Good news, the US to switch to efficient light bulbs too
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on December 27, 2007
Saving energy is preferable to producing more of it, even if it is 100% green. Politicians have recently got the message and earlier this year EU leaders decided to follow Australia’s lead and stop the sale of incandescent light bulbs by 2010. Now the new US energy bill makes a similar move and 2012 will be the date after which consumers will only have access to more efficient incandescent or new technology bulbs of the fluorescent type. The news is more than welcome since the EU and US are the largest energy consumers worldwide with a combined population of 800 million consumers. The race is on of course for even more efficient LED lighting, a technology promising further efficiency gains.
Link: New York Times
dave said
One worry about the widespread use of Compact Fluorescents is that they contain small amounts of mercury but becauseCFLs use less energy than their incandescent counterparts, compact fluorescents are responsible for less mercury contamination than the incandescent bulbs they replaced, What do you mean you ask? I’m glad you asked. The highest source of mercury in America’s air and water results from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, from utilities that supply electricity; incandescents burn way more energy, so, on a macro level, require much more energy to be produced. When that energy comes from fossil fuels, like coal it causes more mercury to be emitted