Court clears state’s lightbulb standards
California can start enforcing its new efficiency standards for light bulbs, over industry objections, while fighting the Trump administration’s attempt to roll back similar standards for the rest of the nation, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The new rules, effective Wednesday, require most types of newly sold light bulbs to emit at least 45 lumens of light for each watt of electricity they burn. That will ban sales of standard incandescent bulbs, which produce 15 to 20 lumens per watt, and halogen bulbs, which are in the same range.
Fluorescent bulbs emit more than 60 lumens per watt, and LEDs, or lightemitting diodes, generate more than 80 lumens. Both cost more than incandescent lights but last much longer.
The 45-lumens-per-watt standard also takes effect nationwide Wednesday for many types of light bulbs, but not for five types: threeway incandescent lamps, shatterresistant bulbs, floodlights, candelabra bulbs and incandescent reflector lamps. President Barack Obama’s Energy Department added those bulbs to the list, as authorized by a 2007 federal law, but President Trump’s administration reversed that action.
California, 14 other states and the District of Columbia challenged the reversal in a lawsuit in November in a federal appeals court in New York, saying the rollback was illegal and environmentally damaging and would cost U.S. consumers $12 billion a year in energy savings by 2025. The states are also opposing the administration’s refusal to increase efficiency standards for common pearshaped incandescent bulbs.
In a separate case, California’s decision to implement the new efficiency standards on its own was challenged in December by two industry groups, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association and the American Lighting Association. They argue that the state is bound by federal law and cannot impose standards stricter than those in effect nationwide.
On Tuesday, however, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller of Sacramento denied a temporary restraining order that would have blocked the new state rules. She said the industry groups could seek a preliminary injunction, which would involve further arguments and more extensive proceedings, but she also said the state’s rules appear to be authorized by federal law.
U.S. law expressly allows California to adopt its own 45-lumens-per-watt standard if the federal government has not met specific legal deadlines, Mueller said. She said the Obama administration did not meet those deadlines, including a Jan. 1, 2017 date for final efficiency standards, clearing the way for California’s Energy Commission to set its own rules.
“Congress recognized, among other things, California’s history of leadership in energy efficiency regulations,” Mueller said. She said the state’s rulemaking process was practically complete by the time the federal government announced its changes and was protected by an “antibacksliding rule” in federal law.
The judge also said a restraining order against California would not be in the public interest. She said the industry groups had acknowledged at a hearing last week that “they do not have standing to speak for California consumers.”
The Natural Resources Defense Council said the state’s new rules would reduce utility bills while fighting pollution.
Mueller’s ruling “keeps California at the forefront of the movement to resist the Trump Department of Energy’s efforts to tie Americans to the technology of the past,” said the council’s Noah Horowitz. He said it was “appalling that the greedy lighting manufacturers are still fighting these commonsense regulations.”
Lawyers for the industry groups could not be reached for comment.