BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1109
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1109 (Huffman)
As Amended August 31, 2007
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |49-29|(June 6, 2007) |SENATE: |23-16|(September 6, |
| | | | | |2007) |
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Original Committee Reference: U. & C.
SUMMARY : Prohibits the manufacturing for sale or the sale of
certain general purpose lights that contain hazardous
substances. Requires the California Energy Commission (CEC) to
adopt energy efficiency standards for all general purpose lights
on a schedule specified in regulations. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Prohibit, after January 1, 2010, manufacturing for sale in the
state certain general purpose lights, with exceptions, that
contain hazardous substances prohibited by the EU to the
Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive.
2)Requires DTSC to determine whether specified lights should be
subject to the above prohibition with certain conditions.
3)Requires DTSC, in coordination with the California Integrated
Waste Management Board (CIWMB) to convene a task force to make
recommendations by September 1, 2008 on the collection and
recycling of general purpose lights.
4)Requires the CEC, by December 31, 2008, to adopt energy
efficiency standards for all general purpose lights on a
schedule specified in regulations.
5)Requires the Department of General Services (DGS) to end the
purchase of general purpose lights within two years of the
adoption of the CEC standards and to end the purchase of
lights with historically appropriate appearances within four
years.
The Senate amendments :
AB 1109
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1)Delete language stating the intent of the Legislature that
DTSC establish a schedule for the phase out of the use of
toxic material in all lighting products.
2)Delete a provision requiring manufactures of general purpose
lights sold in this state that contain hazardous material to
be responsible for ensuring that a system is in place to
provide for the collection and recycling of those products.
3)Require DTSC to create a task force to consider and make
recommendations on the most effective and cost-efficient
method to educates consumers about the proper management and
disposal of general purpose lights.
4)Exempt specified types of lighting from the requirements of
the bill until 2012 and 2014.
5)Require the manufacturer of general purpose lights sold in
California to provide, upon request, a certification that
attests that the general purpose lights do not contain levels
of hazardous substances that would result in the prohibition
of that lighting product being sold in California.
6)Require all state agencies to cease purchasing general service
lights that do not comply with lighting efficiency standards
established by CEC.
7)Make technical changes.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides DTSC authority over the management and disposal of
universal waste, including fluorescent tubes.
2)Requires DTSC to adopt regulations to prohibit the sale of
certain electronic products in California that are banned from
being sold in the EU due to the presence of heavy metals.
3)Requires CEC to create energy efficiency standards for new
construction and for numerous electronic products.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill required DTSC to prescribe
schedules for reducing the levels of mercury and lead in general
purpose lights. Required CEC to approve a statewide electrical
consumption limit for lighting by 2018 that is equivalent to a
AB 1109
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50% reduction in consumption for indoor lighting and a 25%
reduction in commercial lighting and outdoor lighting from 2007
levels.
FISCAL EFFECT : Special fund costs to DTSC of up to $100,000;
over $2 million in costs to CEC to implement the new standards;
unknown but possible substantial costs to DGS to replace
existing light fixtures.
COMMENTS : The purpose of this bill is to significantly increase
the efficiency of indoor and outdoor lighting systems. CEC
reports that completely eliminating inefficient incandescent
bulbs will reduce CO2 emissions by 1.82 million metric tons per
year. Additionally, the author wants to ensure that
manufacturers of new efficient lighting utilize the latest
technology to reduce, and where possible, eliminate the use of
toxic heavy metals such as lead and mercury.
The most common form of lighting in California today is
incandescent lighting. Almost 2% of all energy consumption in
the state comes from incandescent bulbs. An incandescent bulb
works by sending an electrical current through a filament. The
current heats the filament to an extremely high temperature and
creates light. Approximately 95% of the power consumed by an
incandescent light bulb is emitted as heat, rather than as
visible light, meaning that 95% of the electricity used when a
light bulb is turned on is wasted. Some forms of incandecent
lighting such as halogen lights increase efficiency somewhat so
that only 91% of the electricity used is lost to heat.
CEC already has efficiency standards for lighting. The newest
CEC standards, which go into effect on January 1, 2008, require
that a bulb that produces 850 lumens (a typical 60 watt bulb)
consumes no more than 57 watts. This is about a 5% efficiency
improvement from the 2007 usage. These standards are
periodically updated.
This bill requires CEC to adopt minimum energy efficiency
standards for all general purpose lights such that by 2018
energy consumption for indoor residential lighting is reduced by
50% and energy consumption for indoor commercial lighting and
outdoor lighting is reduced by 25%.
Given the fact that there are products on the market today that
improve the efficiency of the most common forms of lighting in
California by over 450%, these limits should be easy to meet.
AB 1109
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Hazardous materials : Incandescent light bulbs contain lead and
compact florescent light bulbs contain trace amounts of mercury.
Even though both type of lights contain hazardous materials,
there are no effective disposal or recycling programs to prevent
the bulbs and their related toxic materials from ending up in
landfills. Several supporters of this bill believe that before
the state makes statutory and regulatory shift to compact
fluorescent lighting, recycling programs need to be developed to
make sure these new bulbs do not contaminate landfills.
This bill addresses the hazardous material problem by proposing
to stop the sale of lighting in California that does not meet
the standards established in the EU pursuant to their RoHS
directive. RoHS, refers to the ban on the use of hazardous
substances in electronic products under the EU directive
2002/95/EC. Under the EU RoHS, electronic products containing
lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and two types of
brominated flame retardants are banned from sale beginning July
1, 2006. Currently, this ban only applies to products sold in
the EU, but it is expected to have a worldwide impact since
companies are not expected to create two versions of their
products for sale in different markets.
Analysis Prepared by : Edward Randolph / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083
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