The CFL Light Bulb Revolution

Wal-Mart reached its goal of selling 1 million compact fluorescent light bulbs -- known as CFLs -- months ahead of schedule, and it's moving into phase 2 by launching its own low-cost bulb with General Electric.

Wal-Mart took the lead with a free-market approach to getting the energy efficient bulbs into more homes by stocking more, and stocking them at eye-level where hurried consumers are likely to see them. No doubt the extensive press about their benefits helped customers warm up to the bulbs too.

Whether or not Wal-Mart's bottom-up approach will work better than the top-down strategy that some other nations have employed -- namely, banning the old incandescent bulbs altogether -- remains to be seen, but it's a great sign to see the free market doing some good.

The Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, is drumming up support on a 10-city "Change a Light, Change the World" tour that kicked off yesterday.

If you're unpersuaded that you should switch out your old light bulbs, consider these facts, courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor and Wal-Mart:

• Nearly 20% of all home electric costs stem from lighting.
• Changing a single conventional 60-watt bulb to a 13-watt CFL, which produces the same amount of light, saves an average of $30 in electric costs over its lifetime.
• Installing one CFL, because it will last so much longer than a conventional bulb, prevents 10 conventional bulbs from being produced, transported, and discarded in a landfill.
• By using less energy, it prevents as much as 220 pounds of coal from being burned, and 450 pounds of greenhouse gases from reaching the air, and about 10 milligrams of mercury (more, by the way, than is contained in the bulb itself).
• Wal-Mart's 1 million bulb goal will result in $3 billion in household electricity bill savings, and prevent pollution equivalent to that produced by 700,000 vehicles.

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