Surprise! California does something stupid - again.

 

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20091118/ap_on_hi_te/us_california_tv_energy

   California just passed another anti-consumer law.  The focus is TV
energy efficiency.  Under the new regulations, 75% of new digitial tv's
sold today will NOT meet the energy efficiency requirement for 2013.

   This is just another example of CA trying to force their ridiculous
standards on everyone else.  Of course, they are hoping that by passing
these restrictions, all TV's sold in the US will have to meet their
requirements, which will add significantly to the cost of each new TV
set sold.

   Environmental groups pushed for passage of the regulation, citing
that more and more homes have multiple TV sets, and the sets are turned
on longer and longer, taking more power.

   It's a noble thought - and a very misguided one, in this specific
instance.  Here are some excerpts from the article:

"The average plasma TV uses more than three times as much energy as an
old cathode-ray tube set. Liquid-crystal display, or LCD, TVs guzzle
less — about 43 percent more energy than tube sets, according to a study
by Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the state's largest utility. LCDs now
account for about 90 percent of the 4 million TVs sold in California
each year."

   - so in other words, the market is already switching to LCD's for the
most part, and they save 43% off of the tube TV's most of us were using
just a few years ago.  Great!  A 43% difference in just a decade is
fantastic, but people making good choices on their own is still not good
enough for some special interests.


"Some manufacturers said implementing a power standard will limit
consumer choice and harm California retailers because consumers could
simply buy TVs out of state or order them online. Industry
representatives also have said the standards would force manufacturers
to make televisions with poorer picture quality and fewer features than
those sold elsewhere in the U.S."

- yes, people will just buy TV's mailorder, if people try to force more
expensive sets on them, especially if they are perceived as poorer
quality sets.

   Here's an idea - instead of the government forcing everybody to do
what they want, or what a special interest group wants, how about
letting the consumers decide what to buy?  From the looks of things,
that approach is already working, with the shift to LCD sets.

 


Who cares?  Nobody is compelled to buy a TV of any kind.

Cindy Hamilton

 

Ohioguy wrote:

Apparently the lawmakers were swayed by a  statistic that 10% (yes, ten
percent) of home electric use is from televisions!  I found that
stretches credulity - what about you?

 

Rick Merrill wrote:

Yeah, its a lie.

 



That is very true. All one would have to do is draw out enough
cash from the bank, then go across the state line and buy one.
By using cash, no credit cards or checks, there is no paper
trail the state could use to find people using such sets, if they
were to go the next step and outlaw posession.