The Biden administration finalized energy efficiency regulations targeting common everyday lightbulbs late Friday as part of its sweeping climate agenda. The Department of Energy announced the new standards for general service lamps, which include the most common types of residential and commercial lightbulbs. The agency said the regulations will slash greenhouse gas pollution, ultimately cutting 70 million metric tons of dangerous carbon dioxide over the next three decades.
While U.S. households have increasingly switched to LED light bulbs since 2015, fewer than half of households reported using mostly or exclusively LEDs, according to recent results from the Residential Energy Consumption Survey. Overall, 47% of households use mostly or only LEDs, 15% use mostly incandescent or halogens and 12% use mostly or all compact fluorescent, with another 26% reporting no predominant bulb type, the federal data showed.