Little-Acorn
12-16-2011, 05:35 PM
In the funding bill to keep the government from shutting down, that has passed the House today and will likely be signed into law, the House struck a deal to include a passage to defund the incandescent light-bulb ban from 2007.
Some people are saying that this "lifts the ban" on incandescent light bulbs. Unfortunately, that's not so.
Even if present bills become law, the ban will still be in place. Specifically, bulbs below a certain efficiency level (which includes pretty much all incandescents) can no longer be legally produced and sold.
In the legislation mentioned above, all they did was defund the enforcement of the ban. But the ban is still on the books, and is still law.
So now we have a situation where if a company keeps making and selling incandescent bulbs after the deadline, they ARE in violation of the law. The gummint is just banned from spending any money on inspections, court cases, making room in jail for them, etc.
Any company that wants to obey the law still can't make and sell incandescent bulbs.
It's sort of like the situation where illegal aliens keep walking across the border by the millions into the United States. There are Federal laws on the books against doing that. But since the Fed govt has made very little effort (until recently) to enforce its own laws, the illegals have been doing it freely for years. So anyone who wants to violate US law can do so without repercussion. But they are still illegals.
Some people are saying that this "lifts the ban" on incandescent light bulbs. Unfortunately, that's not so.
Even if present bills become law, the ban will still be in place. Specifically, bulbs below a certain efficiency level (which includes pretty much all incandescents) can no longer be legally produced and sold.
In the legislation mentioned above, all they did was defund the enforcement of the ban. But the ban is still on the books, and is still law.
So now we have a situation where if a company keeps making and selling incandescent bulbs after the deadline, they ARE in violation of the law. The gummint is just banned from spending any money on inspections, court cases, making room in jail for them, etc.
Any company that wants to obey the law still can't make and sell incandescent bulbs.
It's sort of like the situation where illegal aliens keep walking across the border by the millions into the United States. There are Federal laws on the books against doing that. But since the Fed govt has made very little effort (until recently) to enforce its own laws, the illegals have been doing it freely for years. So anyone who wants to violate US law can do so without repercussion. But they are still illegals.