A Great Visual Retort to Michele Bachmann’s Light Bulb Attack

Sept. 23, 2014
Here it is at last. The best retort to Michele Bachmann’s (R-Minn.) war on the energy efficiency light bulb.

Credit: Philips Lighting

Here it is at last. The best retort to Michele Bachmann’s (R-Minn.) war on the energy efficiency light bulb.

When Bachmann began stumping against energy efficiency standards for light bulbs – and in support of the old-fashioned incandescent – a lot of ink got spilled by energy efficiency advocates trying to explain what she was missing.

Efficiency standards for light bulbs aren’t about government control; they are about helping this rather doddering appliance out of the era of the horseless carriage, up the stairs and in the direction of the driver-less carriage. Amazingly, light bulbs managed to avoid innovation for near 100 years while everything around them changed.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a good video is worth a billion. Kudos to Philips Lighting for depicting this mystery of the light bulb’s history. Take a look at the video on You Tube. It’s called, “How Many Years Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?”

True, Philips is really just trying to promote its new products. But the video does such a good job capturing the light bulb’s staggeringly slow pace of change, it’s worth the mention here.

About the Author

Elisa Wood | Editor-in-Chief

Elisa Wood is the editor and founder of EnergyChangemakers.com. She is co-founder and former editor of Microgrid Knowledge.

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