Australia Considers Ban On Incandescent Bulb Sales

The Australian government on Tuesday announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country.

Legislation to gradually restrict the sale of the old-style bulbs could reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012 and cut household power bills by up to 66 percent, said Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Australia produced almost 565 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2004, official figures show.

Prime Minister John Howard said the plan would help all Australians play a part in cutting harmful gas emissions: "Here's something practical that everybody will participate in."

My comments about the California proposal holds for Australia as well. This is essentially an unfunded mandate.

Still, there might be a factual error in the reporting about what Venezuela and Cuba have been doing in regards to CFLs.

Cuba's Fidel Castro launched a similar program two years ago, sending youth brigades into homes and switching out regular bulbs for energy-saving ones to help battle electrical blackouts around the island.

The idea was later embraced by Castro's friend and ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who announced his own program to save energy and in recent months has given away millions of incandescent bulbs in neighborhoods nationwide.

If Chavez was giving away millions of incandescents, then he was actually increasing the energy usage of Venezuela, not decreasing the usage. Methinks that the editor got this wrong and Chavez was actually giving away CFLs, not incandescents.

Also, Cuba's power grid is rickety and can barely sustain itself under normal conditions experiencing blackouts on a regular basis. Their policy is as much about the regime surviving as it is about energy conservation.

The same goes for Chavez in Venezuela. He's using the CFLs as a way to curry favor in the slums, ignoring the big issues like freedom and individual rights.