Documents outline industry’s worries
Jack Branswell and Mike Reid
Sun
OTTAWA — Canadians could pay more for light bulbs and may not even have access to certain types of lights because of a worldwide shortage when new national light bulb efficiency standards come into effect in 2012.
In documents obtained through the Access to Information Act, those issues were raised by the lighting industry with the government because of Canada‘s push to phase out inefficient light bulbs by 2012.
The government and the lighting industry had a summit in Toronto last June and documents out of that meeting and follow up ones show there is still concern about some of the details of how inefficient light bulbs — typically incandescents — will be replaced and at what cost.
In one document, government consultants said they assume price and supply will not be effected, but a government notation in the margin says “manufacturers are telling us that with the global push to go to CFLs (compact fluorescent lights), there would be a shortage of material and final products so prices may go up.”
Wayne Edwards, the vice-president of Electrical Equipment Manufacturer Association of Canada, said it is likely prices will increase after 2012. “For sure. Electronics that go into the ballast (the base) in CFLs can be and are in short supply. Some lamps may be in very short supply and may not be available.”
In government notes from the lighting summit it also has comments from industry participants: “There is a shortage of raw material to produce CFLs today.”
Another part of the document states that “global supply may be an issue if many jurisdictions attempt to implement similar standards at the same time. This problem could be compounded if (due to longer lifetimes for bulbs) the long-term demand is lower than initial demand.”
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the department leading the phase out program, is aware that since not just Canada, but the U.S., EU and other countries are all trying to phrase out inefficient bulbs all around the same time frame, that it may have an impact on product availability and prices.
“We’ve heard it and we’re concerned enough to try to get enough international work on it to see if it is going to be an issue,” said John Cockburn, senior chief of energy efficiency standards with NRCan. But Cockburn noted that TCP, a company that makes about 70 per cent of CFLs for the U.S. market, said it doesn’t foresee problems in meeting increased demand.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
