See the light?

March

If a Westchester County lawmaker has his way, incandescent light bulbs may soon be hard to find around here.

Marty Rogowsky, D-Harrison, is proposing county legislation that will ban all such lighting in county-owned buildings after the last day of 2007. In addition, he wants to ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs in Westchester two years later.

“Most of us go through the day in the dark about how individual habits contribute to global warming,” Rogowsky said in announcing the legislation. “We need to turn on the light, so to speak, in all of us and get to the point where everyone is aware that simple painless measures like switching what kind of light bulb you use, are the kinds of battles that will win the war on global warming.”

Rogowsky joins the growing chorus of those who want people to use only compact fluorescents bulbs, which cost more on the front end, but save electricity/money with each use and reduce the need to burn fossil fuels to produce power. That means fewer greenhouse gases being spewed into the environment.

The potential savings in both money and electricity are fairly substantial, as much as 75 percent by some estimates. The compacts last longer too.

I recently started using them at home and though they seem a little dim when you first turn them on, they brighten to full power quickly. It’s a good reminder that the landscape for powering our lives is changing.

Whether Rogowsky can succeed is legislating what can and can’t be sold in Westchester is a question for another time.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 3:37 pm by Greg Clary.
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3 Responses to “See the light?”

Richard Tjoa March 21st, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Five small 15w incandescents hang over our kitchen table. What are we supposed to replace them with? Use CFLs in a refrigerator? I don’t think so.

Additionally, CFLs are too blue and brighten to full power t-o-o s-l-o-w-l-y (15-30 seconds) for my wife’s liking. All you are going to do is drive sales outside of the county. (Oooh, extra gasoline use!)

Instead of a ban, how about just taxing them?

[That said… 1. I’ve replaced whatever bulbs around my house I could (get away) with them. 2. I’ve selected the ConEd Solutions Green Power for electricity. and 3. I hear Putnam could use the extra sales tax revenue.]
Steve C. March 22nd, 2007 at 5:51 am
sounds to me that the lawmaker has money invested in the other brand of bulbs.
what about our freedom of choice?

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