Had Thomas Edison employed the same business strategy as his 21st-Century heirs at General Electric, he would have lobbied Congress to outlaw the candle in 1879 when he perfected and patented the light bulb.
He surely could have masked his self-interested lobbying in some public interest claim, such as fire prevention or the need for wax conservation. Today, the mask is environmentalism.
Earlier this month, Thomas Edison’s GE, together with Sylvania and Philips won a legislative victory when Congress passed an energy bill that would outlaw sale of the standard light bulb by 2012.
Sylvania is the leading light bulb maker worldwide, and GE is tops in America. These two companies, together with Dutch-based Royal Phillips Electronics, concede they basically wrote the new light bulb law. It goes without saying that they stand to profit from it — at consumer expense.
As reported previously in this column, the energy bill was loaded up with all sorts of favors for energy companies, manufacturers and other corporate bigwigs. The light bulb law follows the same pattern: A regulation touted as an environmental boon that will have dubious benefits to the planet, real costs to consumers and guaranteed profits for a handful of well-connected corporations.
The provision would make it illegal for American retailers in most cases to sell light bulbs that do not meet certain standards of efficiency — that is, a bulb in 2012 as bright as today’s 60 watt incandescent must get by with 42 watts of electricity.
Today, the clear successor to Thomas Edison’s incandescent bulb is the compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). CFLs are more expensive, but they last longer and use less electricity. They have real downsides, however.
First, the light is not as attractive to many consumers — a problem with which the industry has struggled for years. Second, they take a little time after you flip the switch to reach full brightness.
Third, most CFLs can’t be used with dimmer switches or three-way fixtures. Fourth, the bulbs contain mercury, creating a potential health hazard in case of breakage and an environmental hazard for disposal.
This is where Philips Electronics enters the picture. Earlier this year, the company released its Halogena — an incandescent bulb (thus giving off more pleasing light and not having mercury) that meets the efficiency standards (by transforming some of the bulb’s heat into light using technology the firm calls “EcoBoost”).
These EcoBoosting Halogena bulbs are expensive (about $4.50 a pop compared to today’s incandescents, which can run as cheap as 31 cents each), but currently they’re the only incandescent bulb that meets Congress’ standards. If Philips didn’t readily concede they wrote the law, you could guess as much.
GE is only a couple of steps behind, announcing earlier this year that in 2010 it will release an incandescent bulb that’s even more efficient than Philips’ Halogena. On Dec. 18, the day the bill cleared its biggest hurdle and passed the Senate, GE’s stock jumped 8.8 percent, and Philips jumped 2.1 percent.
These companies will get rich thanks to energy bill, but it’s not clear the public or the environment will share the windfall GE and Philips will experience. GE makes its CFLs and other fancy light bulbs in China, while it makes its incandescents in the United States.
The light bulb law will ship more American jobs offshore, shift manufacturing to China’s dirtier and less efficient factories, and increase shipping distances. Add in the mercury, and it’s not clear how good this law is for the environment. Its clearest benefit is to the companies who lobbied for it.
Democrats came to Washington promising to end the influence of big business lobbyists. The energy bill — with its gifts to aluminum giants such as Alcoa, ethanol moguls such as Goldman Sachs and Archer Daniels Midland, and now GE, Sylvania and Phillips — shows that the doors of power are as wide open to corporate lobbyists as they have ever been, as long as the lobbyists are dressed in green.
Examiner columnist Timothy P. Carney is senior reporter for the Evans-Novak Political Report. His Examiner column appears on Fridays.
