efficient.
Former President Barack Obama later added measures to the act that aimed to phase out incandescent bulbs, but they were blocked by his successor President Donald Trump.
“What’s with the lightbulb?” Trump asked Republican House members in 2019, according to CNN.
Noting that energy-efficient lightbulbs were “many times more expensive than that old, incandescent bulb that worked very well,” Trump added, “The bulb that we’re being forced to use, number one, to me, most importantly, I always look orange.”
Today, Republicans have considered the ban to be part of the Biden administration’s larger “regulatory assault” on home appliances, as voiced by Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), according to Forbes.
As previously reported in The Dallas Express, the DOE announced in April that new regulations on the energy efficiency of air conditioners had been passed aiming at “tackling the climate crisis.”
This and another initiative to restrict residential gas stoves over similar climate concerns have been subject to pushback from the GOP and industry heavyweights.
Criticisms surround the issue of feasibility for manufacturers and the question of consumer choice; similar arguments have arisen against the recent phase-out of incandescent light bulbs.
“The light bulb rule going into effect this summer is just another example of the Biden administration’s tidal wave of regulatory burdens crashing down on American families,” explained Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) in a statement, according to Politico.
