Environmental Law

The fluorescent bulb-a dimmer future than first thought?

By STEPHEN HOLZER

              Beginning January 1 of this year, California began phasing out the traditional incandescent light bulb in favor of the fluorescent.  However, according to Dailytech.com, "[a] multi-million dollar program by the state designed to evaluate the actual results has concluded that energy savings were not as good as expected and that utilities were being over-rewarded for their performance."  See http://www.dailytech.com/Calif+Discovers+Fluorescent+Lightbulbs+Burning+Out+Faster+Than+Predicted/article20741.htm.  Pacific Gas & electric, for instance, has cut the estimated life of the fluorescent bulb from an original estimate of 9.3 years to 6.3 years.

            The disappointing performance of fluorescent bulbs comes after the State has spent over $540 million in promoting the bulbs by giving bonuses to manufacturers and energy providers that enacted rebate programs for consumer purchases of the bulbs.  So the big energy companies are pretty happy with the program, no matter the shortcomings of the technology.

            As for happy manufacturers, Dailytech.com points out: "The transition is a win for ...China.  Chinese manufacturers produced the vast majority of the 100 million CFLs installed in California since 2006."

This is also from my column in the Valley News Group of papers (see immediately preceding post).

Full post as published by Environmental Legal Blogs on February 11, 2011 (boomark / email).