Last December, Congress passed and the president signed “The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007”, as Public Law 110-140. This huge bill provides for just about everything but what’s contained in its title. One particular item of interest is the plan to do away with the light bulb—the one Edison invented. It’s my opinion that Congress has plenty of useful things to do, but banning light bulbs isn’t one of my priorities. While the legislation doesn’t mandate any particular replacement, the only thing currently available is the CFL, or Compact Fluorescent Light bulb.

From my reading of this law, the light bulb part begins in 2012 and finishes in 2014. In 2012, the 100 watt bulb will disappear from store shelves. From there the wattage goes down until all incandescent bulbs are gone along with our freedom to decide for ourselves what kind of light bulbs we want to buy. To my way of thinking, the Constitution never gave Congress this authority, not that Congress pays any attention to its obligation to follow the Constitution these days. Unless something comes along to change things, the old-fashioned light bulb goes away and the fluorescent bulb will take its place.  

The CFL has several claimed advantages. It uses less electricity and is supposed to last a lot longer. It is claimed that these bulbs will save consumers $40 billion in energy and other costs over the next 22 years.  

Representative Ted Poe (R-Texas), addressed the House of Representatives last month on the subject of CFLs and didn’t have much good to say about them. Here is an excerpt from that speech.

“Nothing in Congress seems to be easy, and that phrase is certainly true with these CFL light bulbs. These light bulbs contain mercury, so they must be disposed of in a certain way. According to EPA rules, you're supposed to take them to a local recycling center. Thanks to Congress, nothing is easy.

If you throw them out at home, you're supposed to seal the bulb in two plastic bags and place them in the outside trash; otherwise, the bulb may break and pollute the landfill, of all things.

CFLs are made of glass, so they're fragile. If one breaks it or drops it, you have to follow simple rules, thanks to Congress. And according to the EPA, here's what do you if you break one of these light bulbs, and I quote. `Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the area.' We must evacuate the room.

`Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more. Shut off the central heating and air conditioning system. Carefully scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with a metal lid. Obviously, that's readily available.

Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small grass fragments and powder.’ Of course we do have lots of duct tape in Texas, so that's no problem. But we're not through yet. `Wipe the area clean with a damp paper towel or disposable wet wipes and place them in the glass jar or plastic bag. Do not use a vacuum or a broom.’

…If you break a light bulb in a high rise where the windows don't open, will the EPA light bulb police haul us off to jail because of improper disposal procedures?  If I dropped this light bulb, we would have to evacuate the House of Representatives, according to the EPA light bulb law. Have we gone a bit too far with this nonsense?

Thanks to Congress, we're making what is simple very difficult. And besides, these light bulbs are expensive, and using them may fade photographs on the wall.

There's more to the requirements of using these. It says here, and I quote, `these light bulbs may cause interference to radios, televisions, wireless telephones and remote controls.' Now we're in trouble for Monday night football because we're going to have to turn out the lights so there's no interference with our TV.

We can also thank Congress for giving more money to China. This light bulb, it says right here, with all the warnings on it, is made in China. And Madam Speaker, they are only made in China. They're not made in the United States. We import every one of these things.

You know, over the past year we've seen Chinese pet food kill our dogs and cats; Chinese lead paint is poisoning our children, and now Chinese light bulbs that contain mercury can be harmful to our health. Doesn't this bother anybody?”

Who wants this kind of hassle over light bulbs?  Who voted for this stuff? Looking at the voting record, the ones who voted for this bill were overwhelmingly Democrats. Most Republicans, including our Congressman Ralph Hall and both of our Senators voted against it. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.