In the absence of Federal government action, lawmakers in 28 states have proposed legislation to end seasonal time changes each Fall and Spring. In March, 2022, The U.S. Senate passed a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. The bill went nowhere in the House, and has made no apparent progress in the past [...]

  The Minamata Convention on Mercury was held 10/30 – 11/3, 2023, in Geneva, Switzerland. During the convention, 147 countries agreed to phase out all fluorescent lamps by 2027. This decision will accelerate adoption of LEDs. According to the appliance efficiency non-profit, CLASP, the phase out will have the following beneftis cumulatively between 2027 to [...]

On September 11th, 2023, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published a final rule implementing Reese’s Law. The intent of the law and CPSC ruling is to prevent childhood choking and ingestion hazard from coin cell batteries. In the lighting and ceiling fan industries, this typically impacts handheld remote controls. Products utilizing coin cell batteries [...]

  The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) established a temporary public interest waiver to waive Buy America requirements for steel, iron, manufactured products, and construction materials in electric vehicle (EV) chargers. The temporary waiver became effective on March 23, 2023. This short-term, temporary waiver enables EV charger acquisition and installation to proceed while also ensuring the [...]

  Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, and this article is a good faith, best effort at communicating the most relevant aspects of BABA requirements, for the lighting industry. The link at the end of this article goes to a more complete article published by the law firm, Steptoe. BACKGROUND The lighting industry has been [...]

  The US Department of Transportation awarded $653 million in grants on November 3rd to upgrade 41 water-based ports around the country. The funding is through the Port Infrastructure Development Program, which provides planning support, capital funding and project management assistance, and comes from the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The projects will boost [...]

  Rural Energy for America is a new program of the US Department of Agriculture. The program provides guaranteed loan financing and grant funding to agricultural producers and rural small businesses, for renewable energy systems or to make energy efficiency improvements. Agricultural producers may also apply for new energy efficient equipment and new system loans [...]

  Colorado recently became the seventh state to ban nearly all fluorescent lamps. The other six states are: California, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The above chart shows the effective dates for each state’s phaseout of screw-based CFLs, as well as pin-based CFLs & linear fluorescent tubes. All of the fluorescent lamp bans [...]

  The US Department of Energy has announced that US states and territories can apply for more than $8.5 Billion in funding for residential energy efficiency and electrification. The funding comes from a pair of programs in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Priority will go to homes that can save the most energy, with more [...]