ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL BLOGS

LATEST GLOBAL-WARMING BATTLE FRONT: LIGHT BULBS

     Two articles of interest:

     From the Times Argus on January 31, 2007, publishing a story from the San Jose Mercury News:

California mulls ban on incandescent light bulbs

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It may soon be lights out for the traditional light bulb in California.

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, is proposing that the Golden State become the first to ban sales of incandescent light bulbs, by 2012. In their place, Californians could purchase more energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps. Those are the spiral-shaped bulbs that cost more upfront but save money and energy over the long haul. Switching light bulbs is an idea that environmentalists have long supported. But getting consumers to embrace change has been slow going.

Banning energy-intensive incandescents "saves consumers money, saves the state money and saves energy," said Levine, who calls his measure the "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb Act."

But, "when a consumer is standing in a store and they're confronted with two different products, they generally opt for the one that is cheaper and the one they've traditionally bought," he said. "The problem is: The one they think is cheaper is only cheap at that moment in time. The other one is cheaper over the long run."

     And from the Associated Press on February 20, 2007:

Australia to ban old-style light bulb

The Australian government on Tuesday announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country.

Legislation to gradually restrict the sale of the old-style bulbs could reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012 and cut household power bills by up to 66 percent, said Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Australia produced almost 565 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2004, official figures show.

Prime Minister John Howard said the plan would help all Australians play a part in cutting harmful gas emissions: "Here's something practical that everybody will participate in."

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Cuba's Fidel Castro launched a similar program two years ago, sending youth brigades into homes and switching out regular bulbs for energy-saving ones to help battle electrical blackouts around the island.

The idea was later embraced by Castro's friend and ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who announced his own program to save energy and in recent months has given away millions of fluorescent bulbs in neighborhoods nationwide.

Under the Australian plan, bulbs that do not comply with energy efficiency targets would be gradually banned from sale. Exemptions may apply for special needs such as medical lighting and oven lights.

Fluorescent bulbs are currently more expensive than incandescent bulbs, but use only about 20 percent of the power to produce the same amount of light and last longer, making them more competitive over time, advocates argue.

     The money quote from these articles:  Assemblyman Levine's comment that "when a consumer is standing in a store and they're confronted with two different products, they generally opt for the one that is cheaper and the one they've traditionally bought...The problem is: The one they think is cheaper is only cheap at that moment in time. The other one is cheaper over the long run."  Government knows best, right?

GLOBAL WARMING: IT'S COSMIC, MAN (OR COSMIC MORE THAN MAN)

     The Telegraph (U.K.) publishes an interesting article by its Science Correspondent, Rihcard Gray, regarding a new theory about today's cause celeb, global warming (follow the link for the complete article):

Man-made climate change may be happening at a far slower rate than has been claimed, according to controversial new research. Scientists say that cosmic rays from outer space play a far greater role in changing the Earth's climate than global warming experts previously thought. In a book, to be published this week, they claim that fluctuations in the number of cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere directly alter the amount of cloud covering the planet. High levels of cloud cover blankets the Earth and reflects radiated heat from the Sun back out into space, causing the planet to cool. Henrik Svensmark, a weather scientist at the Danish National Space Centre who led the team behind the research, believes that the planet is experiencing a natural period of low cloud cover due to fewer cosmic rays entering the atmosphere. This, he says, is responsible for much of the global warming we are experiencing.

A provocative article by Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online

  Go to National Review Online to read the entire article:

Public policy is all about trade-offs. Economists understand this better than politicians because voters want to have their cake and eat it too, and politicians think whatever is popular must also be true.

Economists understand that if we put a chicken in every pot, it might cost us an aircraft carrier or a hospital. We can build a hospital, but it might come at the expense of a little patch of forest. We can protect a wetland, but that will make a new school more expensive.

You get it already. But in the history of trade-offs, never has there been a better one than trading a tiny amount of global warming for a massive amount of global prosperity.

Earth got about 0.7 degrees Celsius warmer in the 20th century while it increased its GDP by 1,800 percent, by one estimate....