Democrats Force Last US Light Bulb Plant to Close Shop
Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, September 8, 2010, 10:30 AM
The radical left forced the last US light bulb plant to close its doors. From now on we will import all of green bulbs from China.
The Washington Post reported, via FOX Nation:
The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison’s innovations in the 1870s.
The remaining 200 workers at the plant here will lose their jobs.
“Now what’re we going to do?” said Toby Savolainen, 49, who like many others worked for decades at the factory, making bulbs now deemed wasteful.
During the recession, political and business leaders have held out the promise that American advances, particularly in green technology, might stem the decades-long decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs. But as the lighting industry shows, even when the government pushes companies toward environmental innovations and Americans come up with them, the manufacture of the next generation technology can still end up overseas.
What made the plant here vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014. The law will force millions of American households to switch to more efficient bulbs.
The resulting savings in energy and greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to be immense. But the move also had unintended consequences.
Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China.
For the record:
212 democrats voted for this bill. 178 Republicans voted against the bill.
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Betsy Ross commented:
Not to worry, clever democrats will soon convince the ignorant masses that is was actually Republicans who ended the era of the incandesent light bulb… just like every other unpopular political policy ever invented by the liberal mind….
Guy commented:
They won’t force me to quit using incandescent bulbs. I’ll be buying plenty of them, from whoever keeps making them, and setting them aside for the future. Incandescent bulbs have a multitude of uses, uses in which the heat they generate is beneficial. Fluorescent bulbs just don’t work in many applications, and I REFUSE to let a bunch of brainless bureaucrats run my life. Meanwhile, jobs continue to leave the country.
I can’t wait until November…..
kato commented:
Nela Park, a huge General Electric facility in Cleveland, closed a number of years ago.
The place was locally famous for its elaborate Christmas displays. People drove from many miles away to see the lighted grounds.
I wonder why they closed. We’ve got a 1930s union mentality and thousands of semiliterate blacks here in Cleveland. What more could a modern corporation want?
chuck in st paul commented:
1) non-industrial use (homes, etc.) is about 10% of electric consumption.
2) most all large industrial buildings converted to flourescent bulbs decades ago so there is no real saving to be gained there
3) These bulbs will only reduce home consumption by no more than 2% to 3% as motor loads like refridgerators, furnaces, air cons, etc. consume the greatest amount of energy.
4) for those in Rio Linda that amounts to a reduction of about 0.3 of 1% of electric energy use. How is that “immense”??
1. kill the incandescent bulb
2. ??
3. utopia [we can see unicorns from here!]
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theBuckWheat commented:
Maybe some of the laid off workers could get retraining in hazardous materials cleanup and mercury contamination remediation. At the rate we are being forced to use CFS’s we are going to need a lot of these workers.
Jim commented:
In 20 years or so, the environmental concern will be mercury from landfills. Stand by.
Kevin P commented:
I think the cock roach PAC paid off the Democrats trying to get rid of light bulbs. They got tired of scampering every time one of those pesky lights came on.
But alas, the cock roach PAC should have learned from the Unions. Only the Union bosses are rewarded – as the Democrats passed NAFTA and the workers were screwed.
The Democrats illegalized one form of light bulb, but forced another on the market – so technically they upheld their promise to the cock roach PAC while screwing them in the long run.
And what’s even worse for the cock roach PAC – is people leave these lights on all night because they use 25% of the electricity of other bulbs, but are left on 200% longer – thus using even more electricity.
So as always boys and girls, the democrats “well-intentioned” plans never consider the unintended consequences.
Don’t worry boys and girls, the democrats will be sure we use less electricty by passing yet another bill which will force brown outs.
Hey – NAACP – brown outs is NOT a racial slur.
Freddy commented:
The entire green energy industrialization is doomed to fail in the USA.
Manufacturing requires large amounts of energy. Green energy, by definition, is NOT economically competitive in a world marketplace.
Look for ALL manufacturing to LEAVE with virtually no new ‘green’ manufacturing!
Kevin P commented:
Freddy – I’m starting to think the only green manufacturing the Demoncraps have in mind is “Soilent Green”.
JKB commented:
I don’t know who is expecting this but not anyone with a brain. CFLs do not stand up to repeated on/off cycles, so you turn them on then leave them on for long periods. If they replace other types of bulbs that were left on long periods there is some savings but not for your normal household light. A 100 watt incandescent cycled over a 10 hour period for a cumulative on-time of say 1/2 hour or a 20 watt CFL turned on and left on for 10 hours, which uses more energy? Add in initial cost, manufacturing energy and completely bogus lifespan claims for CFLS?
In addition, most lighting not already replaced occurs in the evening and overnight during base-load power generation hours, no reduction in generation since base-load plants by definition can’t adjust output without huge efficiency costs.
Kevin P commented:
Sorry – Soylent Green
tarpon commented:
So now we poison the environment with mercury?
It’s liberalism, it’s all a sham.
down with dems commented:
There ARE uses for incandescent bulbs. If you turn on a CFL bulb and don’t leave it on for 15 minutes, you shorten its lifespan by turning it in and off quickly. When you go in the bathroom, you won’t usually be spending 15 minutes… you need lights on full immediately, then you shut them off within a minute or two, and that’s the perfect place for an incandescent bulb. Instead, you’ll have to use much more expensive CFL bulbs, and you won’t get to reap the energy savings because you will kill them early by switching them on and off rapidly.
This is the same bizarre logic as is used in the electric car argument. Electric cars will rely on batteries imported from China, which will make us even more reliant on China, and plugging your electric car into the outlet to charge it will draw electricity from power plants which pollute more than the gasoline you would have burned in a combustion engine.
It’s backasswards thinking to be betting the future of the economy and the planet on idiotic ideas like these.
JKB commented:
Green manufacturing – process developed by Progressives to create and distribute reasons to funnel tax dollars to cronies and favored contributors.
down with dems commented:
and yes, CFLs contain mercury, and electric car batteries will be full of toxic metals… GREEN POWER!!!
IN MEMORY OF MARY JO commented:
AL GORE IS A LIAR – http://www.M4GW.com
Bill Fabrizio commented:
Note to republicans: When you take back Congress we also want the lightbulb madness repealed. Republicans must burn as “bright lights” and reverse the vote of the “dim bulb” democrats.
Your list is getting longer and for the sake of the country, as well as the sake of your reelection, I pray you are up to the task!
kaffirgal commented:
Follow the money. I read a while back that GE (parent co of MSNBC) was pushing Obama’s green initiatives very hard, while busily closing its high cost US incandescent lightbulb plants and opening new low cost “green” fluorescent bulb plants in China.
arnonerik commented:
Ever since Mao Zedong’s Long March in 1933 the best friend Communist China ever had has been the Democrat Party. Now they are sending them our jobs as fast as they can.
Beto commented:
I noticed Mike Castle voted for this crony bill
lil commented:
Good God.
Mercury is not safe in ANY dosage. Imagine the mercury oozing from these CFL bulbs in dumps, even NOW?
We are all being poisoned w/ it.
Good old fashioned, safe incandescent bulbs not only are cheap, safe and easy to use, they give off light that is healing to us and our bodies. This is not true to flourescent bulbs, and certainly not true of the “mercury in glass” CFLS.
It is mind boggling that “smart” people can’t recall that mercury thermometers were banned, yet they flock, like sheep, to the CFL bulbs. It really is stunning.
Incadescent bulb factories aren’t the only ones going out of business. Common drugs used to save lives in hospitals are gone, or in critical supply for the first time ever in our history.
kato commented:
There are many good reasons for wishing the end of incandescent bulbs. They are inefficient. There are better technologies that can and will eventually replace them.
The problem is a government that decides to force the issue and to decide which new technology should prevail. The government record — this government or any government — is pathetic in this regard. (Cf. Soviet Union 1919-1989)
Decisions are made on the basis of politics, not science. Billions of taxpayer dollars are hijacked and used on the worst possible ideas. The technology itself takes a back seat to handing out jobs to union members, blacks, etc..
The environmental movement has led to some of the most expensive, counterproductive and just plain stupid legislation in history. The environment is not helped, the public purse is further depeleted, and intelligent people have yet another reason to hold their government in utter comptempt.
Al Hussein Bin Obama's Brother In A Mud Hut commented:
This should be reason alone to throw every leftwing cretin from office.
down with dems commented:
kato
September 8th, 2010 | 11:33 am | #22
There are many good reasons for wishing the end of incandescent bulbs. They are inefficient. There are better technologies that can and will eventually replace them.
=====
Yet you don’t name ANY of these technologies. Right now your options are incandescent, fluorescent / CFL, and LED. For rapid on/off cycling, fluorescent / CFL are not suitable replacements for incandescent bulbs because it shortens the lifespan of the bulb and eliminates energy savings, not to mention they must warm up to reach maximum brightness and contain mercury. LEDs are not quite ready to take over but show promise, but just where will they be manufactured??? Probably not in the USA. Some people also exhibit sensitivities to LEDs and fluorescent lights.
In a light fixture that is rapidly cycled on/off, that must be used immediately without waiting for warm up time to elapse, incandescent bulbs can be used and will actually be more efficient and effective. In light fixtures that will be left on for long periods of time, sure CFL is the way to go (still don’t expect to ever achieve the bulb lifespan on the box… read it carefully to see how they calculate those “years” the bulb will last). LED bulbs have potential, but they will last so freaking long that no matter what their cost to manufacture, their price will probably be higher than either alternative since you won’t be buying them as often and the manufacturer can argue an even greater energy savings than CFLs save over incandescents.
And don’t forget: what’s going to happen to the Easy Bake Oven???
kato commented:
Pardon my typos in #22.
Hey, lil (#21):
Don’t overreact to mercury. The mercury in those bulbs is not a dosage. It’s a lightbulb, not a pill.
You probably have 200 things in your house more dangerous than those bulbs. The environmental wackos have blown the dangers of mercury out of proportion. The tort lawyers are grateful.
Thousands of schoolchildren handled mercury in their bare hands in their classrooms back in the 1960s and earlier, and all of them survived to tell the tale.
The government would have you believe that a broken bulb will turn your house into an environmental hazard site. The fumes from that broken bulb are nothing compared to the crap that joggers suck into their lungs when they run along traffic-clogged downtown streets during their lunch hour.
For most people, all that sugar water they pour down their gullets by the gallon is more dangerous to their health than those lightbulbs.
Still, and per my earlier comment, those bulbs are an inferior technology being forced upon us by a stupid, domineering government.
Amazed commented:
I’m sorry, but if I had a factory that made antique widgets that nobody wanted to buy anymore, the reason for which is immaterial, then I would re-fit my plant to make modern widgets that people do want to buy rather than going out of business and whining about it….. doesn’t that make more sense or am I missing something in the article?
olm commented:
I literally hate CFL’s.
Besides liberals whining about MMGW, this is the worst result of all this climate bs.
Kevin P commented:
Amazed #26 – have you missed all the manufacturing jobs being sent to China over the last, say, 20 years???
The new modicum for business (BIG business) in the USA is to ship jobs overseas for CHEAP labor (and non-existent environmental regulations) – and still sell the products for the same amount in the U.S.
Militant Conservative commented:
Impeachment first.
PJ commented:
“The resulting savings in energy and greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to be immense.”
Who sez?
kato commented:
Down with Dems:
You’ve got me there with the Easy Bake Oven. Good one.
I realize that LEDs are not ready for mass usage, but they appear to be a potentially better solution than these fluourescent bulbs.
I have a few of the fluorescents in my house. For example, I have a low-illumination one above the kitchen sink because I keep that light on all night long. I have found the warm-up time to be inconsequential. It’s not even one second. But I’m old enough to remember when a television needed about 30 seconds to warm up, so maybe my perspective is different from those of younger folks.
Where will they be manufactured? Most likely abroad in a Vietnam or Malaysia. Manufacturing requiring unskilled labor will always seek out the lowest labor costs. Even former cheap manufacturing countries Japan and South Korea offshore some of their manufacturing.
Yes, we will pay more for new bulbs, but if there is value added, then the price per unit of electricity may be competitive. If not at first, then shortly thereafter.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating banning incandescents. I’m just countering some of the arguments against moving to new technologies, which sound to me somewhat Luddite.
I remember when CDs first came out audiophiles sniffed and said they would never give up their LPs. CDs, they said, had inferior sound, and they probably did early on. But the R&D was put into CD technology, and soon the quality issue disappeared. The same thing happened at the beginning of the transition from film to digital photography. The difference, of course, is that the government didn’t meddle (at least, not much) in these matters. CDs and digital cameras won out because people opted for them in the free market.
Karen commented:
Insanity.
Good thing I’ve been stocking up on light bulbs for the past two years!
DukeofWellington commented:
I lived in China and I always sought to buy incandescents there. The CFL bulbs? Mercury, mercury, mercury! $10,000 to clean up the “environmental hazard” of a broken CFL bulb.
mossomo commented:
It’s funny, those “green” bulbs cannot be disposed of in ordinary trash, they are actually hazardous waste and need to be taken to a facility.
Plus – like flushing toilets twice nowdays – I have to turn on more lights just to see.
Kevin commented:
http://www.centennialbulb.org/
squeaky commented:
“Good thing I’ve been stocking up on light bulbs for the past two years!” same here although not as long. i imagine this will lead to another agency staffed with obama political payback hacks to check for compliance. a bunch of guys with nightsticks……
gus commented:
If you don’t go along with the Moonbats, Eco-nuts and Marxists THEN………………………………..You hate Mother Nature, Black people, and Muzzlims.
That is all.
Kukee American commented:
Lights out!
God said let there be light. And there was light and it was good.
God’s light is made from very hot material. H, He, Na, Ca, …., Fe. Man took God’s lead and made light from very hot Nickromium slivers.
Now liberal have taken another lead and make dim, unreliable light from electrically excited dangerous gases (Mercury vapors, et. al.)
When it gets really cold the stupid things wont work unless you have an attachment added to the bulb or fixture, which by the way uses MORE energy than the incandecents.
Stupid is as stupid does. Lights out.
Kukee American commented:
What would happen if We the People all took our CFLs and threw them on the steps of the Congress? Would the Congress dismiss itself due to the Mercury contamination? I know that We the People would be arrested for violating EPA rules.
Stupid is Congress. Throw the Dim-o-rats out of OUR house!
averagemelon commented:
It’s always about money and power. Always.
Jeff Imelt and Al Gore stand to make billions in profit and power is given to the communist EPA.
wanumba commented:
CFLs use ten times the raw materials, and thus ENERGY of standard bulbs to fabricate and PACKAGE, and are worse in the landfills with plastic, mercury and gases. And what’s the “Carbon” footprint of making them in China and shipping them across the Pacific Ocean?
These people just want to destroy America.
brucefdb commented:
I have been and will continue to buy incandescents and I will never allow a CFL in my home. I will live by candle-light first.
vsatt commented:
What’s going to happen when lower-income people see the prices of the bulbs they now “have” to buy?
Kevin P commented:
When they outlaw guns and criminals no longer have guns (ok – humor me here) the criminals will carry CFL’s into convenience stores and gas stations demanding money saying, “O.K. nobody moves – or I drop the CFL!”
Store clerks nation-wide will be advised to hand over the cash rather than cause a toxic waste site to be created.
Cops will no longer yell “DROP IT!” They’ll instead yell “HOLD IT!”
Jean commented:
What is the EPA’s recommendation for safely disposing of fluorescent lights since they contain mercury?
I guess if the government is not concerned about the seafood in the gulf they probably are not worried about the mercury ending up in our drinking water. After all the stupid people trashing up America with mercury are the same people who elected the officials responsible for passing this stupid legislation.
aprilnovember811 commented:
God, can life get any worse with these demons, the Democrats/CPUSA? How many of these people in this plant foolishly vote Democrat? I’ll bet most of them. This is how they care about the middle class, isn’t it. Arrest Obama, he’s a Kenyan born fraud, and Pelosi, just deemed him eligible.
Andreas K. commented:
Same in the EU. Normal bulbs are gone. The EU has effectively forced everyone to use new “energy saving” bulbs, which are actually worse for the environment than the old ones.
eaglewingz08 commented:
The thing is that Pres. Bush signed this monstrous bill despite the fact that his veto would have been upheld. I believe Karl Rove bears part of the blame for this as well, as this must have been part of his court the latinos and envirowackos and the repubs would win big in 2008. We all see how that worked out. The party departed from its principles and as a result we have an onerous new enviro regime that will bankrupt all of us.
Amazed commented:
Kevin P #28, that’s kind of the point. Is it corporate intransigence that sent the jobs overseas? Or is it that they can truly make the bulbs cheaply enough overseas. Is it the business of government to protect competition, unfair or otherwise? Or is it incumbent on the company to make things people actually want to buy. Good grief.
RecklessProcess commented:
Liberal Facists always run the jobs off
William commented:
The lights are going out all over America. We shall not see them lit again in our time.
jaycee commented:
my mercury bulbs wont be making it to the dump, im going to smash them on local governments property.
Darren commented:
caterpillar Filters
Volvo Filters
Perkins Filters
Fleetguard Filters
Donaldson Filters
Detroit Filters
Pall Filters
Hydac Filters
Parker Filters
Komatsu Filters
Mann Filters
Deutz Filters
1389AD commented:
Once we’ve wasted our money on those dreadful fluorescent bulbs, they’ll figure out that we should be using LED bulbs, and they’ll make us replace them all over again.
Unless we decide we are not going to put up with any more of this.
ogee commented:
How many of those 200 people who are losing their jobs voted for the looter in chief? Most of them.
It’s their own fault.
China is shutting us down all over America.
It’s not cheaper or better to make them in China.
Just the shipping costs alone will triple the price.
Plasma energy is here in America created by Americans. But it’s too cost effective and is the best product out there so they won’t allow it becuase it might show our exceptionalism again. Talk about backwards.
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oldguy commented:
What we are forced to endure here is Chicken Little with a badge!
Dooshbag selfimportantwaster commented:
Good riddance. Let them make LED lamps now which use less energy and last 10 times as long. Anything wrong with a little progress while saving oil? Those horses you guys are riding are sure way up there.
ZZMike commented:
Why couldn’t that plant switch to making LEDs or CFLs? (I’m no fan of CFLs. Right now, I’m stocking up on incandescents while they’re still around.)
Jonathan commented:
Hey – the bill cited in here is not the bill that banned light bulbs.
The one that did had 95 Republicans in favor, 96 against. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-1177
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Tiberius commented:
So, the DEMOCRATS have forced GE to outsource the production of compact fluorescent bulbs to China?
GE could make them here in the United States if they wanted to. They’ve calculated where they’ll make the highest profits–the ONLY d-amn thing that matters to corporate America anymore.
Blame a culture of corporate greed–not those pushing for far more energy-efficient consumer products having a far less negative environmental consequences.
Peter commented:
I would like to point out that the 2007 bill you are referring to was signed into law by George W. Bush.
Brendon commented:
I thought I heard that there will be such things as enery efficient incandescent light bulbs. I like the fluorescent, CFL, Halogen, and LED bulbs as well as the incandescent bulbs.