Today President Bush signed a bill into law that does several things, but in the end accomplishes more harm than good.

First it will begin a phase out of the incandescent light bulb (the ones you are used to) in favor of Compact Fluorescent light bulbs which uses less energy to light a home, however I have seen no research personally on how much energy it takes to create it over it’s counter parts.  Although based on the price charges for a CFL (up to three dollars per bulb) I would imagine the costs are steeper.  I have heard that they do take much more energy to create but haven’t been able to track down those sources yet.

Additionally as I have pointed out in an earlier post the mercury contained in a single broken bulb can cause a $2000 environmental clean up bill.   If these bulbs are not recycled properly they can lead to up to 30000 pounds of mercury each year in our landfills and in our water supplies.

The bill, additionally, will somehow magically create new technology that will get not only cars but light trucks to a 35 MPG standard.  The most efficient cars of 2007 barely reach this mark, let alone trucks. It is ludacris for Washington to legislate this type of thing, if it was already possible perhaps but for the feds to declare that new technology must be created it just a sign that they have lost track of reality.  How about a bill that demands time travel by 2015.

Finally the bill speaks to the savior of our energy guzzling economy, ethanol.  Of course the demand that we produce more doesn’t take into consideration that we must design and build an entirely new infrastructure to transport it, because it will corrode our current pipelines.  Oh, and it takes two units of energy to create one unit of energy in the form of ethanol which means this is a losing proposition from the beginning.  It is great for the corn farmers, bad for the Mexicans that can’t afford tortillas anymore but it isn’t good for our energy crisis.

Of course, there was no mention of becoming independent by drilling our on reserves that has been successful in the past so why try it again.   AGHHHHHHH!!!