How strange and bizarre that Fox news would allow a guy funded by the oil and cigarette companies to pontificate that CFL's are bad for us? From the article that is making the rounds on the internet today:
"(After breaking one)... it will take her more than 11 years to recoup the cleanup costs in the form of energy savings....Not only are CFLs much more expensive than incandescent bulbs and emit light that many regard as inferior to incandescent bulbs, they pose a nightmare if they break and require special disposal procedures. Yet governments (egged on by environmentalists and the Wal-Marts of the world) are imposing on us such higher costs, denial of lighting choice, disposal hassles and breakage risks in the name of saving a few dollars every year on the electric bill?"
Scary stuff, no? Turn out that Steven Milloy of JunkScience.com, CSRWatch.com and the Competitive Enterprise Institute is the writer of the piece. What do these organizations have to do with anything? Well, the Competitive Enterprise Institute is funded by, among others, Amoco Foundation, Inc., Ford Motor Company Fund, Philip Morris Companies, Inc., Pfizer Inc., Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Exxon Mobil and Texaco, Inc. Could there be a bigger group of donors AGAINST anything related to improving the environment? They have even launched attacks on Al Gore for his stance on climate change. The man behind the website JunkScience.com started his career with the now defunct TASSC (The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition), which listed its major donors as 3M, Amoco, Chevron, Dow Chemical, Exxon, General Motors, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lorillard Tobacco, National Pest Control Association, Occidental Petroleum, Philip Morris and W.R. Grace. In 1993, TASSC started its existence as a front for Philip Morris, attempting to discredit ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke) research as a long-term cause of increased cancer and heart problem rates in the community. Hmm.
These people think they can get away with anything. No more.