Light bulb ban (insurance, supporter, Texas, business)
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Wait, so you're saying that it's OK for US power plants to emit toxic mercury pollution, as long as the majority of it leaves the country? So it can pollute the oceans and poison fish all over the world? That seems to me like a very weird spin on what the EPA actually says:
No I'm not but if you want to focus om mercury emission reduction you need to focus on the primary sources in the global context, this is not a localized issue. Gold mining is the the number one source followed by coal.
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Coal-burning power plants are the largest human-caused source of mercury emissions to the air in the United States, accounting for over 50 percent of all domestic human-caused mercury emissions
The key words there are "in the United States", on the global scale which is the figure you need to look at US coal plants account for about 1% of the global pool. Reductions here will have very little effect on local deposition rates or globally because neither US coal plants or the US as whole is a large contributor to the global pool of mercury emissions. Total emissions from the US are about 3%.
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And this is a straw man fallacy, trying to change the subject with an argument that has nothing to do with the topic.
If you're going to discuss mercury emissions reductions you can't ignore the number one source.
Why wouldn't they be? Energy saving lamps also produce less heat, which handles the main safety issue with lighting fixtures... not putting more heat into them than they were designed for.
A lot of the heat they do produce is in the base which is conducted into the fixture but I'm not sure that is the primary issue, when used inside an enclosed unit because of the additional heat you decrease both the efficiency and life of the CFL.
The key words there are "in the United States", on the global scale which is the figure you need to look at US coal plants account for about 1% of the global pool. Reductions here will have very little effect on local deposition rates or globally because neither US coal plants or the US as whole is a large contributor to the global pool of mercury emissions.
We can't control the whole world. We can control the pollution we contribute to the overall problem. And in particular we can clean up the local pollution sources which affect the local fish and wildlife. And every lamp counts.
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If the electricity used to operate your lamps is generated from coal, and you operate 100-watt incandescent lamps for 10,000 hours, the power generating plant will release between 40 mg and 70 mg of mercury into the environment, depending upon the type of coal being used. If instead of the 100-watt incandescent lamp, you use a 25-watt CFL, the power plant mercury emissions drop to between 10 and 18 mg over the same 10,000 hour period, again depending upon the type of coal used. Even when the 5 mg of mercury in the CFL is added to the environment at the end of the lamp's 10,000 hours life, the total mercury from using the CFL is far less than using the incandescent lamp. Mercury emissions will be lower for For lower power incandescent lamps and CFL replacements, but for any incandescent lamp of 40 watts or greater, there will be more mercury added to the environment by using an incandescent lamp than by using a CFL, assuming that the electricity used to operate both is generated by burning coal.
If you're going to discuss mercury emissions reductions you can't ignore the number one source.
Agreed, and in the USA... which is the portion we are responsible for... the number one source is coal fired power plants.
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Originally Posted by thecoalman
A lot of the heat they do produce is in the base which is conducted into the fixture but I'm not sure that is the primary issue, when used inside an enclosed unit because of the additional heat you decrease both the efficiency and life of the CFL.
But that is not a safety issue, as was previously mentioned. It may be a cost factor, because the service life of the CFL bulbs is reduced somewhat, but it does not reduce their safety. LEDs, on the other hand, don't seem to have the same limitation.
Thanks To The Green Fanatics Incandescent Light Bulb Phase Out Begins Jan 1
The phase-out of 40w and 60w incandescent bulbs begins on Jan 1. I'm wondering how long they'll continue to be on the shelves at the big Box home improvement stores. I want to personally thank the green nazis and their supporters for taking more money out of my wallet
Last edited by CaseyB; 12-30-2013 at 11:31 AM..
Reason: implied obscenity
Crazy huh? Wait till its done with ammunition under the same green pretense.
Check amazon.com for incandescent bulbs
Oh, well the last primary lead smelting plant, the Doe Run plant in Missouri, has now been shut down because it was too costly to update the plant to meet the latest EPA standards. So, that means all newly smelted lead must be imported, and that is where it will have to come from for ammunition manufacturing. Up goes the price of ammo!
We can't control the whole world. We can control the pollution we contribute to the overall problem. And in particular we can clean up the local pollution sources which affect the local fish and wildlife. And every lamp counts.
Sorry but that's just feel good mentality, "We have to do something". Here's the estimates on the new mercury emissions standrds that were partly responsible for closing many of these old coal plants which are going to have far greater impact than CFL's.
Changes in mercury deposition rates associated with reductions in power plant
mercury emissions are based on regional deposition modeling results from the EPA's
analysis of the Clear Skies Initiative. In its analysis, the EPA simulated current mercury
deposition rates and the changes in these rates that would result if power plants
reduced their mercury emissions from the current rate of 49 tons per year to either 26 or
15 tons per year. We used these predictions to estimate changes in deposition rates for
the freshwater regions, the Atlantic Coastal Region, and the Gulf of Mexico. Estimated
decreases range from approximately 1% to 10%. The change in deposition rates to the
All Other Waters region is assumed to be proportional to the change in total global
emissions that would result from U.S. power plant emissions reductions, which is less
than 1%.
The deposition rate here in the US can be reduced as little as 1% in the worse case and 10% best case.
The average effect on individual avoided IQ loss in 2016 is 0.00209 IQ points, with total nationwide benefits estimated between $0.5 and $6.1 million.
That's an average of 2/1000 of one point, yeaaaaaaaaa team!
The reasons these reductions are so abysmal again is because this is a global issue and the US contribution to the global issue is very small. Aain total contributions from the US into the global poll is about 3% and US coal plants are about 1%. You could shut them all down tomorrow and you still have a negligible impact.
If you want to advocate for mercury emission reductions try picking something that will actually have an impact.
The phase-out of 40w and 60w incandescent bulbs begins on Jan 1. I'm wondering how long they'll continue to be on the shelves at the big Box home improvement stores. I want to personally thank the green nazis and their supporters for taking more money out of my wallet---you low life pieces of @#$%.
Tsk tsk tsk, you poor baby. So incensed over lightbulbs! Me, I could care less. Go & stock up, every store I've been in has tons on sale. Buy em up & quit whining.
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Thanks To The Green Fanatics Incandescent Light Bulb Phase Out Begins Jan 1
