Consumers to pay a hefty price for Trump's rollback of light bulb efficiency standards

Consumers to pay a hefty price for Trump’s rollback of light bulb efficiency standards

Repealing the standards would cost consumers $100 billion and result in half a billion extra tons of air pollution.

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-light-bulb-rollback-cost-2b10f0720303/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=5c63cb1d00bd47000171b9ff&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter


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President Donald Trump wants to roll back efficiency standards for light bulbs, at a cost to consumers of over $100 billion — some $1,000 per household — by 2030. The Department of Energy (DOE) announced in the Federal Register that it has started a process to undo those standards, despite projections that they will prevent the release of 540 million tons of greenhouse gases and hundreds of thousands of tons of the pollutants that worsen asthma, cardiopulmonary disease, and premature death.


So, in the annals of Trump’s blinkered pursuit of undoing everything President Barack Obama did, no matter how basic or commonsense, this move ranks near the top. The original DOE lighting standards were part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. They did not ban incandescent light bulbs, but instead encouraged innovation by requiring manufacturers to increase efficiency by 27 percent through 2014. It was a completely non-controversial bill that had bipartisan support, was strongly supported by light bulb manufacturers, and was signed into law by President George W. Bush.

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From 2008 to 2014, prices for LED light bulbs dropped a remarkable 90 percent, and they have kept dropping. You can now buy a 60-watt-equivalent soft-wide LED bulb with a 10-year lifetime for a mere $1. With the initial price dropping sharply while the ultra-low lifecycle costs also keep dropping, you end up with a revolution .


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This repeal would cost consumers $12 billion a year in 2025 — some $100 per household each year — according to analysis from The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. It would mean a stunning 540 million extra tons of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by 2030, according to research from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The market has already spoken, and LEDs have won around the world. Trump cannot stop the global tide of innovation, but he can slow the penetration of efficient lighting in this country — at an enormous cost to the pocketbooks and health of consumers.


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