EU countries to phase out standard light bulbs

An EU-wide transition of power-draining light bulbs to more energy efficient ones will start Tuesday, the European Commission said.

[Here We Go Again]

They want to outlaw incandescent light bulbs here in the US too to allegedly curb greenhouse gases but look at what an incandescent light bulb is and what it consists of.

Glass (sand or recycled glass) aluminum, ceramic, brass, a touch of solder and tungsten.

First off, in anticipation of a ban on incandescent light bulbs, I would be selling off most of my tungsten stock.

Supposedly as of today, April 1st 2009, incandescent light bulbs are banned in England for home use.

An incandescent light bulb is a vacuum. It does not contain any greenhouse gasses. It's a void air space. So is a television tube or a CRT computer monitor or any other cathode ray tube.

A florescent light bulb or compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) is not a vacuum, it is a pressurized space containing greenhouse gasses, one of them being mercury, the other being argon and the powder coating inside the bulb is phosphorus.

Also a CFL is hazardous waste and is illegal to toss it in the trash. OH!

This is all about energy conservation and reduced greenhouse gasses produced by coal burning power plants that supply incandescent bulbs but there really is no "savings" on the customer side because when trillions of incandescent bulbs become illegal and are replaced with trillions of CFL's this drives down power company profits en masse in a huge way because they use far less electricity and results in higher rates to compensate for lack of corporate profit thus only shafting the consumer.

Plus, since it is illegal to toss a CFL into the trash and is by Federal law labeled as hazardous waste WE CAN ONLY ANTICIPATE A MASSIVE TAX ON THE AMERICAN CONSUMER TO COVER THAT DISPOSAL, but no one is talking about that.

So between higher rates for electricity and a massive disposal tax on this waste (it's only a matter of time as it will probably appear in the UK first since they are leading the way in the global incandescent light bulb ban) we can see that this doesn't look like it's about global warming, it is about bleeding Americans dry of their money.

In the US the incandescent bulb is banned in 2012 and "phased out" by 2014.

[Professor Walton Cermack]

I applaud your research and well-written commentary. May we see more. Thank you!

[Earthling]

A couple of corrections to post #1.
As from today, Sept 2nd 2009,(not April 1st) production of incandescent bulbs of 100 watts has ceased in the UK and most of the EU.
Production of incandescent bulbs over 100 watts was curtailed a while ago in the UK.
Incandescents below 100w are still being produced, but will be phased out in the near future.

There is no, "ban" on home use or sale of existing tungsten bulbs.

As for loss of revenue by power stations, I doubt very much if tungsten light bulbs are the biggest drawers of power or that power companies will even notice the changeover.