The U.S. Department of Energy is proposing a rollback of energy efficiency standards for about 2.7 billion light bulbs, cutting nearly in half the number of bulbs to be covered by its 2020 energy-saving rules.
The proposal, announced Wednesday, would remove three-way bulbs, candle-shaped bulbs used in chandeliers and sconces, reflector bulbs used in recessed lighting, and the round globe bulbs usually found in bathroom lighting fixtures from the energy-saving lighting standards scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2020.
The result will be $12 billion in additional consumer energy bill costs and the need to generate 25 coal-burning plants’ worth of extra electricity every year, said Noah Horowitz, director of Natural Resources Defense Council’s Center for Energy Efficiency Standards.
“This is another senseless and illegal Trump administration rollback that will needlessly hike our energy bills and spew tons more pollution into the air, harming the health of our children and the environment,” said Horowitz. “Even with today’s highly efficient LED light bulbs on the market, Trump’s Department of Energy wants to keep 2.7 billion of our lighting sockets mired in a world of dinosaur, energy-guzzling lighting technology that basically hasn’t been updated for more than a hundred years.”
The department’s proposal is dangerous considering recent warnings about climate change, he said. “This is yet another Trump administration move that is almost certainly going to end up in court.”
