Legislation + Regulation

  The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act, last week, but the change is not law yet. The bill still needs Senate approval and a presidential signature before daylight saving time could become permanent. For the lighting industry, the bigger story is less about the clock change itself than about how a [...]

  The Trump Administration announced its decision not to renew USMCA in its current form. The move could potentially reshape sourcing, pricing, and supply-chain planning across North America. For lighting manufacturers, distributors, and specifiers, the key issue is not an immediate break in trade, but a decade-long review process that keeps the pact in force [...]

  Last week, the American Lighting Association (ALA) published a great update on extended producer responsibility (EPR) state laws: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Laws: State-by-State Update Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws continue to expand across the United States, requiring producers to finance and support the collection, recycling and end-of-life management of packaging and certain products. [...]

  The U.S. legal marijuana industry posted its first national revenue decline in 2025, even though more states legalized cannabis, however federal rescheduling could help reverse the trend. The market still remained large, with 2025 sales at $29.1 billion and employment at 412,500 workers as of early 2026. Vangst and Whitney Economics found that the [...]

  The Claim On July 2nd, US DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (that replaced the shuttered EERE) sent out an email stating, “U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today announced the Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to permanently end home appliance and equipment mandates that raise [...]

  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. [...]