Legislation + Regulation

  The American Lighting Association (ALA) put out a government affairs newsletter, last week, summarizing a trio of federal trade actions announced in early June that are poised to reshape cost structures, sourcing strategies, and compliance risk across the lighting and electrical supply chain, with implications extending well beyond metals pricing. At the center is [...]

  The phase-out of POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) copper lines matters to the lighting industry mainly where lighting depends on legacy analog communications or building-life-safety infrastructure, not for everyday general lighting. The biggest effects are on emergency lighting controls, building automation, and any older sites where lighting systems share copper POTS/landline paths with alarms, fire [...]

  SB 3037, the Dark Sky Act, is currently working its way through the Illinois legislature. The bill sets out to add dark sky requirements within the Illinois Stretch Energy Code. It would update the Illinois Stretch Energy Code requirements so that the Code contains separate residential and commercial components. It specifically proposes: (A) outdoor [...]

  The FCC has voted unanimously proposing to bar Chinese and Hong Kong testing labs from certifying electronics for sale in the U.S., expanding an earlier restriction aimed at labs tied to the Chinese government and other national-security risks. The move is meant to reduce the chance that insecure or compromised devices enter the U.S. [...]

  California’s SB 343 law creates a new “accurate recycling labels” framework meant to reduce misleading recycling claims and make packaging labels better reflect what is actually recycled in the state. The core idea is that companies can’t use the chasing arrows symbol, or any other recyclability indicator, unless certain criteria are met, and those [...]

  LightNOW has already written about Maine’s new strict dark sky law, and Hawaii’s proposed dark sky bill. Here is a look at New York State’s proposed dark sky law. New York State’s proposed Dark Skies Protection Act (Assembly Bill A4615 / Senate Bill S5007) is part of a broader effort to reduce light pollution, [...]

  On April 1st, I published an article about the furniture industry’s declining imports and exports in 2025 relative to 2024. This likely indicated an overall decline in the furniture market, due to new 2025 US tariffs. I raised the question of whether similar declines occurred in the US lighting industry. After a little research, [...]

  Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has adopted new General Service Lamp (GSL) regulations that will largely harmonize with the current US GSL requirement of 45 lumens per watt minimum. Timing Manufactured on or after January 1st, 2026 for general service incandescent lamps or a general service incandescent reflector lamps. Manufactured on or after January 1st, [...]

  I was recently struck by a pair of articles in Home News Now, about the reduction in furniture imports and exports in 2025 versus 2024. The reductions suggest tariffs are reducing trade flows on both sides of the furniture market: imports fell almost three times more than exports (on a percentage basis), narrowing the [...]