Why are conservatives wrong about EVERYTHING?
I rarely post about work, except for my recent forays into the hilarity of working for a large, uncoordinated agency. But what I do for work is energy efficiency, specifically lighting.
I read an article today that just appalls me. It is amazing to me how vociferously I disagree with Republicans. It is like they have an opposite worldview that is so entirely myopic and self-centred, I have no concept of how they see the world.
Here's the source of my issues:
Lawmakers passed on a voice vote an amendment to energy- spending legislation for fiscal year 2012 barring the Energy Department from implementing or enforcing lighting-efficiency standards set by 2007 legislation. The law would effectively push the traditional bulbs off store shelves, starting with the 100-watt version next year.
Republicans passed the amendment over objections from Democrats, environmental groups and lighting manufacturers such as Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co. (GE), which have retooled factories and products to meet the new standards. Critics said consumers should be able to buy the cheapest bulbs on the market.
“The federal government has no right to tell me or any other citizen what type of light bulb to use at home,” said Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican [fucking moron, shit-for-brains, ignorant twat] who sponsored the amendment, during debate yesterday. “It is our right to choose.”
This isn't about choice. It is about conservation, you nit-wits. It is about American ingenuity. It is about efficiency. It is about getting off foreign energy. Arguing that people should be able to fill up their house with 100W, inefficient bulbs is like arguing that people should have the 'freedom' to pee in reserviors. It is a short-sighted, ignorant, ridiculous argument.
The EISA legislation has single-handedly started a revolution in lighting over the last 4 years. LED manufacturers are entering the markets daily. Utilities and lighting manufacturers are on the same page as Democrats and environmentalists. We've never seen anything like this before! It is a new era in my line of work. And conservative waste-loving Republicans want to pooh-pooh that under the guise of freedom? What else do you want freedom to do? Spit in people's french fries? How about the freedom to kick kittens in a clown outfit at an 8 year-old's birthday party [now why would anyone want that sort of freedom? I ask you the same question about 100W light bulbs!]? How about we just scrap guard rails on roads, that way people have the 'freedom' to kill themselves and their families? Oh, wait, you don't like when people have the choice to end life on their own terms... If you want freedom, how about we lift the censorship laws so that I can hear Jon Stewart say "shit" on TV? Everyone knows what he's saying anyway...
Where do you stand, conservatives? Are you actually conservatives? Can you connect the dots and see that a 100W lightbulb costs more than a CFL over the lifetime of a CFL, puts out more mercury into the air because of air emissions and coal, harms industry, and is a completely ignorant purchase. Capitalism assumes well-informed buyers. Anyone buying an incandescent is not well informed on the energy and big-picture costs of her purchases.
I understand you have market principles and capitalism. But there are externalities that hurt other industries. So do we just ignore that? Do we force blackouts and brownouts because you're in love with a fucking 100W lightbulb? Or do you force utilities to build expensive new power plants and raise rates for everyone? Are you really trying to scuttle our economy with higher energy prices, more greenhouse gases, more dependence on foreign energy? Or can you see that a $1 premium on a technology that lasts longer, performs better, is more efficient, and saves 4X its costs in energy has long- and short-term benefits for a thousand sectors of our economy?
This sort of legislation is some of the best legislation ever created, and Tea Partiers and jacktards are pissing and moaning about freedom? The freedom to destroy--the freedom to screw people over--the freedom to eat babies. It is issues like these that make legislation one of the best applications of law ever. This is why we have government: to improve the lives of everyone in the country.
Energy savings. A CFL bulb uses about 75 percent less energy than a traditional light bulb. Nationwide, a 60 percent to 70 percent decrease in light energy usage would save as much energy annually as the total amount of energy used by all the homes in Texas.
This is the very definition of penny wise and pound foolish.
I read an article today that just appalls me. It is amazing to me how vociferously I disagree with Republicans. It is like they have an opposite worldview that is so entirely myopic and self-centred, I have no concept of how they see the world.
Here's the source of my issues:
Lawmakers passed on a voice vote an amendment to energy- spending legislation for fiscal year 2012 barring the Energy Department from implementing or enforcing lighting-efficiency standards set by 2007 legislation. The law would effectively push the traditional bulbs off store shelves, starting with the 100-watt version next year.
Republicans passed the amendment over objections from Democrats, environmental groups and lighting manufacturers such as Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co. (GE), which have retooled factories and products to meet the new standards. Critics said consumers should be able to buy the cheapest bulbs on the market.
“The federal government has no right to tell me or any other citizen what type of light bulb to use at home,” said Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican [fucking moron, shit-for-brains, ignorant twat] who sponsored the amendment, during debate yesterday. “It is our right to choose.”
This isn't about choice. It is about conservation, you nit-wits. It is about American ingenuity. It is about efficiency. It is about getting off foreign energy. Arguing that people should be able to fill up their house with 100W, inefficient bulbs is like arguing that people should have the 'freedom' to pee in reserviors. It is a short-sighted, ignorant, ridiculous argument.
The EISA legislation has single-handedly started a revolution in lighting over the last 4 years. LED manufacturers are entering the markets daily. Utilities and lighting manufacturers are on the same page as Democrats and environmentalists. We've never seen anything like this before! It is a new era in my line of work. And conservative waste-loving Republicans want to pooh-pooh that under the guise of freedom? What else do you want freedom to do? Spit in people's french fries? How about the freedom to kick kittens in a clown outfit at an 8 year-old's birthday party [now why would anyone want that sort of freedom? I ask you the same question about 100W light bulbs!]? How about we just scrap guard rails on roads, that way people have the 'freedom' to kill themselves and their families? Oh, wait, you don't like when people have the choice to end life on their own terms... If you want freedom, how about we lift the censorship laws so that I can hear Jon Stewart say "shit" on TV? Everyone knows what he's saying anyway...
Where do you stand, conservatives? Are you actually conservatives? Can you connect the dots and see that a 100W lightbulb costs more than a CFL over the lifetime of a CFL, puts out more mercury into the air because of air emissions and coal, harms industry, and is a completely ignorant purchase. Capitalism assumes well-informed buyers. Anyone buying an incandescent is not well informed on the energy and big-picture costs of her purchases.
I understand you have market principles and capitalism. But there are externalities that hurt other industries. So do we just ignore that? Do we force blackouts and brownouts because you're in love with a fucking 100W lightbulb? Or do you force utilities to build expensive new power plants and raise rates for everyone? Are you really trying to scuttle our economy with higher energy prices, more greenhouse gases, more dependence on foreign energy? Or can you see that a $1 premium on a technology that lasts longer, performs better, is more efficient, and saves 4X its costs in energy has long- and short-term benefits for a thousand sectors of our economy?
This sort of legislation is some of the best legislation ever created, and Tea Partiers and jacktards are pissing and moaning about freedom? The freedom to destroy--the freedom to screw people over--the freedom to eat babies. It is issues like these that make legislation one of the best applications of law ever. This is why we have government: to improve the lives of everyone in the country.
Energy savings. A CFL bulb uses about 75 percent less energy than a traditional light bulb. Nationwide, a 60 percent to 70 percent decrease in light energy usage would save as much energy annually as the total amount of energy used by all the homes in Texas.
This is the very definition of penny wise and pound foolish.