Ted Poe Destroys The Environmental Illusion: Dear Thomas Edison: Turn Off The Lights, The Party's Over

Video - Rep. Ted Poe - April 6, 2011

Congress's energy bill bans incandescent light bulbs by 2014, and requires Americans to buy compact fluorescent bulbs.  Those are called CFLs, are made exclusively in China and they contain mercury.

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Environmentally friendly light bulbs ‘can give you skin cancer’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-506082/Environmentally-friendly-light-bulbs-skin-cancer.html

Comments

[DailyBail]

Portuguese bank stocks gain after aid request

Investors eye Spain after Portugal says it needs a bailout

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/markets-take-portugal-in-stride-eye-spain-2011-04-07

[DailyBail]

Georgian woman cuts off web access to whole of Armenia

http://refreshingnews9.blogspot.com/2011/04/georgian-woman-cuts-off-web-access-to.html

[DailyBail]

Initial Jobless Claims in U.S. Fell 10,000 Last Week to 382,000

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-07/initial-unemployment-claims-in-u-s-decline-more-than-estimated-to-382-000.html

[DailyBail]

Obama, Reid, Boehner to Meet Again on Budget

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-06/obama-summons-lawmakers-to-white-house-in-bid-to-avert-shutdown.html

[DailyBail]

Euro Falls on ECB Rate Pace; Yen Gains After Earthquake Report

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-07/euro-weakens-after-portugal-bailout-overshadows-rate-increase-expectations.html

[john]

North Carolina And Massachusetts Registrars 'Chainsaw' MERS

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=183804

[snip]

As a result, we are asking as part of your probe, that this task force and the National Association of Attorney Generals require that all past and present MERS assignments of deeds of trust/mortgages be filed in local recording offices throughout the United States immediately.

Comment (grin): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A52p9jc-gOo

[Oscar]

I have allergy for mercury, if I am in room where are fluoresence light I have pain all my body and confius. How I can live with my alergy

[duh]

Fluorescent bulbs can last up to TWENTY times longer than incandescent bulbs, but never mind that remarkable fact, fluorescent lightbulbs are terrible for your health, and your television's health. Luckily, the oil, coal, and natural gas industries have the remedies to our problems. What an ignorant shill. I expect better from this website than putting garbage like this up.

[john]

@DUH, Wrong. They do NOT last 20 times as long and furthermore I had one burn out recently. The ballast was so hot it could have ignited a fire (there have been reports about this). As a former volunteer Fire Chief I do have VERY serious concerns about these now. The hazardous waste problem is another issue.

[DailyBail]

@duh...have you ever broken one of these CFLs...i hate those fucking things...it was a nightmare...i am buying hundreds of regular bulbs to stock up for the next decade....

it's a biohazard when it breaks...stop foisting your nonsense on the rest of us...you buy them if you want, but don't make a mandate out of your personal insanity...

[Angry Jones]

Because CFLs are toxic, they can't be recycled, and the only option is to stick them in a landfill. And if one of these breaks - DON'T VACUUM THE DUST - it helps spread the mercury throughout your home and contaminates your vacuum. You have to clean up the shards/dust using tape.

[Sagebrush]

I wonder how much money in campaign contributions the CFL manufacturers had to fork over to get those regulations in the Energy Bill?

[LiberatedCitizen]

Good stuff glad your not putting up with the Eco Crazies Daily Bell did you ever see those disturbing video's where they show kids getting their head blown off because they don't go along with the Eco Fascists?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDXQsnkuBCM&feature=player_embedded&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fv%2FPDXQsnkuBCM%26hl%3Den_US%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded%26version%3D3&has_verified=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDdkzjfUnJQ&feature=player_embedded

[duh]

Actually, fluorescent bulbs do last up to 20 times longer than conventional incandescent bulbs, the trick is to not be constantly turning them on and off, like in a bathroom. Placing them in areas where they can be left on for long periods of time will greatly enhance their longevity.

They are also much more efficient in converting the input energy into light compared to incandescent bulbs. An incandescent bulb, on average, will only convert about 2% of the input energy into light, the rest is converted into heat. This causes the bulb's filament to sometimes reach temperatures as high 2300*C, thus making them a much greater fire hazard. Fluorescent bulbs, in contrast, convert on average 22% of the input energy into light.

As has been noted, these bulbs contain trace amounts of mercury. What should be noted is the very miniscule amounts that are contained within these bulbs, 3-5mg per bulb - the tip of a ball point pen is a comparable amount. Newer bulbs contain as little as 1mg of mercury. Such trace amounts make the shards of a broken bulb a greater health risk than the lingering mercury. Should extra care be taken when using these bulbs? Absolutely. Personal responsibility is never a bad thing.

Also, these bulbs ARE recyclable; they only enter landfills when homeowners aren’t responsible enough to properly dispose of them.

What irks me is the hypocrisy in the esteemed congressman's speech when he speaks of his concerns for the toxicity of fluorescent bulbs, and then equates that to the need for 'the good old days' of Coal, Oil, and Natural gas - industries that spill hundreds of toxic chemicals into the environment every year.

[LugNut]

@duh. Thank you for the nuance. As a board member of a condo complex, CFLs do save a lot of money when used properly. We figured out they lasted much longer when used in fixtures that automatically kept the lights on for many hours at a time or all the time. We switched back to incandescents for those applications where they had to be manually turned on and off.

[Evert Bopp]

It won't surprise you probably to hear that this is already law in Europe.
Complete and utter nonsense.

[mohawk]

Edison never paid the $ 50000.00 he promised to Nicola Tesla for fixing his generator.
And I have to feel warm and fuzzy for Edison's incandescent light bulbs?

[Texas Dar]

I put a "Pig Tail" bulb in the street light in front of our cabin. 7 Mo. later its dead........I put a 60w bulb in and its still going 15 mo. later. When I touched the glass on the pig light it shattered.

With the heat the the pig light puts out I would neaver use one inside the cabin. Way to many homes have burned to the ground becouse of these bulbs...............!

Its just more "Bull Shit" from our piece of shit goverment trying to control us, and force us to pay 78% more than normal, for the same time.

Evan if they last 48% longer than normal bulbs, I'll burn the "Safe Ones".............................!

[DailyBail]

some great comments here...i thank 'duh' for clarifying his position...

[DailyBail]

and i agree with this statement completely...

What irks me is the hypocrisy in the esteemed congressman's speech when he speaks of his concerns for the toxicity of fluorescent bulbs, and then equates that to the need for 'the good old days' of Coal, Oil, and Natural gas - industries that spill hundreds of toxic chemicals into the environment every year.

[TR]

I can't believe I watched the whole video.
Read all the comments & then realized that Poe is just another POLITICIAN !!!
How dumb am I ?

[john]

Here is a safety alert.... The CFL shown is the model I had get excessively hot when it burned out.

http://www.dhses.ny.gov/ofpc/news/press/documents/2011_Safety_Alert_CFL_Actual.pdf

A safety spec sheet...

http://www.tcpi.com/PDF/2007_40495%20TCP%20MSDS%20CFL%20rev%20SS.pdf

and a MSDS you all should look at in case you have one break.

http://assets.sylvania.com/assets/documents/fl_psds5.0f746047-64f7-46cf-80d5-89a9282aa07f.pdf

[elemental jim]

This guy Poe is in good company as Michele Bachman and Rand Paul have also stated their disdain for the "nanny state" that tells you to conserve energy and use water saving toilets. The toilets may present a problem for those so full of shit that it comes out both ends.

With a good ol' Texas drawl a quote from blue collar comedy, "You just can't fix stupid"...

[Cheyenne]

"An incandescent bulb, on average, will only convert about 2% of the input energy into light, the rest is converted into heat. This causes the bulb's filament to sometimes reach temperatures as high 2300*C, thus making them a much greater fire hazard. Fluorescent bulbs, in contrast, convert on average 22% of the input energy into light."

11:1 efficiency advantage for fluorescent:incandescent? I thought it was more like 5:1, as in you'll burn 20 watts for a CFL that equals a 100-watt incandescent as measured in lumens.

CFL's represent a special place in the history of American manufacturing and intellectual property. In the late 1970's, every major lighting manufacturer in the U.S. (GE, Westinghouse, Sylvania, etc.) knew it was possible to fit an electronic inverter into the 1" base of a screw-in bulb, but they couldn't get it right in the lab. The negative marginal resistance of an arc and its effects gave circuit designers fits. Companies really didn't start getting it right until the late 1980's, by which time off-shoring had begun in one form or another.

But the bigger problem then was the de-emphasis of manufacturing and the greater reliance on marketing and finance. Jack Welch of GE was to me a satanic figure at that point, when I'd planned on a manufacturing career in electronics. The mood of engineers on plant floors everywhere was bitingly sardonic, and is captured perfectly in the spoof video put together by some really funny dudes at Chrysler back then:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXW0bx_Ooq4

At any rate, the action in lighting is now in LED's. The dominant constraint now is the upper limit on wattage, now at about 50W due to heat (as I recall). That's about to radically increase, I believe, at least in a single prototype. A working model is likely to work first in the U.S., as we are hands-down the most inventive culture that ever existed.

Whether we can parlay that into millions of bulbs per unit time is a very different question, and has been since we started thinking manufacturing was dirty and getting rid of it wasn't that big of a deal since we'd all get richer.

[S. Gompers]

You are correct Cheyenne, America still is on the leading edge of inventing things, we just turn around and give the rights to the inventions to foreigners.

The money masters call that progress as they work to destroy our nation.

[Cheyenne]

I'm afraid I must agree with you, S. Gompers. The question is whether these motherfuckers have done so much damage there's no going back.

A year ago I would've said we're going back to the year 1214.

But after living in Vietnam Indiana for stretches here and there, I think we've still got an out or two. Salt-of-the-earth Americans are real tough to beat.

[S. Gompers]

Right now I think going back would be a step forward.

[Cheyenne]

I agree, Gomp, but I was thinking 1972, when you put stuff on lay-away. That far back is all right.

But Divine Right of Kings era strikes me as WAY too far back. Laws and not men dates back to 1215, no?

[S. Gompers]

I agree, 72 was a good year, gas was cheap and Chevelle's were nasty. The last of the muscle car era.

I never was a big fan of the Divine Right of Kings, though many would like to see a return to that.

http://www.noneckschevelle.com/images/carpics/bucks72chevelle.jpg

Those were the days...

[Cheyenne]

Fantastic shot, Gomp, straight-up American Steve McQueen-style badass. That far back is good, when Volcker was making $45K a year on Wall Street--when gold was $35 an ounce and a quarter was good for a gallon of gas (still is, and then some, if it's 1964 or earlier; it's called "money" for a reason).

It's this "doing God's work" and that feudalistic spinal shiv feel I get that has me outta sorts. Those sociopaths don't care if we're in fucking caves if it means 25 more cents. These people require a remedy.

[S. Gompers]

I know what you mean, unfortunately I think the herds will follow the piper right off the cliff.

I would hate to see that happen, when the solution to all that woes us is sorta simple.

End the private Central Bank, and return to sound money. All it takes is the stroke of a pen...

[Cheyenne]

"All it takes is the stroke of a pen..."

Yup. And the heads that it'd roll on that stroke are all the right ones.

[Texas Dar]

Oh if I could go back.......... I had almost one of every cool 50's & 60's car back then. Playin music did have its perks, and everyone wanted the hot car I dident want anymore.

But out of all of them, I would like my 64 Impala SS rag top back. But the one worth the most today is one I gave a way becouse I wanted a Hurst 4 speed on the floor again........What a dumb shit head I was. It was "Mint"........67,000 and I wanted a 4 speed...........................

I would give my right nut, to have this one back. It was a 1 year run................and I gave it away.....? Check this Clasic 1969 Merc out.................... http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/mercury/69mercu/bilder/9.jpg

Guess what its worth today....? You neaver see one at the car shows. I would of traded my tour bus if I could find that car. But, guys just dont get it, do they.....?

[john]

and, and, and......when the ice caps melt you will lose santa's village.....

[DailyBail]

you will lose santa's village and al gore's north pole massage shack...

Environmentally friendly light bulbs ‘can give you skin cancer’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-506082/Environmentally-friendly-light-bulbs-skin-cancer.html

[john]

You ought to see what the Varian 4CX250-B driver tube ceramics were made of (used in high power radio transmitters) ........ Like the early CFL's it is really bad stuff.....

[john]

Climate activists target states with lawsuits

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110504/ap_on_re_us/us_climate_trust_lawsuits

[snip]

BILLINGS, Mont. – A group of attorneys representing children and young adults began to file legal actions Wednesday in every state and the District of Columbia in an effort to force government intervention on climate change.

Note: What are climate activists doing in Pakistan?

http://action.350.org/content_item/disasters

Whos else takes an interest in climate change?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121352495


Oooooohhhhh...... Just In

Bill Richardson: Osama bin Laden's death changes climate on energy

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54260.html

[snip]


“We can sit back and say, ‘Well we’ll wait until the next election, wait until the political climate is better.’ You know if we do that, we’re doomed — if we don’t take action right away,” he said.

The former energy secretary and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration called for a comprehensive nationwide greenhouse gas reduction program in addition to a national renewable energy standard.