Every reporter who says the government is banning incandescent bulbs should be required to swallow one of these.

As you know, I’m a bit of a stickler for accuracy when it comes to light bulb stories.

So when I got an email from the otherwise excellent Miller-McCune Magazine promoting a new “the government is forcing you to buy CFLs” post, I politely replied, explaining that the article was based on a false political narrative. Miller-McCune‘s managing editor asked me to write a response, which is posted here.

As I note in the piece, the confusion in light bulb coverage comes from an urge to find a simplified, conflict-based narrative that readers can latch on to. We’re naturally drawn to conflict – a couple having a polite disagreement in public won’t garner much attention, but when it escalates into a fistfight, we’ll drop everything and watch.

And so a lot of people believe the government is banning incandescent bulbs and forcing everyone to buy CFLs. It’s a tight, concise narrative that’s easy to understand. The fact that it’s completely false seems to be a secondary consideration for many journalists.

So you can imagine my pleasure this morning after seeing a news story that actually gets it right. The Cleveland Plain Dealer had a brief item over the weekend about the Billy Baldwin of the light bulb world, halogens.

The halogen bulbs contain a small tubular halogen light. It provides the same light as a standard 60-watt and 100-watt bulbs but uses less power.

For example, the Sylvania Halogen Super Save replacement for the traditional 100-watt incandescent bulb uses 72 watts.

And the Philips EcoVantage replacement for the old-fashioned 60-watt incandescent uses 43 watts.

But the halogen bulbs still qualify as incandescents, meaning they create light by passing electricity through a metal filament until it becomes so hot that it glows.

Congress did not ban incandescent bulbs, just inefficient incandescent bulbs. (emphasis mine)

That wasn’t so hard, was it?

Ken is the director of the Energy News Network at Fresh Energy and is a founding editor of both Midwest Energy News and Southeast Energy News. Prior to joining Fresh Energy, he was the managing editor for online news at Minnesota Public Radio. He started his journalism career in 2002 as a copy editor for the Duluth News Tribune before spending five years at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, where he worked as a copy editor, online producer, features editor and night city editor. A Nebraska native, Ken has a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master's degree from the University of Oregon. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors.

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