Eliminating 2020 standards would cost $14 billion every year, more than $100 per household annually

Washington (October 11, 2019) – Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) today blasted the Trump administration for its attack on lighting efficiency standards, which will result in consumers paying billions of dollars more for energy and the emission of millions of additional tons of carbon dioxide. The Trump administration is proposing not to update the energy efficiency standards for general service incandescent lamps and withdrew the updated definitions of bulbs covered by the efficiency standards, which means that many common household bulbs like round globes, floodlights, candelabra bulbs, and track lighting bulbs will be exempted from meeting higher 2020 efficiency standards. These bulbs make up around half of the six billion bulbs used every day in American homes and businesses.  The Department of Energy was supposed to publish a final determination on the update of the general service lamp standard no later than January 1, 2017. If the Department failed to do so, Congress wrote a “backstop” into the law that would automatically require higher standards for general service lamps that was triggered, which the Trump administration is ignoring with this proposed roll-back. The senators also urge the Department of Energy to retain the January 2017 light bulb definitions.

The attack and proposed roll-back for light bulb efficiency standards is part of the Trump administration’s broader assault on critical energy efficiency standards, with a federal appeals court ruling this week that the Department of Energy has illegally delayed four energy efficiency standards for almost three years.

“These rollbacks are indefensible, both in terms of their costs to consumers and their contravention of Congressional intent,” write Senators Markey and Shaheen in their letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry. “These standards protect consumer budgets and the climate.” 

A copy of the letter can be found HERE. 

Other Senators signing the letter include Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

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