President Donald Trump wants to make America incandescent again. He posted on his social media platform Truth Social that he plans to end Biden-era standards for lightbulbs that accelerated the adoption of LED lighting.
According to that post, he’ll direct his appointee Lee Zeldin to “go back to the common sense standards,” for lightbulbs. Zeldin is the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, although Trump calls him “secretary” in his post. And while Trump singled out Zeldin, it’s the Department of Energy that sets efficiency standards for light bulbs and appliances.
Trump said he’s going to sign “orders” to reinstate standards that were in place during his first term. Along with lightbulbs, the president indicated he would weaken standards for sinks, showers, toilets, washing machines, and dishwashers.
Trump has been crusading against more efficient lightbulbs since his first term as president, saying at the time “you look better with incandescent lights” and that “of course being a vain person, that’s very important to me.”
“Of course being a vain person, that’s very important to me.”
On a more serious note, his administration has taken aim at energy efficiency initiatives as part of a broader effort to derail action on climate change and promote fossil fuels. He signed a sweeping executive order called “Unleashing American Energy” on his first day in office that includes “safeguard[ing] the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances, including but not limited to lightbulbs.”
Oil and gas companies pumped more than $75 million into Trump’s campaign and Republican efforts during the last election cycle, and now they’re reaping the rewards. Trump picked fossil fuel executive Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy (DOE), which set higher efficiency standards for lightbulbs before he stepped into office.
The US has been trying to phase out inefficient lightbulbs since 2007, when George Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act into law. Trump rolled back those standards in 2019. Then the Biden administration introduced stricter rules on energy efficiency that most incandescent bulbs couldn’t meet.
Old-school incandescent bulbs are far less efficient than their newer counterparts because they lose about 90 percent of their energy as heat. Household LEDs typically use at least 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and can last up to 25 times longer. And while upfront costs for an LED bulb tends to be higher, an LED is supposed to save consumers money in the long run because of its longevity and through lower electricity bills. It’s no wonder, then, that the LED is already the leading lighting technology in homes globally, according to the International Energy Agency.
