The incandescent “ban” has returned to the Congress floor. This time, Congress passed a $1.1 trillion funding bill that would keep the federal government operating until September 2015, but the bill carried various policy provisions that affect current and upcoming laws. One of those provisions extends a ban on government spending to enforce energy-efficiency policy that makes traditional incandescent lamps obsolete.
The ban on the ban would have little practical effect, however, as most major lighting manufacturers and stores are already well along with their phase-out of the old technology.
“The industry has moved on,” said Larry Lauck, a spokesman for the American Lighting Association in a 2011 interview with ABC News.
The original defunding of the Energy Independence and Security Act occurred in the 2012 federal budget, the same year the incandescent phase-out would have begun.
President Obama signed the new funding bill into law on Dec. 16, 2014.
Timothy Johnson
Timothy Johnson is the former digital editor for ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR magazine.
