Phil Valentine, writing in The Tennessean Explores the new energy bill just signed into law and discovers an inconvenient truth, indeed. What the new law accomplishes is to make sacrifices on the altar of "environmentalism" at the cost of the people's happiness. Misery is required for the Gore crowd to be happy.
I was reminded of Rand's classic as President Bush and members of Congress recently gathered for the signing of the new energy bill. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is less about energy and more about control. The most ambitious projections by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy predict it will cut our energy consumption by a whopping 7 percent by 2030.
Yet, it forces products and standards on the American public that could not be achieved in the free market. For instance, it forces automobile manufacturers to increase average fuel economy to 35 mpg by 2020. This mandate will include light trucks, which means your pickup and SUV, heretofore exempt, will now be subject to higher mileage standards. According to J.D. Power & Associates, SUVs, pickups and minivans make up about 60 percent of auto sales. Hybrids' market share is just under 3 percent. People apparently like the safety and comfort of a larger ride, all of which will be sacrificed with higher mileage standards. But it doesn't much matter what you want.
The new bill also mandates a fivefold increase in biofuels like ethanol, which will continue to drive up the price of corn as energy and food interests compete. I drive a flex-fuel vehicle that uses ethanol. I'm all for it but, again, the market should decide, not the government.
This so-called energy bill also bans most incandescent lightbulbs by 2012. The incandescent lightbulb is replaced — by force, not by choice — with the compact fluorescent lightbulb. Right now, the market share of these CFLs is about 6 percent, and there's a reason for that. They produce dim, dull light. Roughly 94 percent of the country doesn't want them, but that doesn't matter to our nanny-state government. We're going to use them whether we like it or not.
The Tennessean has, of course, not been particularly kind to nor supportive of Tennessee's Oscar-winning son, repeatedly hammering the hypocrisy of Gorezilla's massive energy consumption as well as his interests in recreational strip-mining. The real goals behind the global warming hysteria have always been about bureaucratic control, of course. Many of us have pointed that out over and over. The UN wants control of the global means of production and the power to levy taxes. The Bali conference showed that naked ambition quite clearly. Al Gore has a vast economic stake in getting his controls forced into law – and therefore a huge conflict of interest.
“Dim and Dull”? I have a number for CFL’s and do not find them so. They work fine for me.
CFLs give me massive headaches. Can I send my aspirin bills to Al c/o the U.N.?
Did I miss the post where you switched from “altar” to “alter”? It is either some wacky spell-check thingy or an incredibly subtle play on the shifting religiousity of the Church of Global Something or Other (cooling, warming, chloro-flourocabons etc.)
Oh well, just dropped by to see what was new and wish a merry Christmas to you and yours.
Nah, I screwed that up, Uncle Pinky. Thanks for pointing that out.
As for CFLs, we installed them in our kitchen in the recessed spot fixtures. They take quite a while to get up to full light output and are simply not as bright as the old incandescent bulbs. Some CFLs are better than others, but we are definitely finding many downsides to them. Add to that the fact that the energy consumption of lighting is a minuscule fraction of the average home’s energy bill and you get a “solution” that solves nothing whatsoever.
CFLs: I have one that has been running 24/7 om my porch for the last 4 or 5 yrs. It does seem dimmer than it used to be and if you shut it off, it is most definitely dimmer on the restart. The newer CFLs I have in the rest of the house are considerably brighter than the incandescent bulbs they replaced, and they are not dim when you turn them on. I have a total of nine CFLs running at present, but I had two burn out almost as soon as they were installed. Nearly a 20% failure rate. Whether that is par for the course or a statistical anomally, I know not. The others have all lasted and that is what I like best. Seems like light bulbs only last 3 or 4 weeks for me. Having said all that, I agree that the customer should be allowed to choose his lighting source. The government shouldn’t be doing the choosing for him.
I have recessed lights on dimmers throughout my house. I would love to save money and the world. I went and purchased CFLs of comparable lumens. They did not work properly on a dimmer. So I put them in my basement where they take minutes to light up because it’s cool. I then saw a CFL sold at Home Depot for nearly $20 that specifically advertised “works off a dimmer”. I bought nearly $100 worth and got the ladder and installed them. They did not work and buzzed loudly. I have high quality dimmer switches, so I went back to Home Depot to return them as I didn’t want $100 worth of bulbs in my basement.
Home Depot initially didn’t want to take them back, but I told them that they were guilty of false advertising. Now the bulbs are sitting in a landfill somewhere polluting the Earth.
Incandescent lightbulbs have a great shelf life so stock up.
I have a couple CFL for things like hallway lighting. Cant say I’ve seen any reduction in my electric bills. They take awhile to reach full brightness, and it certainly isn’t as nice a light. Yeah, I guess I can spend a couple hundred dollars on enough incandescents so I can at least read in the evenings without eyestrain.
All I can say is thank God our inconvenieneces are helping Algore live his McMansion lifestyle.