The Religious Right is in your bedroom. And the Green Left is in every other room in your house.<\/p>\n
If Bible-thumping busybodies want to govern your sex life, then the Goracle’s disciples want to dictate what light bulbs to use in the living room, what foods you eat in the kitchen, what toilets you flush in the bathroom, what washers you load in the laundry room, and what car you park in the garage.<\/p>\n
Incredibly, the House of Representatives went on the record Tuesday night to ban the light bulbs that 85 percent of Americans choose to use in their homes. We’re not making this up.<\/p>\n
Under the hurried conditions under which the Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act (intended to repeal a sneaky provision of the 2007 Energy Bill) was brought to the House floor, it had to garner 290 votes- a two-thirds majority – to pass. But, largely upon party lines, it passed by only 233-193.<\/p>\n
It may be a vote that Democrats \u2014 in this tea party era \u2014 will live to regret.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the movement to repeal the bulb ban marks a watershed in Washington’s relentless effort to impose standards on every aspect of your life. The BULB vote has shown a light on the dark, stealthy plot to remake America to conform to Democrats’ austere, Green religion.<\/p>\n
“The vote is disappointing because only five Democrats voted for repealing the ban,” says Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute who organized a national petition to save the bulb. “However, a clear majority in the House support the bill. So the next step will be to bring the bill back under regular rules requiring a majority or add as an amendment to another bill.”<\/p>\n
As if on cue, Michigan Representative and Energy Committee Chairman Fred Upton says it ain’t over ’til it’s over.<\/p>\n
“A minority of Members chose to stand in the way of consumer choice,” said Upton, who sponsored the original ban but who has since seen the light, in a statement,. “A similar amendment may also be offered on the Energy and Water Appropriations bill later this week, which will need only a majority to pass.”<\/p>\n
By design, most Green standardization has been forced on manufacturers, out of view of consumers who politicians fear will hold them accountable for their dictatorial whims. Increase gas taxes to force hybrid-electric cars? Better to mandate fleet miles-per-gallon standards then demonize Big Auto if it can’t measure up. Increase electricity rates to pay for inefficient windmills? Better to force Renewable Power Standards on utilities and then demonize them when the rolling power blackouts come. Remove top -load washers from retail showrooms? Better to mandate water-use standards on washing machines, then demonize Big Business if they raise prices.<\/p>\n
But sometimes the zealots go too far.<\/p>\n
Exhibit A is Congress’ 1992 Energy Policy and Conservation Act that mandated homebuilders conform to a 1.6 gallon toilet standard. The resulting hassle of multiple flushes to get toilets to clean out has become a national joke. Senator Rand Paul famously flayed Green Priestess Kathleen Hogan, the Energy Department’s deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency, at a hearing this March<\/p>\n
“Frankly, my toilets don’t work in my house,” roared Paul. “And I blame you and people like you who want to tell me what I can install in my house.”<\/p>\n
“Flushing has become an anxious game of chance for all of us. Will it work? Will it clog up?” wrote Michael Heberling for The Mackinac Center in 1999. “Why has using the bathroom become a source of anxiety in my home? It is because I am the not-so-proud owner of three federally mandated, consumer-unfriendly toilets.”<\/p>\n
But the edict \u2014 despite efforts to kill it (most famously by Michigan Rep. Joe Knollenberg) \u2014 stuck, ominously setting the stage for the current insanity. At least consumers have the option of flushing again and again (thus negating the purpose of the standard to save water).<\/p>\n
Nixing light bulbs is another matter. Congress’ outright ban \u2014 via arcane language in the 2007 Energy Bill\u2014 may have slipped the notice of the public in 2007, and again in 2010 as incandescent factories quietly closed, putting hundreds out of work. But as consumers learned the common 40-100 watt bulbs would disappear by January 1, the Green police hit a buzz-saw.<\/p>\n
Even if the bulb ban repeal had succeeded, it would have likely been defeated by Harry Reid’s Senate, or vetoed by the dictator-in-chief. But the cat is out of the bag.<\/p>\n
“I really find it troubling,” concluded Sen. Paul in March, “this busy-body nature that you want to come into my house, my bathroom, my bedroom, my kitchen, my laundry room.”<\/p>\n
Americans have gotten a whiff of the socialist jackals stalking their homes. And now they have names.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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