I agree with many of the things posted in the discussions here....many of you raise very valid and excellent points. But remember, energy in its raw form that we know of today, is not an infinite supply. And while most of us, myself included, don't like to be told what we can buy or not buy or use in or homes to wash our clothes and our dishes, energy conservation and efficiency have to start somewhere. There is no one perfect solution that works for all. I think we can agree that that would never happen. So, either we alienate the "working poor" by mandating more expensive higher efficiency appliances/light bulbs, or we piss of more affluent folks by levying substantial energy impact fees (taxes) on that new BMW 750i that Muffy just had to have for her birthday. Where do you draw the line between what's fair and what's over the top? And are additional energy taxes going to solve anything? How does that money get spent? What good does it do for the energy consuming public? Is its end result the reduction of energy consumption or is it just beaureaucratic bullshit? Can we measure it? Or is it better to do nothing and hope/expect/pray that ordinary citizens will feel the necessity and take action on their own, maybe once energy becomes prohibitively expensive in its essential daily forms to the point that it impacts the economy? If government mandates the more expensive, higher efficiency technologies, their prices will come down, no question about that, because these will no longer be considered "premium" products. They now become more run of the mill. Years ago, CFL bulbs were in the area of $8 - $12 a piece. Today, you can get them for under $2 or even less.
My point is that the line has to be drawn somewhere. Do we do like France does, and have a long range plan to replace electric generation in this country with nuclear power? That would solve a whole slew of problems....pollution, fossil fuel reliance, transportation of fossil fuels, etc., and create a whole new set of problems, but electricity will be plentiful and less expensive, and we'll be at no one's mercy as far as our fuel supply goes. Or do we just do nothing and hope that folks will get the message when they feel the pain?
Banning light bulbs alone ain't gonna do squat, and I think we pretty much know this. It's the precedent such an action sets for future legislation to restrict or regulate other products and choices that we currently enjoy. The problem with the United States has always been that we are a nation of plenty, and we seem to think we have the right to continue to expect that this "plenty" will never run out. And maybe it won't. But do we take that chance? Do we put ourselves on the precipice of potential disaster just because we believe we have that right and/or expectation? It's a very tough balancing act, and not everyone is going to be happy with the solutions, but that doesn't mean those solutions shouldn't be put out there, through legislation if absolutely needed to avoid catastrophes that it may be difficult from which to recover.
I remember back in the early 80's when the former LILCO came out with their CFL Residential Rebate program. The CFL lamp technology was fairly new, and the CFLs that came from Lights of America and from SATCO, in my opinion, really sucked. The light was yellow, not "soft white", but yellow. Some of the bulbs barely lasted 6 months, flickered, and caused radio/TV interference in some cases, and some of the bulbs wouldn't fit certain lamps unless the customer bought a harp extender. But look at this technology now...different sizes, shapes and color outputs to suit a variety of different uses. With necessity being the mother of invention, the possibilities could be endless, but, we have to start somewhere. Yeah, it's a drop in the bucket, but many other countries have a head start on us, and many of them did it without legislation or regulation. To me (and this is just my own humble opinion), that's where we should be because we're not a nation of idiots.