Tax those light bulbs!

Colin Challen is our very own self-appointed Energy Policeman.

He's asking MPs today to consider a tax on incandecent light bulbs, which use seven times more energy than fluorescent (low energy) ones and last only a quarter as long. He says it would save the equivalent of a nuclear power station's output if they were all priced out of the market. Incandescent lamps, which are commonly found in households, are highly inefficient sources of light because about 90% of the energy used is lost as heat.

Colin is a star. He's MP for Morley & Rothwell (Leeds), Chair of the All Party Group on Climate Change and a member of the Environmental Audit Committee. He is waging a campaign for a low carbon, non-nuclear future.

Last November he asked the ASA to amend its code of practice after British Nuclear Group placed an advertisement placed in several magazines which received several complaints.

The Low Carbon Kid has said the nuclear industry will lie its way back to favour, and it did so here. The ad showed a "faked photograph of a non-existent cleaned up nuclear power station, returned to the state of a green field with trees in it. It is quite possible, under current decommissioning arrangements, that such a green field will never come into existence, or at least not for decades or hundreds of years," said Colin.

Colin added: “The combined effect of the photo and the advert’s strapline was very misleading. Basically, the ASA are now saying that a fake picture – which after all can speak a thousand words – is OK, but would they apply the same criteria to written lies?"

Colin also launched the Climate Change (Contraction and Convergence) Bill, in November, the first instance in any parliament of the C&C framework being placed in a legislative format. It builds on his previous Domestic Tradeable Quotas Bill (now called TEQs).

>> Colin's web site
>> Ban the Bulb campaign
>> Climate Change (Contraction and Convergence) Bill text