I have always hated the “glow” bulbs.

I wonder if Albert is stocking up on the old incandescent bulbs?

There is a caveat with the flourescent bulbs; “contains mercury, please dispose of properly”..

/so then is the consumer going to risk a fine (perhaps in the future) should the bulb end up in the trash? Or will there be a haz-mat disposal such as is required for spent medical needles?

Leave it to Congress not to tell you the whole story. The fluorescent bulbs will need to be disposed of “properly” (not in your regular garbage) and here in central Iowa the Haz-Mat facility is only open limited hours during the week. Real convenient for me. So I have to stockpile the spent light bulbs, take an afternoon off to dispose of them and spend $10-$15 dollars in gas driving the 30 miles to the facility. Seems to me I’ve just negated the benefit of switching to the fluorescent bulbs.

Also, if one happens to break, will Haz-Mat come to my house to take care of the exposed mercury and will I need a Haz-Mat suit just to change a light bulb in case of breakage?

When I lived in California, I preferred CFLs for their energy savings. Now, living in “globally warmed” Ohio, I prefer incandescents for the “waste” heat they throw off!
Plus, I hate to think that every broken CFL bulb requires a toxic waste clean up!

/so then is the consumer going to risk a fine (perhaps in the future) should the bulb end up in the trash? Or will there be a haz-mat disposal such as is required for spent medical needles?
I’m stocking up on incadescent.“

And by the way, whatever is the case, this is not something Congress should have involved itself with.

Yup, pretty much.

Read up on FDR’s “court packing plan” from the 1930’s, specifically, exactly what set it off. The Supreme Court rapped his knuckles because a lot of the stuff he strong-armed through Congress intruded into intrastate commerce…a lot of the other stuff did the same, and tried to use a lot of threadbare silly logic to re-label intrastate commerce as interstate commerce.

Back then, we had loud, noisy, passionate, vibrant debates about whether legislation imposed itself on intra- or inter-state commerce. If it was found to be the former, it was unconstitutional, no ifs, ands or buts. If it had already been passed, it was unenforceable, null and void.

This is intrastate commerce. We shouldn’t even be discussing it.

And by the way, whatever is the case, this is not something Congress should have involved itself with.

still others by concerns over their mercury content.

AMEN!!! Does it make any sense to save a couple of kilowatts, and then spend millions cleaning up our land fills?? Eventually there will be 200 million American homes throwing these bulbs away, and all that mercury is going to contaminate something. This is the continued 2 dimensional thinking on the part of Congress, and I quite frankly am getting tired of their stupidity.

In other words, I’m asking Congress to actually be – hold your breath – accountable to the people

OMG NO WAY!!! Congress be accountable to the people??? Did hell just now freeze over?? This Congresswoman is stepping on some pretty big toes. I hope she survives this.

Let’s face it, our Government has become a den of idiots and fools. They ban a simple thing like a light bulb to “save energy”, but they won’t put a stop to the 66 blends of gasoline that raise our gas prices. They won’t tell the states that have special gasoline, i.e. California, Colorado, that if they want special gas, they should provide their own refineries to get their special gas, and stop wasting the American people’s dime. I would find it less intrusive if these bozos mandated geo-thermal heating in new homes, if it’s good enough for the President’s ranch, it’s good enough for everyone. But instead these door knobs ban a freekin’ light bulb. Yeah, I am glad my vote was counted. Idiots. – Lorica

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