California & Los Angeles Elected Officials Challenge Peers to Change Light Bulbs

On Saturday, November 3, at  the Kick-Off Event for the Pacific Palisades Green Initiative's Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Drive, two elected officials, California State Assemblymember Lloyd Levine (pictured at right) and Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl (pictured below left), both made exciting announcements: they challenged their peers to change out the incandescent light bulbs in their own homes in favor of CFLs, and they have both committed to using Energy Trek and One Billion Bulbs to track the progress of the challenge.  Levine stated, “I’m going to take up the Billion Bulbs challenge and I’m going to email it out to my list of 20,000 people asking them to do the same. I’m also going to contact all of my colleagues in the Legislature and challenge them,” while Rosendahl said, “The Pacific Palisades community is behind energy efficiency. We are in a climate zone crisis in this country. For families to change light bulbs in their house is a little thing, but it will save a tremendous amount of energy.”  Click on their pictures to view footage of them from the event, or you can read the full story on the event here.

Mother of 2 Kicks-Off Palisades Green Initiative with One Month CFL Drive for 10,000 Homes

Karen Martinez-Cohen, a resident of Pacific Palisades, California, who had, by her own admission, never previously organized anything larger than birthday parties for her children, recently founded the non-profit Pacific Palisades Green Initiative and has been busy organizing the Kick-Off of the initiative's first event: a month-long Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb Drive (CLICK ON HER PICTURE AT LEFT TO WATCH A VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH HER). During this drive, volunteers will visit all of the over 10,000 homes in Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles, to encourage residents to change out their incandescent light bulbs in favor of CFLs. Read the complete story and see an interview of Karen here.

Maryland Promotes 'Change a Light' Campaign To Conserve Energy

BALTIMORE (October 5, 2007) – To kick off the 'Change a Light' campaign, the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) is dedicating 120,000 compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) for projects to assist low-income families throughout Maryland.

The national campaign, which began October 3, challenges residents, colleges, schools, businesses, and utilities to take control of their soaring energy bills by replacing incandescent lights with compact fluorescent lights, one light – one energy-saving step – at a time.

U.S. Promotes Swap to Energy-Saving Light Bulbs

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday [October 3, 2007] kicked off a campaign to get U.S. consumers to switch to energy-efficient light bulbs as a way of reducing energy spending and greenhouse gas emissions.

The EPA's "Change-a-Light, Change-the-World" bus tour will travel to 10 U.S. cities this month to promote Energy Star light bulbs that use about 75 percent less electricity than standard incandescent light bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.

L.A. County Calling For Lights-Out Hour

From the Los Angeles Times

Coordinating with San Francisco's plan, officials are urging Angelenos to agree to a voluntary blackout one day next month to help conserve energy.

By Susannah Rosenblatt
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 29, 2007

Following San Francisco's lead, Los Angeles County and city officials are urging people, businesses and government to switch off nonessential lights for one hour next month to save energy.

Led by Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke and City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, the proposed effort asks Angelenos to simultaneously go dark between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20, as San Franciscans do the same. Local officials are expected to vote on the plan next week.

At the original event in Sydney, Australia, in March, 2.2 million people cut the lights, causing a 10% drop in electricity use. The so-called Earth Hour reduced 25 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to taking nearly 49,000 cars off the road for 60 minutes, organizers said.

School Focus: NY 8th Grade Promotes Changing Bulbs in Bellmore (Long Island) and Soon Across NY State

A team of teachers at Grand Avenue Middle School in Bellmore, New York recently brought not only energy conservation but also energy leadership and activism into the classroom and into their students’ lives.  They became focused on getting parents to change out power-hungry incandescent light bulbs for power-conserving compact fluorescent units (CFLs). They used an internet initiative as both a resource and a way to track the results of their efforts. A few weeks ago, Sean Krieg, the team’s science teacher, created their "Team Dakota" group on One Billion Bulbs (OneBillionBulbs.com). The team currently has 83 members and has changed 188 bulbs to compact fluorescents.

Light Bulb Legislation

History of Announced Government Initiatives and Legislation to Ban Inefficient Bulbs

February 2007

• Feb 20 - Australia
• Feb 22 - California

March 2007

• March  9  - European Union
• March 15 - US House

April 2007

• April 18 - Ontario Government
• April 25 - Canadian Government

September 2007

• September 11 - US Senate
• September 26 - British Government

Details on Lightbulb Legislation from the Energy Trek Library

Energy Trek News

IPCC Issues Third Assessment Report

Summary of IPCC Third Assessment for Policy Makers

Global Ministerial Environment - ppt