Column for Jan. 20, 2011

I have a family member that lives in Greensboro and has a Howard Coble for Congress bumper sticker on her car. Since I do not live in that district, I am not all that familiar with Mr. Coble. After reading an article on “The Greensboro News & Record” web site, I know why she supports him. Howard Coble supports something that is in short supply inside the beltway of Washington, DC, common sense.

Mr. Coble supports a bill that says you should be able to use whatever kind of light bulb you prefer in your own home. You see, in 2007, Congress passed a bill that requires certain energy efficiency standards for light bulbs. I don’t know what business it is of Congress to regulate what sort of bulbs you put in your lamp next to your living room chair or in your bathroom light fixtures, since I don’t see anything in the Constitution that allows them to do that. Furthermore, it is just plain common sense to let people choose for themselves what sort of lights they want to use.

I put compact fluorescent bulbs in most of my lighting fixtures in my home. I did this to hopefully save energy and money. I bought into the hype that these bulbs were just as bright as incandescent bulbs and would use far less electricity. I got tired of some bulbs blowing out on me and constantly changing them. One lamp in particular blew bulbs constantly. A fluorescent bulb solved that particular issue.

One thing that I found out, however, is that compact fluorescent bulbs were much more expensive than incandescent bulbs. They also can blow out and fail just like incandescent bulbs. More than once I have put in a fluorescent bulb and it blew out in short order. So much for saving money there. On top of that, I found out that after a while, fluorescent bulbs tend to dim. Not too long ago, my wife remarked to me, “Is it me or is the living room darker than it used to be?” Alas, she was correct. The ceiling fan lights just are not as bright as they used to be.

I know people that have rushed to stores and stocked up a lifetime supply of incandescent bulbs just because they do not want to be forced into more expensive bulbs and they don’t want the government telling them how to illuminate their homes. I am all for saving electricity, but I am not for the government mandating how I do it. If I prefer older, more inefficient light bulbs, that is my choice. If I want to waste electricity by leaving my door left wide open so that I try to heat the great outdoors during our record “global warming” cold snaps, that is my business.

I am not convinced that this common sense repeal bill will pass through Congress and be signed by the President, however. Remember that the Senate is still controlled by people who love to control you and your actions such as Harry Reid, and that the President used to have the most liberal voting record in the Senate when he would actually cast a vote. He already wants to tell you how to conduct your health care and what volume your television can be set to, so I doubt he wants to allow you the freedom to choose the type of light bulb you want to use.

Speaking of electricity use, I see that Duke Energy and Progress Energy want to merge. The arguments so far are that there will be more efficient generation and distribution of electricity thus resulting in lower electricity bills. I am sure that every single person who is a customer of theirs and especially those who are customers of public power towns may just want a utility bill break. Towns like Selma, Smithfield, and Clayton already pay higher electricity rates than direct customers of Progress Energy, so just maybe we can enjoy a lower rate for our electricity.

I would prefer that towns get out of their arrangement through Electricities all together and sell off our local power grid to the newly organized Duke Energy, but I doubt that will happen. The power Nazis want to maintain power over the people by monopolizing local towns’ electricity distribution to extract revenue from them. The light bulb Nazis may eventually come knocking on your door if you keep using your incandescent light bulbs. I may be a compact fluorescent bulb user, but at least you can never accuse me of saying, “First they came for the incandescent bulb users, but I was not an incandescent bulb user...”