Oct 16, 2009 11:44pm
Closing Arguments: Banning Your Flat-Screen TV
EmailCalifornia may soon ban your flat-screen TV.
That's right.
A first-of-its-kind rule would allow only flat-screen televisions to be sold that meet certain energy efficiency requirements.
Proponents say the rule would not only conserve energy, but save Californians billions in the long run.
Critics say the rule would hamstring consumers and manufacturers.
So tonight, we ask: Do you think this TV conservation policy is a good rule?
Tell us what you think.
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This is another excuse for California to add to the list of Carbon Taxes (Global Government, NWO) to ban consumers from purchasing Flat Screens above 40 inches. Who gave the government the right to infringe on what size screen TV to buy. Insanity!
Posted by: Cory G | October 17, 2009, 12:11 am 12:11 am
I think that our Federal Government and State Government are going overboard on everything. What will be next?
Posted by: Judy Annette | October 17, 2009, 12:12 am 12:12 am
It’s not for government to force controls on what the consumer purchases for their home. Most consumers are smart enough to make their own decisions, and most will choose to save both money, and energy without “Big Brother” telling them what to do.
Posted by: Charles Eamigh | October 17, 2009, 12:12 am 12:12 am
I’m sick and tired of letting California dictate what we can and cannot do, what can and cannot eat, what lights we should use, what toilet paper we should buy, what cars we should purchase, and the list goes on. California needs to get out of our lives and mind their own business.
Posted by: Palmetto | October 17, 2009, 12:14 am 12:14 am
I think it is crazy. Government should not have the right to tell us what kind of TV we can buy.
Posted by: Elaine | October 17, 2009, 12:15 am 12:15 am
It’s an okay Idea but it wouldn’t be fully effective until the entire country agrees to only accept a certain standard with Televisions from every manufactures. Once this current rule comes into effect, I could see local electronic retailers loosing sales on televisions and a boost with online sales of televisions. (example: If you can’t find a product in a Target store, you could purchase it at Target.com, ebay or where ever and have it shipped to you regardless of state rules.)
*Listen to your heart above all other voices (Marta Kagan) *
Posted by: Gregory Guerrier | October 17, 2009, 12:18 am 12:18 am
The power usage (both when on and when off) should be prominently posted at the point of sale. Making it illegal is not a good idea.
Posted by: Bob Robbins | October 17, 2009, 12:18 am 12:18 am
This is a perfect example of why California is in such financial distress. They’re so concerned with being politically correct and green that they are destroying their own economy. If this law actually saves “billions” in energy, it’s going to cost the State tens-of-billions in taxes. These are high priced items that use much less energy then old tube TV’s or refrigerators.
Posted by: Maxwells | October 17, 2009, 12:23 am 12:23 am
Quick, let’s open an electronics store in Primm!!
Posted by: Nick | October 17, 2009, 12:42 am 12:42 am
Why don’t they just ban electricity?! That would save them much more.
I thought Gov. Schwarzenegger knew more about economics than this.
Posted by: Konstantin | October 17, 2009, 12:48 am 12:48 am
This is another excuse for California to add to the list of Carbon Taxes (Global Government, NWO) to ban consumers from purchasing Flat Screens above 40 inches. Who gave the government the right to infringe on what size screen TV to buy. Insanity!
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Not True there are mmany sets that are larger than 40″ that meet5 the proposed standards.
What is insanity is the fact that people do seem to undersatnd that there is a problem.
Posted by: Thinking | October 17, 2009, 1:33 am 1:33 am
The problem here is the generation of electricity and its effect on the environment. People are now building houses with wind and solar generators, that produce more power than the house uses. Net production is fed back into the grid. Require every new building in California to be a net producer and allow fifteen years to convert the rest. A simple and elegant solution without rationing. It ain’t rocket science.
Posted by: Adrian Doyle | October 17, 2009, 1:52 am 1:52 am
Global warming aka Climate Change is a hoax. The fact is the earth has been cooling for 11 years due to the Sun entering a natural low activity period.
This has been proven in a new study by respected scientists (not politicians posing as scientists like Al Gore). The next step will be to ban any programming (to save the earth, to course) that refutes any evidence that earth is turning into another Venus.
Posted by: JustUncleJoe | October 17, 2009, 2:59 am 2:59 am
Sick and tired of the legislators who have to justify their existence deciding what I can and cannot do. The CA governor just threatened to veto 700 bills over a water issue. Did we really need all these 700 bills? They must just sit around and think of stuff that can be taxed or regulated or controlled. Time for these bozos to get booted out and let some sane people try and get the state out of the toilet. Leave my TV alone!!!.
Posted by: AnnaClarke | October 17, 2009, 3:13 am 3:13 am
Adrian…I think you must have been listening to Al Gore or T. Boon Pickens and fed into their pipedream. Solar and Wind power are both un-sustainable and un-dependable. What about the days the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. Would throw huge demands on the grid on those days. For the average homeowner to institute either technology for the scale of power generation you are talking about would be extremely cost prohibitive…in the range of 50 to 100 thousand dollars per installation. Don’t know of too many homeowners or small businesses that could put that much extra in their building budgets especially because of a government mandate or law requiring them to do so. I think California needs “get real” and find other ways to save their billions not to mention the adverse effect on their state’s economy…Whats next? Restricting the use of computers and cell phone chargers? That would be equally ridiculous!!!
Posted by: Nachthexe | October 17, 2009, 3:22 am 3:22 am
Who cares? I will just go out of state and buy what I want. To hell with the ecoterriorists in California government. As long as you idiots keep voting for the imbeciles you deserve what you get.
Posted by: Paul | October 17, 2009, 3:39 am 3:39 am
Just when the prices are going down, and i can afford to buy a flat panel tv, now they want to ban them? This seems extreme
Posted by: Regina Greene | October 17, 2009, 3:58 am 3:58 am
This would create an artificial shortage of TVs in California giving sellers an excuse to charge us up the ying yang once again. We already have an artificial extra charge on any screens we buy. Recall each and every one of the California legislators.
Posted by: Doc Savage | October 17, 2009, 4:13 am 4:13 am
Idiotic policies like this already make California gasoline the most expensive in the country. Our moronic legislature decrees that only a “special” blend of gas may be used in California. It is only produced in California. The oil companies conveniently have “breakdowns” at the refineries, and since we can’t use gasoline made anywhere else, there is now an excuse to charge unreasonably high prices. The legislators either collude with the oil companies, or are too stupid to understand. Hard to figure out which.
Posted by: Doc Savage | October 17, 2009, 4:16 am 4:16 am
No. This is unconstitutional. The choice of what TV to own is an individual matter.
If the miserably failed government of California wants to do something to help, they should reduce the population of California. They should secure our southern border. They should never have let California get so grossly overcrowded in the first place. Reduce overcrowding and you will conserve a lot of energy in California, you miserably failed lazy shiftless sit-on-cans-and-do-nothing incompetent California government bureaucrats.
Posted by: Proud Native American and Angry Independent Voter | October 17, 2009, 7:44 am 7:44 am
The title is misleading and people who believe it are paranoid. They are just setting energy standards for future models. They don’t come and take your TV away.
Posted by: Reason | October 17, 2009, 11:13 am 11:13 am
Reason…
You completely missed the point. It is not any of the damn California government’s business to be setting efficiency standards for televisions.
The miserably failed lazy shiftless sit-on-their-big-fat-cans-and-do-nothing incompetent useless California government bureaucrats are just trying to justify their own existence by making it look like they are doing something, when in reality they are completely neglecting the real issues: overcrowding in the state, way too many government employees, obscene overcompensation of government employees, lack of a single-payer healthcare system, alien invasion from the south, and highways that are in ruins.
These shady State government clowns are just trying to look like they are doing something, because they are not addressing the things that they really should be.
Posted by: Proud Native American and Angry Independent Voter | October 17, 2009, 11:41 am 11:41 am
Sounds like California has now become a totalitarian government. Is the rest of America next?
Posted by: bamaconnie | October 17, 2009, 1:26 pm 1:26 pm
The name given to the title of the article “Banning your flat screen” is very misleading. California isn’t going to ban flat screens just update energy efficiency requirements like every other consumer product has done including PC’s,washing machines, refrigerators, etc. etc.
Washing machines are far more efficient today than they were ten years ago. The average 50 inch flat screen TV uses more juice in 2 hours than a 25 inch TV in 6. So wake up people, get the facts before you start spouting off. You read that misleading headline and lack of detail story and go crazy.
OH MY GOD!!! THE GOVERNMENT”S GOING TO BAN MY FLAT SCREEN!!! WHAT’S NEXT MY IPOD, MY GOLF CLUBS!!! OH MY GOD!!!!
Posted by: The man | October 17, 2009, 4:03 pm 4:03 pm
Great Scott, they should have a rule about using your toaster, too. You can only make 1 slice per day, to be shared by the entire family. CA really is ridiculous these days. They should write tickets too for burping. You know, it releases too much carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming.
Posted by: Bangemup | October 17, 2009, 5:52 pm 5:52 pm
If consumers made good choices, nobody would smoke or buy another incandescent bulb ever again (the new generation of CFs are vastly more efficient on the basis of lifetime operating cost).
This uproar about TV efficiency standards is much ado about nothing; building codes already require fluorescent lighting in kitchens and bathrooms, there are minimum standards for cars, washing machines and other appliances, etc. In any case, the proposed TV standards aren’t very tough, the vast majority of flat screens sold in 2011 will be able to meet it (in fact, many already do). Some manufacturers and trade organizations have even come out in favor of the proposed standards. The only real issue here is that not every large plasma TV (50 inches or above) will be able to qualify under the standard. This isn’t a big problem, however, because plasma TVs are not long for this world, ironically because consumers have pretty much decided that LCD is the winning technology, much like they decided on VHS over Betamax.
Posted by: tom | October 17, 2009, 7:09 pm 7:09 pm
Many persons watch TV very seldom but still want/need one. Break even point would never be reached for many users. Forcing only higher priced models to be sold is just plain un-American socialism that must be stopped.
Posted by: Jim Nyman | October 17, 2009, 10:11 pm 10:11 pm
I think it has less to do with the size and more with the energy used. My 8 year old 50″ plasma uses about 350 watts. A 70″ LCD (and soon LED) TV uses a fraction of that. Plasma screens are energy hogs, and the new LCD and LED technology has made up their old shortcomings. However, on principal, I don’t think its the government’s place to outright ban things either.
Posted by: Bob z | October 17, 2009, 11:55 pm 11:55 pm
From the land of Pelosi now comes this crap! I am getting sick and tired of all this government intrusion in our personal lives.
Next thing you know the democrats will be telling you want you can buy at the grocery store or what will be sold there.
Posted by: indymind | October 18, 2009, 8:36 am 8:36 am
And will there be “Flat Screen Police”? Will they go around peeking through windows into people’s living rooms, family rooms, and bedrooms to see what kind of TV’s are being watched. This is typical California insanity that unfortunately will probably spread across country in our quest for being oh so politically correct.
Posted by: rmcheez | October 18, 2009, 6:41 pm 6:41 pm
To “the man” above…
It is not the California government’s business to be setting efficiency standards for televisions or anything else. The marketplace will take care of that over time. The other commentators above are correct: California government is degrading into totalitarianism, when it interferes with the marketplace in this manner.
The miserably failed lazy shiftless sit-on-their-big-fat-cans-and-do-nothing incompetent useless California government bureaucrats are just trying to justify their existence by making such a silly law, when in reality they are completely neglecting the real issues: overcrowding in the state, way too many government employees, obscene overcompensation of government employees, lack of a single-payer healthcare system, alien invasion from the south, and unsafe highways that are in ruins. Think of all the people that have died on the highways when their vehicles were thrown airborne or into a ditch by one of the millions of potholes and paving flaws that now exist in our highways in California—all while the government bureaucrats screw around with silly unneeded laws about the efficiency of televisions. Unbelievable!
Posted by: Proud Native American and Angry Independent Voter | October 19, 2009, 12:12 pm 12:12 pm
Doewsn’t California ad its elected officials have enough to worry about already?
Posted by: StLouisMan | October 19, 2009, 12:57 pm 12:57 pm
As a native Californian, let me officailly apologize to the rest of the country for my state’s latest absurd venture into our private lives. Don’t worry, the 2010 election is coming…politicians…you should worry.
Posted by: Tim | October 19, 2009, 1:12 pm 1:12 pm
After forcing people to get the new TVs, now they’re saying we can’t have them? (I didn’t get one, since I have cable. But I have friends who did because she can’t afford cable.) This is unbelievable.
Posted by: Faith | October 19, 2009, 7:28 pm 7:28 pm
I think America is more and more becoming a communist state where government decides what is best for it’s people, watches you from above, listens to your words, tells you what to eat, what to smoke, what to say, tells you what isn’t the truth and in so doing, takes one tiny bit of freedom away from you each day.
Posted by: John | October 20, 2009, 12:25 am 12:25 am
I agree with all of you i sit and read and that everyone is right this world sucks
Posted by: rjackson | October 21, 2009, 12:35 pm 12:35 pm
I don’t know about anyone else but living in Ca. is becoming less appealing every time they impose a restriction or rule saying we can’t do this or buy this because a minority of people don’t like it. What happened to majority rules. People getting upset because of a cross on top of a mountain or because our money says IN GOD WE TRUST or the pledge of allegiance says one nation under god. If you don’t like it don’t look at it or read it or say it…….
Posted by: Charles | November 13, 2009, 12:26 am 12:26 am