Incandescent Bulbs Get Reprieve In Budget Deal

by JASmius

It is, admittedly, not much of a silver lining inside this darkly profligate budgetary cloud, but at least it's something:

The federal government is backing off pressure on consumers to dump their incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy efficient bulbs.

The massive new $1.1 trillion budget deal, expected to pass both chambers this week, prevents the Department of Energy from spending any money to enforce the new tougher efficiency standards for light bulbs, which went into effect on January 1, according to USA Today.

The move is likely to slow down the phasing-out of the old-style bulbs, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2007 after a bipartisan vote.

The feds, in short, have been denied the funding to be obnoxious about this buttinsky busy-bodying.  The incandescent bulb ban is still in place, and the old bulbs are becoming harder and harder to come by anyway.  House Republicans have attempted numerous times to repeal the ban, not surprisingly without success, so this is the best they can do.  Call it "defunding".

Now we'll see how important this initiative is to the Dems.  My guess is not enough to pass up the slaying of the Sequester and the additional $65 billion in discretionary spending.  But then it doesn't matter all that much anyway, since we can count on the EPA to just re-direct a portion of its appropriation to fund anti-incandescent enforcement no matter what Congress passes.

You know what we need?  A Democrat Party ban, accompanied by pelting them with light bulbs of whatever provenance.  If we have to give up the Sequester, we ought at least get our money's worth.