More Energy Bill Silliness

Posted on December 26th, 2007 in Economics, Energy Conservation by Justin

SEC. 603. PROHIBITION ON PRICE GOUGING DURING ENERGY EMERGENCIES.

(a) In General- During any energy emergency declared by the President under section 606 of this Act, it is unlawful for any supplier to sell, or offer to sell crude oil, gasoline or petroleum distillates subject to that declaration in, or for use in, the area to which that declaration applies at an unconscionably excessive price.

(b) Factors Considered- In determining whether a violation of subsection (a) has occurred, there shall be taken into account, among other factors, whether–

(1) the price charged was a price that would reasonably exist in a competitive and freely functioning market; and

(2) the amount of gasoline or other petroleum distillate the seller produced, distributed, or sold during the period the Proclamation was in effect increased over the average amount during the preceding 30 days.

Government control of gas prices? Yeah, that’ll end well.

Say goodbye to the incandescent light bulb Pt 2.

Posted on December 26th, 2007 in Energy Conservation, Freedom & Liberty, Politics by Justin

In comments on the previous post Jed points out:

Uh, halogens are incandescent. If the wording in the bill is broad enough, it will ban those too.

I think he’s right.

I went slogging through Section 321 of the final energy bill, and while I’m still quite confused, I don’t see any exemption for halogens and presume they fall under the definition of a general purpose incandescent lamp. I just did a quick refresher on halogen lamp technology while I was at it. From what I gather they’re only slightly more efficient than standard bulbs. What they’re good at is lasting longer is really about it.

The crux of the section is the table spelling out the new efficiency requirements:

Rated Lumen Ranges Maximum Rate Wattage Minium Rae Lifetime Effective Date
1490 - 2600 72 1000 hours 1/1/2012
1050 - 1489 53 1000 hours 1/1/2013
750 - 1049 43 1000 hours 1/1/2014
310 - 749 29 1000 hours 1/1/2014

Any incandescent kicking out more than 2600 lumens* or less than 310 lumens isn’t covered by this legislation. That’s spelled out in Sec.321(a)(1)(D)(i)(III) and fairly obvous when you’re looking at the chart. I have no idea what would be at the high end of that spectrum, but at the lower end it looks like our betters are going to permit us to keep little night lights around the house to keep the kiddies from seeing monsters and the adults from stubbing our toes in the dead of night.

Thanks, congress! We love you too!

So, halogens, do we get to keep them? Well, I just put in 4 50W halogen bulbs in my kitchen area the other week. I’ve tossed the packaging so let’s see if we can find them online. This looks about right. Lumen output: 550.

Yep, that’s half as much output as Congress wants for 50W of usage. Golly, if an $8 bulb isn’t good enough for them just what the heck am I going to have to spend to find something that is?

*UPDATE: Apparently something like this bulb is a regular incandescent bulb that’ll kick out north of 2600 lumens (based on some math in my head) by pushing 250W through the filament. Problem: They only last for 3 hours!