Well, unfortunately, Assemblyman Doug La Malfa, FR’s North California Correspondent, didn’t really need to exercise much of his considerable forensic talent in this morning’s televised "debate".  The good folks at CNBC seemed to supportively suggest to Assemblyman Lloyd Levine that consumers drive the market — not government — and even rhetorically questioned LaMalfa about his awareness of the fact that the rest of the country thinks California is a "laughing stock" for bills like Levine’s light bulb ban, the topic of discussion.

AB 722 would simply ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs in California by 2012.  Levine, again, diagnoses the lack of consumer interest in substitute light bulbs that might save energy and money as a "market failure", a term used by political economists.  He then goes on to explain that consumers have old, outdated information (presumably about the heterogeneity of light bulbs on the market and the cost-savings attending a light bulb switch).  

There is another, more specific, term political economists use to diagnose the particular type of "market failure" Levine suggests: "information asymmetry".  What Levine doesn’t do is mention the typical policy "solution" to this particular type of "market failure".  That solution is called "information provision" (meaning policy is crafted which is intended to provide informational aid to consumers in their consumptive practices within the market, i.e. Surgeon General warnings on cigarette boxes), not a "ban on production".  The former, as you might expect, is far less intrusive than the latter.  (This should be common knowledge to all you public policy grads under the Dome.)  Assemblyman Levine, an uber-liberal Democrat, is using  — surprise, surprise! — the most harsh policy prescription out there to correct a so-called market failure, and this is sure to cost us all a lot of money.  As Assemblyman LaMalfa so aptly pointed out, lighting only accounts for 2% of our state’s energy consumption.

To put it another way: Levine’s dropping a nuclear bomb to destroy the backyard ant hill, and his neighbors’ houses (our wallets) are collateral damage.

AB 722 is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee (the committee Levine chairs) today.  I’m sure Levine’s office would love to hear from you.  (WARNING: there’s an annoying pop-up video introduction from Levine when you visit his website.)

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.