PrintTrump gives us back our light bulbs
Score another million votes for President Trump in the coming 2020 election.
The president has gotten rid of a despicable little micromanaging regulation left over from the Obama era, restoring the citizens' right to buy the light bulbs that fit their preferences and needs. According to The Hill:
“Today the Trump Administration chose to protect consumer choice by ensuring that the American people do not pay the price for unnecessary overregulation from the federal government,” Brouillette said in a statement. “Innovation and technology are already driving progress, increasing the efficiency and affordability of light bulbs, without federal government intervention. The American people will continue to have a choice on how they light their homes.”
Blocking the standards flies in the face of congressional intent, critics say, citing a 2007 act signed into law by President George W. Bush that requires all everyday bulbs to use 65 percent less energy than regular incandescent bulbs, which currently constitute about half of the bulb market.
How the swamp harrumphed! And it certainly was the first time ever that they have defended President Bush. Here are some choice headlines from the offended:
DOE announces another lightbulb efficiency rollback -The Hill
Trump Administration Blocks Energy Efficiency Rule for Light Bulbs - New York Times
The Trump administration just overturned a ban on old-fashioned lightbulbs -Washington Post
Trump admin blocks expanded rules against inefficient lightbulbs -Engadget
Trump not only gave us what we wanted, which was nice luminous lightbulbs, which had outrageously been banned, he also trolled the left in the wake of it - expressing his disdain for how certain light bulbs make him look orange, something that will get the rabid left hopping.
It was very much the right move, given that the supposedly energy efficient bulbs aren't significantly more energy efficient than others, and they give off ugly light to boot. What's more, the cost per unit is the same, so if people want to pay more for nicer light, they can do that, it could cost more, but that is a buyer's choice. The market has its ways of sorting these things out. Lastly, why the heck is the world's largest energy producer and exporter worrying about energy conservation on a micro level like it's still the Jimmy Carter sweater era? George Bush let Hugo Chavez, the Saudis and the Russians run circles around him on energy petrotyranny. Those guys knew the U.S. was energy import-dependent at the time. It's not any more. But still the mentality of scarcity persists.
Way back in 2011, when the Bush-era nanny-state measure was first enacted, Virginia Postrel, then at Bloomberg (she might still be) wrote this brilliant piece on how stupid and immoral the whole thing was. She began:
If you want to know why so many Americans feel alienated from their government, you need only go to Target and check out the light bulb aisle. Instead of the cheap commodities of yesteryear, you’ll find what looks like evidence of a flourishing, technology-driven economy.
There are “ultrasoft” bulbs promising “softer soft white longer life” light, domed halogens for “bright crisp light” and row upon row of Energy Smart bulbs -- some curled in the by-now-familiar compact fluorescent form, some with translucent shells that reveal only hints of the twisting tubes within.
… the activists offended by the public’s presumed wastefulness took a more direct approach. They joined forces with the big bulb producers, who had an interest in replacing low-margin commodities with high-margin specialty wares, and, with help from Congress and President George W. Bush, banned the bulbs people prefer.
It was an inside job. Neither ordinary consumers nor even organized interior designers had a say. Lawmakers buried the ban in the 300-plus pages of the 2007 energy bill, and very few talked about it in public. It was crony capitalism with a touch of green.
Trump understood exactly what was going on as she did. And yes, this is something that directly impacts people's lives, so guess what? He's going to win votes.
What's cool about this is that it's not the only creepy little nanny-state regulation from the left that he's going to get rid of for us. He's broadly hinted that flush-toilets are next, those awful kind that requires some users to flush four times, given the absence of water use they permit to get the job done.
There are so many others that have made our lives poorer, less comfortable, and more third-worldy - plastic straw bans, styrofoam container bans, recycling requirements which are bad, not good, for the environment, automobile gas mileage requirements based on technology that doesn't exist, bacteria-filled recycle bag requirements over disposable bags at the groceries in some states which are unhealthy as heck.
They're all outrageous regulations cooked up by the Tom-Steyer greenie-left, promoting virtue-signaling and saving the earth but in reality, just schemes to keep the proles in their places so that the billionaires can jet around without competition and maintain those 'unspoiled' ski slopes and coastal properties. Keeping the proles in their place through high costs is a big scam to and they're banking on the proles never suspecting the actual game going on, no light bulbs, so to speak, going on -- a plan to take away their comforts and freedoms, particularly the freedom to have money, so that billionaires can feel exclusive again. Guys like Steyer don't like poor people having money or comforts because it reduces the status of their own exclusive comforts. Who's going to be impressed with a billionaire if everyone else out there has the same stuff?
Trump just stomped for us a little Steyer - and that entire sleazebag nanny-state industrial complex seen on the richie left that wants to steal our salt shakers (as Michael Bloomberg does) and regulate for us every last move of our lives.
Thanks, President Trump.
Image credit: Photo illustration by Monica Showalter from public domain sources
