But the coal is not being burned inside of my house

Ok, what to you may be tiny, when multiplied many times (such as landfills) there is a lot, but to stick to facts, and not speculation:

http://www.earthtechling.com/2011/10/the...

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl...

http://www2.epa.gov/cfl/recycling-and-di...

http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/waste...

and this one:

http://www.cleanairpurewater.com/mercury...

Mercury is bad stuff and so there should be no "less than" or "better than", the coal burning power plants do indeed produce large amounts of mercury as well. Which is why they are supposed to have mercury removal devices on their exhausts.

Aside from all the nanny state regulatory overreach issues, the "green spike" technical problem with many LEDs in cine & photo work is that they have a discontinuous spectral signature which is not readily measured by currently designed color meters. The Kelvin scale does not resolve green spikes in the spectra. I hope that the smarter LED manufacturers will be able to tweak their phosphor formulas to adjust for this. " White" LEDs are blue, covered with either a yellow phosphor for cool 'daylight' or a yellow orange for "warm white". Photographically & for general use, the expedient solution is to use a movie lighting gel, Lee, Rosco etc in 1/4 to 1/2 Magenta / minus green. It will depend on the phosphors of the LED. There are also diffusing gels but every time you throw a filter over a light source the light output drops, so you need a 50, 70 or 100W LED to compensate. The marketplace is coming around gradually. In the meantime components are on ebay etc for DIY.

We in Oregon have been saying that for years. 2 counties elect the Govenator, who is an ex doctor with no clue as to what is going on. He is so sad, he works in Portland and told the Houses that he didn't care what they say. He has a bonded majority in both houses so all they do is come up with new ways to tax us. I will never "support the children" ever, ever again.Theyt are all corrupt weasels. Unfortunately, it takes about 100K to buy a house seat paid biannually, and 500K for a senate seat. An ex Blazers basketball star couldn't come up with enough to buy the Govenator spot, even with his millions, so you know how much the Democrat sold his sorry ass for.

I'll add this to the mix.......Once we all are saving all that energy as consumption will be down... the Utilities will need to raise the cost of their product to be able to let the stock holders and upper management maintain their way of life.
Just saying....

Excellent point. You are right on with the bank balance comment. Never met a politician without a price tag tattooed on their forehead. You need ultraviolet to see it, that's their secret. Maybe that's why they like CFLs?

Ya, Yay! Hip, Hip, Ho ray! Well said!

As long as an "option" to the incandescent bulb includes the mercury-filled, toxic spaghetti bulbs, i adamantly but respectfully disagree that it's "better all around".
...The costs for LED bulbs are not likely to go down as long as the government continues its fascistic practice of controlling the means of production and distribution via laws, taxes and regulations, or with subsidies for their cronies, like Jeff Immelt at GE.

When there is profit in innovation, industry NEVER needs government to redistribute the nation’s wealth to them. Only crony capitalists who purchase and own the loyalties of Congressmen and Women depend on the taxes of working Americans to subsidize their crooked enterprise.

Forgive, Bobo. His parent’s basement has always been a little on the warm side in the summer.

I always thought they would kill the plan to tell you the truth. You and I grew up in an era that every other commercial was about the danger of mercury.We outlawed it’s use in most products. We’ve seen the devastating irreversible birth-defects and brain-damages it causes in young children from decades of doing nothing. There are rivers and lakes today that still aren’t save to fish or play in because of the contaminate levels. What the hell are they thinking? What about all the damn money that we payed out in taxes to clean mercury up???

so you didn't know they were phasing them out under President Bush?

Of course they will eventually have to offset the loss of birds created by wind farms. Ca-ching.

This spring: it will time for me to hit the yard sale of the yuppies who want to go green and unload all their old bulbs.

They are already charging us five cents a bag at the grocery store for the benefit of the Chesapeake Bay. My county isn’t close to the bay. I don’t own property in this state, so this tax won’t affect me. You could say I live in this state but I am not of it.

what nonsense! They've always been relatively inexpensive. If people want to pay for the additional wattage let them! there is no shortage of electricity only a shortage of of individuals who don't relish telling everyone else what to do and how to do it and when to do it and IF they can do it.

or making decisions for ME about what MY opportunity costs should be. the arrogance is amazing!

The only way that government can make this ridiculous ban effective is if "we" give them permission by obeying their absurd edict. i haven't and won't, and i hope you don't either.

Unfortunately, Congress did NOT do their homework on the CFL bulbs, guess they were too busy getting political donations. When I mentioned a German study to my Congressman, he had never seen it. Do these people read anything except their bank balances?
The German study said in part:
"But the German scientists claimed that several carcinogenic chemicals and toxins were released when the environmentally-friendly compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were switched on, including phenol, naphthalene and styrene."
These chemicals, in addition to the growing reports by doctors of skin and other health issues from using CFLs too close. Add to this the emissions from Smart Meters, about to be forced upon us, and we will all face the Obamacare death panels.
How much will our heating costs rise, when the old lights bulbs no longer help keep us warm as we sit by them on dark cold winter days? Government does not care, smart meters will still turn down our electric.
How many of us can afford a Hazmat team when we break a CFL? How long before we are charged, as in Britain, to dispose of the evil things, at the Ministry of Light Bulbs. Rand must be turning in her grave, even though she predicted it in "Anthem".
Andreas Kirchner, of the Federation of German Engineers, said: “Electrical smog develops around these lamps.