Standard light bulb gets reprieve in California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Thomas Edison can rest in peace; his incandescent light bulb won't be banned by California lawmakers this year after all.

Legislation to phase out the common bulb was shelved this month, elbowed aside by a competing bill that sends lighting makers an ultimatum: Conserve energy or the party's over.

The bill would require the state to set an energy-efficiency standard for light bulbs that Edison's nearly 130-year-old invention can't currently meet — but might in the future.

"We've really worked hard to make sure that we're not playing that game of picking winners and losers," said Assemblyman Jared Huffman, who crafted the bill.

Supporters hail the bill as a national model that would reduce electrical demand, curb emission of 6 million tons of greenhouse gases annually and save ratepayers $3 billion a year by negating the need for five new power plants.

But opponents blasted the bill as a backdoor ban on incandescents and the latest link in a chain of bills that intrudes upon consumer choice.

"Sacramento keeps getting into people's knickers," said Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine. "We are getting into ever-increasing levels of detail in demanding how people live their lives."

The prime target of Huffman's legislation is Edison's 19th-century invention, the low-cost but wasteful incandescent, which converts only 5 percent of the electricity it uses into light, the remaining 95 percent into heat.

General Electric has announced plans to retain the traditional incandescent but overhaul its technology to create bulbs that are twice as energy-efficient by 2010 and, ultimately, nearly four times more efficient.

The leading candidate to replace the common light bulb is the compact fluorescent lamp, or CFL. Fifty-six percent of homes already use at least one CFL, records show.

Driving the market toward compact fluorescents potentially could create disposal problems for millions of such bulbs, however.

"You have the unintended consequence of favoring light bulbs that have [a neurotoxin] in them," DeVore said.

Compact fluorescents contain trace amounts of mercury, which can cause respiratory, kidney or other health problems.

Huffman said his bill would limit the mercury in each bulb and would require creation of recycling systems.