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The Lights Have Officially Gone Out In the US
Here’s a
news story that summates the US economy’s problems rather well:
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.
Here we have
a product, invented by one of America’s Greatest inventors (if not THE
greatest), of which the US was the premiere manufacturer, now being
manufactured ENTIRELY overseas:
How could
this have happened?
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.
This story,
more than anything else I’ve seen in recent weeks, summates beautifully the current
political/ economic situation for the US today.
Congress
which is comprised of individuals who know nothing about engineering,
chemistry, manufacturing, or any other technical know-how, pass a law based on
political agenda without even bother to consider the impact on the US economy.
As if that
weren’t ignorant enough, Congress then proclaims that the new clean energy
policies will CREATE jobs, once again
proving they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about when it comes to real
economic conditions in the US.
The end result?
An industry
that has flourished in the US for over a century, founded by an American
genius, has now been entirely outsourced overseas. That’s just one more nail in
the coffin for the American manufacturing base. And one more wave of American
workers finding themselves at the unemployment line (the last existing plant in
Winchester, VA is laying off 200 people this month).
Please
understand, I am not against Clean Energy at all. What I AM against is stupid
policies losing Americans jobs just to fatten profit margins at the large
multi-nationals.
The real
winner of this whole set-up is of course the multi-national company, in this
case GE, which, by the way, owes its very existence to tax payer bailout money
from 2008. GE will very likely see a slight bump in profits by cutting down on
the operational costs of its light-bulb manufacturing wing (labor is cheaper in
China).
This hammers
home one of the founding theses of my socio-political newsletter The
Phoenix World Views Digest, that the US is comprised of two groups of
people: individual citizens and
the large multi-nationals. These two operate under a completely different set
of rules. And the system is entirely rigged to benefit the latter (the
multi-nationals) at the expense of the former (individuals).
Until this
changes, the US will remain as it has been for the last 30 years: an oligarchy
masquerading as a democracy.
Good Investing!
Graham
Summers
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you’re worried about the future of the stock market and have yet to take steps
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The CFLs also use mercury in a key component. It's hardly a green product. Give Congress a chance and they will mandate a return to candles.
I suspect the motivation for banning incandescents is to keep the energy grid viable for another generation. We are not investing in transmission or generation capacity, so some form of rationing is to be expected.
You mean the key component of mercury being that which is in the solder of the cathode lead to the tube? I hardly consider this a key component. If that's the case then one computer has more hazardous mercury than 10 lifetimes worth plus of CFL's.
VeloSpade
Because you seem to be an ignorant dipshit, I will give you the red ass by quoting from ( Guess where?)..... THE FUCKING EPA!
http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.html
Fluorescent light bulbs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing. EPA recommends the following clean-up and disposal steps:
- Before cleanup: air out the room
- Cleanup steps for:
- Hard surfaces
- Carpeting or rug
- Clothing, bedding and other soft materials
- Disposal of cleanup materials
- Future cleaning of carpeting or rug: air out the room during and after vacuuming
Before Cleanup: Air Out the Room- Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
- Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
- Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.
Disposal of Cleanup Materials- Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
- Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
- Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.
Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Air Out the Room During and After VacuumingNow from NEW YORK STATE
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8787.html
1. How do I know if my lamps are hazardous?
Because of their mercury content, most fluorescent lamps in current use are considered hazardous wastes when taken out of service for disposal. Other lamps that are commonly classified as hazardous waste due to the presence of mercury or lead include high-intensity discharge (HID), neon, mercury vapor, high pressure sodium, and metal halide lamps. If you want to know for sure, you can have them analyzed by a laboratory test called the "Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP)." Most major manufacturers are now producing a line of fluorescent lamps which they claim are non-hazardous low-mercury or "green end cap" lamps. When these bulbs are taken out of service, manufacturer's data may be used to help determine if they are a hazardous waste.
2. How do I handle low-mercury fluorescent lamps?
Under Chapter 145, Laws of 2004, "Mercury-Added Consumer Products Law," even low-mercury (green end cap) lamps are subject to certain management standards. Under this law, defined Small Businesses may discard of up to fifteen low-mercury lamps per calendar month. If the non-hazardous lamps are commingled with universal waste lamps, all of the waste is regulated as universal waste. The Department strongly encourages the recycling of any lamps containing mercury.
3. Now that the Universal Waste Rule is available for hazardous waste lamps, must I use it?
No, handlers of hazardous waste lamps may choose between traditional hazardous waste regulations and Universal Waste Rule standards. However, flip-flopping between the two sets to avoid meeting requirements of one or both regulations is not allowed. For example, both management scenarios include storage time limits. Flip-flopping between regulations will not extend storage time.
4. Do hazardous waste lamps count in determining my generator category? Must hazardous waste lamps be indicated on my annual hazardous waste report?
Under traditional hazardous waste regulations, hazardous waste lamps must be counted in determining whether you are a conditionally exempt small quantity generator, a small quantity generator or a large quantity generator; they must also be reported on the generator annual report if you are required to file an annual report. Lamps managed under the Universal Waste Rule are not counted for the purpose of determining generator category, and need not be reported on your hazardous waste report. However, they are counted for regulatory fee purposes.
5. Lamp crushers - I am considering the purchase of a lamp crusher to minimize my waste volume. How is crushing of hazardous waste lamps regulated?
Lamps being managed under the Universal Waste Rule may not be crushed. If you wish to crush your lamps, you will need to manage the lamps under the traditional hazardous waste regulations. This will require that you count the weight of the lamps toward determining hazardous waste generator category, and meet applicable generator, transporter and transfer facility standards. Crushing is considered a form of hazardous waste treatment, and under ordinary hazardous waste generator regulations, hazardous waste lamps may be crushed only if the process is exempt from hazardous waste treatment regulations (6 NYCRR 373-1.1(d)(1)).
Common exemptions that might apply to crushing lamps are: on-site treatment by a conditionally exempt small quantity generator; the first step of a recycling process, if the lamps will be directed to a mercury recycler, or treatment in the tank or container in which the lamps are stored. Generators wishing to use one of the latter two exemptions should seek specific guidance from the Waste Determination & Analysis Section. The crushed lamps are usually considered hazardous waste for mercury, and sometimes for lead, and must be handled and disposed of in accordance with normal hazardous waste requirements.
6. Transportation - Can I put my lamps in the trash dumpster?
Lamps handled under the Universal Waste Rule cannot be put in the trash dumpster because they would not be handled in a way to minimize breakage. Generators of universal waste lamps can self-transport up to 500 lbs of lamps per shipment to an authorized universal waste handler, or treatment or disposal facility under the provisions of 6 NYCRR Part 364. Conditionally exempt, small or large quantity hazardous waste generators cannot put hazardous waste lamps in the trash dumpster.
7. Under the Universal Waste Rule, do my lamps have to be directed to a recycler?
No, lamps may be directed to a treatment or disposal facility if the receiving facility is authorized to accept hazardous waste lamps. However, NYSDEC strongly recommends recycling of hazardous waste lamps to reduce the accumulation of mercury in the environment. A list of fluorescent and HID lamp recyclers is available on this website at the link given at the bottom of this page.
8. How do I get rid of waste lamps from my household?
Households are exempt from the ordinary hazardous waste regulations. Lamps discarded by households are also exempt from New York State's Mercury-Added Consumer Products Law. Lamps may legally be disposed as normal household trash if allowed by the municipality, the trash collector and the disposal facility. However, households are encouraged to contact the town or county solid waste management authority to determine whether there are any household hazardous waste collection facilities or events in their community at which hazardous waste lamps are collected, or to contact local lamp recyclers to see if they accept lamps from households.
9. What do I do if I break a compact fluorescent lamp/bulb (CFL) in my home?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy provide guidance on how the general public can clean up a broken CFL. "FAQ - Information on Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) and Mercury" (70 Kb pdf) is available for download.
The entire bulb/tube is filled with mercury vapor, which escapes when it is broken.
Concur. Already stocking up. If you have any dimmer switches on your lighting, you'll discover CFL's don't work in them.
Me too - every time they go on sale locally I clean out a shelf.
Look for TPTB to make a small killing on CFLs between now and 2014 before everyone realizes 1) they're full of mercury and 2) they don't work worth a damn much north of the Mason-Dixon line.
By then LED-based lights (which are quite good but damned expensive currently) will be more commonly available and TPTB will make another killing on these.
All the while, R&D tax credits from Uncle Sugar's tax slaves will be used to fund new facilities offshore to cheaply make these new-and-improves lights while the sheeple are watching Jersey Shore.
They'll pry my incandescent light bulbs out of my cold, dead (but well lit) hands.
There are dimmable CFL bulbs, they just cost a shitload more.
I sometimes wonder how the "geniuses" who counted on so much energy savings failed to realize how much people just leave the damn things on. In cool areas of the house, or the garage, it takes five damned minutes just to get enough light to see. In the winter, one stays on all the time.
Dumbasses.
Reminds me of the "dual flush green toilets" we have here. If you haven't seen them yet, they have a special green handle, which flushes high/low volume depending on flushing up/down.
Now, are there any signs anywhere explaining this? Nope. So what happens is someone uses the low flow setting (normal down flush) without realizing it, and the bowl doesn't empty. So what do they do but flush several more times, or just leave a nice present for the next person.
Even better, is that they are high-traffic public restrooms, so it isn't like you can fix the problem by training the workers. Yet they still claim a 40% reduction in water usage!
Dual flush - I thought you meant the low-flow toilets that require two flushes every time you use them.
An even better conservation idea is to flush after every 2 pisses. I do it all the time at home. It annoys the women of the house......but being annoying is part of my job description. Just sayin'..... I'm trying to do my part for the sake of Earth's finite resources.
If it's yellow, let it mellow
If it's brown, flush it down
Speaking of flush II,
what is this, pick on GE day,
or a secret signal for the dump to begin?....
Speaking of flush II,
what is this, pick on GE day,
or a secret signal for the crash to begin?....
What is this, pick on GE day,
or a secret signal for the crash to begin?....
WTF?
I mean, really, this is poor logic at best. If people don't know to turn off lights when not in use, then that would only be a bigger selling point for CFLs, as they use a fraction of the energy that an incandescent uses.
I am neither for or against EITHER bulb. As a matter of fact, I would recommend that people further away from the equator use incandescent bulbs during heating months and CFLs during cooling months.
Any "tool" can be crap if used in the wrong way.
I had a landlord who had CFLs in closets, but none for the porch lights! I pointed out to him that this wasn NOT very efficient. Lots of people just don't have a clue when it comes to physics.
Dude, perhaps I didn't explain it very well. With an incandescant bulb, one CAN shut it off when not needed because it actually provides light when turned on.
With the CFL's it takes forever to get light out of them when it's cold.
Since I apparently explained it so poorly, I should also add that we no longer use the CFL's in the afflicted areas. But I will say that when I can no longer buy incandescants I will leave at least one on in the garage from October to April. Let me know if that bothers you; I'll turn on an extra one.
Colonel, have you checked CFLs lately? Their cold weather performance is greatly improved. Several years ago you had to buy special cold weather CFLs for outdoor use. Today, the standard CFLs work well outside in all but the most severe temperatures.
Check out the fine print on the CFL label and you will see what temperature the light is rated for. I live in Indiana and have them on my porch and they work great! It's not exactly Eskimo country where I live, but it gets below zero here from time to time. If you do live in Eskimo country buy the CFLs with the cold weather ballast.
They don't... GE could care less about jobs in America, and haven't for a long time... To wit:
And, From the book “At Any Cost”:
This is silly. GE, or any other company, *should* cut workers if it increases profits. This is what capitalism is all about. Why would you want a company to run itself like a Soviet state-owned enterprise, employing however many workers the government tells them to?
Ideally, the human capital cut will be put to better use somewhere else in the economy, in some manner where it can be utilized efficiently and profitably.
However, with automation increasingly becoming the norm, it seems to me that there will always be a certain amount of unemployment in advanced economies.
Funny how things work out. China gives free land and will do virtually anything to get manufacturing plants into their country to employ their citizens and export products tariff-free into the U.S.
Ideally there is free market capitalism. In reality in does not exist. China gets the base jobs, a tax base, and export revenue. The U.S. gets to flip hamburgers.
Without manufacturing this country is finished. Only a few more years left.
How's that taking in each others laundry thing going for ya ?
jakoye - let's start with your job and then when you pick up a job for 60% of what your making now let's eliminate that one....
"This is what capitalism is all about."
This is truly my final comment on the Web, as there are simply too many of the illiterati and ignoranti around to continue to bother rebutting. Ain't time worthy.
No, this isn't, nor hasn't been capitalism, clown.
This is monopoly and monopolistic. Capitalism concerns competition. Monopolies are anti-competitive.
Don't you comprehend anything???????
Jesus H. on a Harley, there are too many who are too simpleton.
The entire premise of the "energy saving" is bogus as well--fluorescents are an inferior light that most cannot read by(maybe we peasants are supposed to read?); the luminescent bulbs are vastly cheaper, produce superior illumination,and perfectly efficient where the heat they emanate helps heat the space; and the mercury in the fluorescents has already created expensive cleanups. Furthermore, many in our area have found the chinese-made fluorescents to be poorly made, with a very short useful life. Congress, a pack of technical ignoramuses, got sold a bill of goods and we are paying for it--but they did create jobs in...CHINA.
I personally am loading up on the "inferior" bulbs, which are often on sale now.
MC,
Agreed. I have dated bulbs (magic marker) since starting to use fluorescents to find out how long they do last relative to resistive types. Some of the earlier versions didn't last as long. All seem to be doing better now but bulb life alone would not be worth the price. I don't know what we are going to do with the decorative bulbs in some of our light fixtures if incandescents are not available.
I better start loading up as well.
The LED based night lights are a different matter. I have had one in the bathroom, operating day in day out, for approaching 2 years now. I haven't power consumption but I accept because the heat is much less.
this is not capitalism. corporate entities allowed to domicile in a capitalist democracy should not be allowed to outsource to unfair traders, countries run by dictators/theocrats, human rights ignorers, child labor abusers, etc. while being protected by the resources and people of its home country, who thereby suffer.
and human capital will go to the vilest labor practices if allowed, but that creates ruthless profiteering and benefits the countries that value their people least. and that's not ideal.