Tea Party 0, Rational Policy 1 (energy efficiency standards for light bulbs)

[pampango]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/tea-party-0-rational-policy-1/2011/07/12/gIQAkNQTBI_blog.html

The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to keep energy efficiency standards for light bulbs, which passed in 2007 and are set to phase in beginning next year.

The Natural Resources Defense Council calculates that these light bulb efficiency standards will eventually save Americans $12.5 billion a year in lower energy bills, reducing consumption by the equivalent of the output of 33 large power plants and slashing greenhouse and other pollution along the way. Newer bulbs are more expensive than the old clunkers, but often not by much, and they more than pay for themselves in decreased energy use.

Not that you'd know it from the hysterics of some Republicans leading up to the vote. Congress, they insisted, is banning the incandescent light bulb . It wants to force you to buy unattractive and maybe even dangerous compact fluorescent bulbs instead. And, perhaps the most amazing claim of all: Buying new bulbs won't save any energy .

Sure, government mandates aren't always the best ways to accomplish policy goals; the collective wisdom of consumers facing the right incentives can drive technological change in the most efficient direction. But Republicans are against that policy, too, ruling out the carbon taxes or cap-and-trade programs that would build some of the social costs of pollution into electricity prices. And Congress's light bulb efficiency standards just aren't outrageous, anyway.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Slippery Slope!!11!!!11 Next thing you know it'll be seatbelts, or having to brush our teeth!!!11!!

Damgum gubmint!

:P