Minnesota Representative Bachmann tired of being oppressed by light bulbs...

Wow. Just wow. The Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act.

Coming soon: a Freedom to Choose Lead Paint Bill.

Sheesh.

Bachmann bill would reverse phase-in of energy-efficient bulbs

Mar 26, 2008 6:58 PM (20 hrs ago) By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, AP

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Rep. Michele Bachmann wants to put the brake on a national conversion from conventional incandescent light bulbs to energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, has sponsored the "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act," which would repeal the national phase-out of the old bulbs.

"This is about freedom, this is about consumer rights," she said.
President Bush signed an energy bill last December that mandates phasing in energy-saving light bulbs starting in 2012.

Under Bachmann's legislation, the phase-out would be repealed unless Congress' Government Accountability Office can demonstrate that it would lead to real savings in energy costs, lead to significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and not cause a health risk to people.

Bachmann said she's concerned that the mercury content in fluorescent light bulbs could pose a danger.

"The least government can do if they are going to ban the household light bulb is provide evidence to back up their claims that there's some long-term benefit," she said. "Congress should not be in the business of promoting fads and Congress should always be in the business of watching out for the health, safety and budget bottom line of the American family."

The rest of the story can be found HERE.
Read the Star Tribune article HERE.
The original post was found via Rob Cockerham's cockeyed.com.

If you would like to reach Representative Michele Marie Amble Bachmann from Minnesota's 6th congressional district, you can contact her at the following locations:

Website
http://bachmann.house.gov/

Email
http://bachmann.house.gov/Email/

Washington Office
412 Cannon HOB Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2331
Fax: (202) 225-6475

Woodbury Office
6043 Hudson Rd, Suite 330 Woodbury, MN 55125
Phone: 651-731-5400
Fax: 651-731-6650

St. Cloud/Waite Park Office
110 2nd Street S, Suite 232 Waite Park, MN 56387
Phone: 320-253-5931
Fax: 320-240-6905

Wha wha whaaaaaaaat?

I know the above Walmart photoshop is pushing the envelope a bit, but it does feel like we're saturated in green news from the megacompany. They're hosting environmental consortiums, making their stores environmentally *cough* friendly, and even going so far as to recycle their former employee's vests.

So what has all this alleged environmental leadership done for the company? According to activist Adam Werbach, not much. As former President of the Sierra Club (at 23!) his clients were outraged to find out he had joined teams with the big boys. He was quickly fired just for associating with them.

Apparently, Walmart's reputation still precedes them. Can they ever recover?

Working With the Enemy

Once the youngest president of the Sierra Club, Adam Werbach used to call Wal-Mart toxic. Now the company is his biggest client. Does the path to a greener future run through Bentonville?

From: Issue 118 September 2007 Page 74 By: Danielle Sacks

“To this day, they won't speak to me," says Adam Werbach. His clients--or rather, his old clients--fired him when word got out last year that he was doing work for Wal-Mart. Of course, many people make compromises to do business with the largest company in the world--accept lower profit margins, absorb relentless performance pressure. But for Werbach, 34, a lifelong environmentalist, the cost of working with Wal-Mart has been personal. Some of his old friends don't speak to him. His former colleagues think he's sold out. And then there are the threats. "I attended this event and someone came up to me," recalls Werbach, his discomfort still fresh. "He said, 'I wouldn't feel safe if I were you. People have gotten hurt.'" Werbach has stopped speaking in public without special security.

He has made a leap that is either visionary or naive, depending on your perspective. He's been a leader in the environmental world, president of the Sierra Club at just 23, author of a 1997 book Act Now, Apologize Later that called Wal-Mart "a new breed of toxin" that "could wreak havoc on a town." He was such an iconoclast, he'd publicly challenged old-line environmentalists in a speech in 2004.

But in signing on to Wal-Mart last year, he went too far, driving off even those nonprofits who still did business with his small consulting firm, Act Now. They didn't want the help of someone who would sell his services to the Behemoth of Bentonville.

Folks at the Sierra Club, which funds the watchdog Wal-Mart Watch, begged him to reconsider, and activists John Sellers and Barbara Dudley wrote an open letter headlined, "The Death of Integrity: In Working With Wal-Mart, Activist Adam Werbach Is Abandoning His Principles."

Ouch.

Read more HERE.

It's raining manganese...halleluja...

October is fast approaching which means one of two things:

1) I REALLY need to get to work on my Rock Biter costume if I ever want to get it finished in time for Halloween.

2) It's the 35th anniversary of the Clean Water Act!

What do those two things have in common? They're both saturated with imagination and fantasy!

Three and a half decades later and we're still fighting over how much pollution we can pollute with in an already-polluted river that was the inspiration for an anti-pollution legislation. Anybody else feel like we're running in circles here? When you need to have a 30 year old babysitter, you know you have a problem.

So who's causing all this pollution?

Here's a list of your Top 10 water-release polluting companies, 35 years after the fact [the number at the end of each listing is for pounds of water release pollutants. Releases to water include discharges to streams, rivers, lakes, oceans and other bodies of water. This includes releases from both point sources, such as industrial discharge pipes, and nonpoint sources, such as stormwater runoff, but not releases to sewers or other off-site wastewater treatment facilities. It includes releases to surface waters, but not ground water]:

1. AK STEEL CORP. (ROCKPORT WORKS), 6500 N. U.S. 231, ROCKPORT, IN 22,693,591 PWRP
2. BASF CORP., 602 COPPER RD., FREEPORT, TX 15,945,553
3. IBP INC., 1500 S. BRIDGE ST., LEXINGTON, NE 6,000,250
4. SMITHFIELD PACKING CO. INC. TAR HEEL DIV., HWY. 87 2 MILES N. OF TAR HEEL, TAR HEEL, NC 5,448,599
5. EXCEL CORP., 1505 E. BURLINGTON AVE., FORT MORGAN, CO 4,484,820
6. DSM CHEMICALS N.A. INC., #1 COLUMBIA NITROGEN RD., AUGUSTA, GA 4,197,140
7. AK STEEL CORP. COSHOCTON WORKS, 17400 STATE RTE. 16, COSHOCTON, OH 3,905,117
8. TYSON FOODS INC. SEDALIA COMPLEX, 19571 WHITFIELD RD., SEDALIA, MO 3,398,516
9. BP INC., HWY. 92 & I-88 - 28424 38TH AVE. N., HILLSDALE, IL 3,001,250
10. USS GARY WORKS, 1 N. BROADWAY, GARY, IN 2,971,479

To check out the Top 100 or view polluters by state, click here. You can also see who is violating in your area here.

Wanna be really scared? You can search the EnviroMapper website by zip code and look up the polluters the same way you can search for registered sexual predators.

I live by three rapists AND hazardous waste.

Happy day!