On the Stupidity of Banning Incandescent Bulbs

This morning's Globe & Mail (online) had the following headline - "Ottawa Moves to Ban Incandescent Lights"

I will spare you the diatribe, and instead share the letter I wrote to the right honorable John Baird, minister of the environment. Please write him too!

Dear Mr. Baird,

I am writing to you about the government's announcement that it intends to ban incandescent light bulbs by 2012.

While I am all for conserving energy, the specifics of the ban are highly problematic.

It would be far more reasonable and progressive to instead require that light bulbs, regardless of type, produce a certain level of light per watt. While this won't get you the same spectacular headlines as "Ottawa Moves to Ban Incandescent Lights", it will solve the problem.

As a convenient example, GE recently introduced something they call a high-efficiency incandescent bulb, and according to their press release "[t]he target for these bulbs at initial production is to be nearly twice as efficient, at 30 lumens-per-Watt, as current incandescent bulbs. Ultimately the high efficiency lamp (HEI) technology is expected to be about four times as efficient as current incandescent bulbs and comparable to CFL bulbs." GE has set their target to be 2010 for these bulbs. I'm sure other companies are working on similar ideas.

It seems that it should be possible in the forseeable future to have incandescent bulbs that are, for the purposes of reducing energy consumption, on even par with the current crop of compact fluorescent bulbs.

The government's role is not to ban certain kinds of goods, but to set the standards by which manufacturers will compete. Just as California has demonstrated that stringent emissions standards will cause manufacturers to innovate and create more fuel efficient vehicles, hybrids, and electric cars, this is an opportunity for your government to show environmental leadership and encourage technological innovation.

Thank you.

I'll let you know if I hear back...