New Plan Brightens Future for Clean, Efficient Lighting

WASHINGTON (March 14, 2007) -- The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is teaming up with the world’s largest manufacturer of light bulbs, Philips Lighting Company, and other groups in issuing a call to action to transform the marketplace in favor of cleaner, more efficient lights and lighting systems. The joint commitment announced today at the National Press Club seeks to phase out inefficient incandescent light bulbs and replace them with a new generation of lighting technologies that meet advanced efficiency performance standards by 2016.

 

 

“This is a bright idea whose time has come,” said Noah Horowitz, NRDC senior scientist. “Bringing to market the next generation of clean, efficient light bulbs and lighting systems will save energy, reduce pollution -- including the heat-trapping emissions that cause global warming -- and lower consumers’ electricity bills.

 

“It’s an inconvenient truth that today’s incandescent light bulbs represent a 125-year-old technology that needs to be retired. The average incandescent converts roughly 95 percent of the incoming electricity into wasted heat. We can do better.

 

“Fortunately, dramatically more efficient products already are on the market, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which use one quarter the power of an incandescent and last up to 10 times longer. Many more efficient products are on the way from Philips and other manufacturers, such as improved halogen light bulbs, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and even better incandescents.

 

“There are roughly 4 billion light sockets in the United States alone, so screwing in cleaner, better technologies will dramatically lessen our power consumption and pollution production, while increasing our pocketbook savings.”