The war on lightbulbs is back! Oh, the things Republicans obsess about. Remember all the way back to 2011, and 2012, and of course 2013, when Republicans were dramatically clutching their incandescent lightbulbs to their chests as the last vestiges of freedom? In case you missed all the fun earlier this decade, Republicans were incensed over a new law and regulations from the George W. Bush administration (yes, he started it) that were continued and built upon by the Barack Obama administration and changed lightbulb standards to make them more energy-efficient. (If you missed the fun, you can relive it here, and I promise it is fun because Hunter wrote it. And it's about Steve King.)
Anyway, despite the fact that the nation's consumers have embraced these newfangled scary inventions as money-saving things they don't want to have to think about after they've bought and installed them, Republicans Could. Not. Let. It. Go. So the Trump administration has officially rolled back rules passed under that efficiency law by the Obama administration and applied to bulbs other than the traditional lamp lights—recessed lights, chandeliers, etc.
Not having the energy-efficient bulbs, consumer groups say, could cost the average household an additional $100 a year and, of course, take a larger toll on the environment. "The Energy Department flat out got it wrong today. Instead of moving us forward, this rule will keep more energy-wasting bulbs on store shelves," Jason Hartke, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, said in a statement. "If you wanted folks to pay a lot more than they should on electric bills, this rollback would be a pretty good way of doing it." The Appliance Standards Awareness Project says that this will increase electrical usage in the U.S. by "80 billion kilowatt hours over the course of a year, roughly the amount of electricity needed to power all households in Pennsylvania and New Jersey."
Noah Horowitz, director of the Center for Energy Efficiency Standards at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said that this action "sets the United States up to become the world's dumping ground for the inefficient incandescent and halogen bulbs being phased out around the world. Given the worsening climate crisis, this is no time to significantly increase pollution and consumer energy bills just so a few lighting companies can make more money selling inefficient bulbs." The NRDC is threatening legal action, because federal laws actually prohibit backing down efficiency standards that cause "decreases [in] the minimum required energy efficiency."
So, yes, it's ridiculous. But it's one more instance of being willing to destroy the globe that much faster, just to own the libs. That’s the entire reason for being of the 21st century Republican party.