The Trump administration is scrapping new standards for more efficient lightbulbs.
It’s the latest action in President Trump’s determined drive to undercut regulations aimed at curbing global warming and climate change.
Opponents of the president weren’t having it.
“With all that’s at stake in the world, the Trump administration has chosen to declare war on energy-efficient light bulbs,” said California’s outspoken attorney general, Xavier Becerra.
“This is but another dim-witted move that will waste energy at the expense of our people and planet,” Becerra said.
The new rules were set to take effect in January 2020 and the following year, gradually phasing out incandescent and halogen bulbs, NPR reports, in favor of energy-saving bulbs like LEDs (light-emitting diodes), which use one-fifth of the energy.
As is so often under Trump, the rules being scrapped were finalized under Barack Obama, although they were originally proposed by the George W. Bush administration.
The rollback was supported — and celebrated — by the dwindling number of companies that still make the less-efficient bulbs.
The Energy Department insists the new rules are “not consistent” with the law, and dropping them will give consumers more choice. Others are unconvinced, to say the least.
“The Trump administration has set about eliminating rules that reduce pollution from coal-fired power plants, vehicles and oil drilling operations. The new front in this crusade, involving the humble lightbulb, has sparked a fresh outcry from opponents,” says the Guardian.
The savings from switching exclusively to LEDs and other efficient bulbs would be huge.
“Eliminating inefficient bulbs nationwide would save electricity equivalent to the output of at least 25 large power plants, enough to power all homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania,” says the New York Times, citing an estimate by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The rules change is consistent with Trump’s dismissal of human-caused climate change.
The president “has repeatedly dismissed the scientific consensus that climate change is caused by human activity and requires urgent action to avoid its most dire effects, even as government scientists have warned about the damage that global warming is already causing the United States’ economy,” the Times says.
Ironically, the nation’s growing acceptance of efficient lighting is what the Times calls “one of the largtely unsung success stories” in the effort to combat climate change.
“Energy consumption in American homes had been on the rise for decades,” the Times says. “But that has reversed significantly in recent years, thanks in part to the growing acceptance of technologies like LED bulbs and compact fluorescents.”
One reason for that acceptance: it saves consumers money — perhaps $50 to $100 over the lifetime of a single LED.
Naturally, the matter seems certain to end up in court.
Noting that energy-wasting incandescents and halogens still account for more than a third of new lightbulb sales, Noah Horowitz, director of the Center for Energy Efficiency Standards at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said: “We will explore all options, including litigation, to stop this completely misguided and unlawful action.”
