Can America Keep Up?

In an article titled, "How Innovation Killed the Lights," by Peter Whoriskey, he discusses that the last major GE factory, in Winchester, VA, will be closing this month. This is a factory in which incandescent light bulbs are produced. The factory is being shut down because of Congress' ruling in 2007 that banned all incandescent bulbs to be made by 2014. This law will force Americans to only use fluorescent bulbs which are said to be more energy efficient.

Although switching over to fluorescent bulbs is saving energy, it is also depriving many Americans of jobs. Not only have the jobs slipped away, but the entire industry is now overseas. 

"Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China. Consisting of glass tubes twisted into a spiral, they require more hand labor, which is cheaper there. So though they were first developed by American engineers in the 1970s, none of the major brands make CFLs in the United States."

Whoriskey discusses that there are a lot of countries all jumping into the "green bandwagon," which creates competition among countries to be the world's suppliers of more "green" products. Whoriskey also explains that,

"In Obama's vision, the nation's mastery of new technology will create American manufacturing jobs.
"See, when folks lift up the hoods on the cars of the future, I want them to see engines stamped "Made in America," Obama said in an Aug. 16 speech at a Wisconsin plant. "When new batteries to store solar power come off the line, I want to see printed on the side, "Made in America." When new technologies are developed and new industries are formed, I want them made right here in America. That's what we're fighting for."

It is obvious that America did not win the battle over the who-can-make-more-efficient-light-bulbs battle. Our earth keeps getting hotter and hotter and America needs to figure out a way to dominate in the innovative world.