Tag Archives: New York

Vu1 to Sell Mercury-Free Light Bulbs in Lowe’s Stores, CEO Says – Bloomberg

November 03, 2011   nlrgreen   1 Comment

Vu1 Corp. (VUOC), a U.S. developer of mercury-free lights, will sell its energy-efficient bulbs at Lowe’s Cos. stores in its first deal with a major retailer, Chief Executive Officer Scott Blackstone said.

Lowe’s, with more than 1,700 stores across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, will initially sell the bulbs online and then in its shops next year, Blackstone said by phone from New York. While sales of the lights, which are about 70 percent more efficient than incandescent bulbs, are currently limited to “sampling,” there’s potential to generate “serious volumes,” he said.

Vu1, based in New York, is seeking to win a share of the lighting market as the U.S. introduces new efficiency standards next year that will cut the use of most traditional incandescent bulbs. The new rules may add $4 billion to U.S. light bulb sales in the three years through 2014, according to estimates from London-based researcher Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The deal with Lowe’s, the largest U.S. home-improvement retailer after Home Depot Inc., is a “huge jump up,” Blackstone said. Vu1 is also in talks with electrical distributors to sell bulbs to businesses, and aims to announce more agreements by the end of the year, he said.

Vu1’s bulb, which can be dimmed, will sell at $14.98, according to a company statement. While that exceeds the $12-to- $13 cost of a comparable dimmable compact fluorescent bulb, it lasts longer, is mercury-free and produces every wavelength of light, the CEO said. Lowe’s will sell the bulb online from Dec. 1 and in its stores from February, according to the statement.

Efficiency Tradeoff

“Fluorescent technology is missing certain colors; that’s the tradeoff for efficiency,” Blackstone said. “The majority of people want to be environmental, just not in a way that makes their house look bad.”

While Vu1’s bulbs meet the new standards, they’re less efficient than compact fluorescent lamps, or CFLs, and light- emitting diodes, according to Tom Rowlands-Rees, an analyst at New Energy Finance. If they produce a similar quality of light to old incandescent bulbs, they may find a market, he said.

“Vu1’s bulb could be an option for those consumers that are not convinced by the light output of CFLs and LEDs but are no longer able to buy incandescent bulbs due to the standards,” Rowlands-Rees said in an e-mail.

via Vu1 to Sell Mercury-Free Light Bulbs in Lowe’s Stores, CEO Says – Bloomberg.

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New York Parents Sue to Speed PCB Cleanup in Schools – NYTimes.com

August 01, 2011   nlrgreen   No comments

New York Parents Sue to Speed PCB Cleanup in Schools

By MIREYA NAVARRO

In the latest sally in the controversy over PCB-laden light fixtures in New York schools, parents have filed a federal lawsuit arguing that the city is not replacing old fluorescent light fixtures quickly enough.

In the suit, filed on Wednesday in United States District Court in Brooklyn, a group representing the parents asserts that the city’s plan to replace the fixtures over a period ranging up to 10 years puts children at risk and violates the federal Toxic Substances Control Act.

The suit was filed by the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest on behalf of New York Communities for Change, a coalition of low-and moderate-income families. It names the city’s Department of Education and the New York City School Construction Authority, which manages capital projects, as defendants.

The lighting job involves inspecting an estimated 564,000 ballasts in 772 schools and then replacing those that are leaking PCBs, which are toxic chemical compounds. The action seeks “prompt removal” but does not specify a time frame; lawyers representing the parents say the job can be done in two years.

Officials from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and members of the New York City Council have called for completion in five years or less.

“The city’s 10-year time frame is unacceptable,” said Miranda Massie, legal director of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “We’ve been pushing for a two-year time line, which we are confident is plausible based on advice from technical and contracting experts.”

A pilot study started by the city last year and inspections by the E.P.A. this year indicated that light fixtures leaking PCBs were probably prevalent throughout the school system.

Officials with the Department of Education, which has already started replacing the ballasts, have maintained that the contamination doesn’t pose an immediate health risk and that a 10-year time line would ensure that the problem was resolved without disrupting classes.

Natalie Ravitz, a spokeswoman for the department, on Wednesday called the effort to replace the light fixtures in more than 700 school buildings “unprecedented” nationally. “While some people think we should spend more and do this faster, we continue to believe this is an aggressive, environmentally responsible plan that will cause minimum disruption to student learning and generate significant energy savings for the city and taxpayers in the long run,” she said.

But the E.P.A. has said that many light fixtures still in use in schools in New York and in other parts of the country are already beyond the 10-to-15 year life expectancy of their ballasts, increasing the risk of leaks.

“These light fixtures are 30 years old, and with every passing month, more of them will fail and leak, and more children and school employees will face utterly needless, and serious, risks to their health,” said Ms. Massie of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

via New York Parents Sue to Speed PCB Cleanup in Schools – NYTimes.com.

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LegalNewsline | Light bulb settlement yields $7K, ad changes

July 27, 2011   nlrgreen   No comments

BY BRYAN COHENBOSTON

Legal Newsline – Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced a settlement on Tuesday with a New York distributor of compact fluorescent bulbs over alleged misleading environmental advertising and Mercury Management Act violations.Lumiram Electric Corporation agreed to correct its advertising and has taken necessary steps to comply with the states mercury waste management requirements. The company has paid the state $1,000 in legal costs and penalties and $6,000 for failing to file required certifications and reports.”While using compact fluorescent light bulbs can help conserve energy, it is important that they are recycled properly to protect our environment,” Coakley said. “Companies doing business in the state must comply with our environmental protection laws.”Coakley alleged that Lumiram made representations in its advertisements on the internet conveying that the company was a conscientious environmental corporate citizen, even though the company was out of compliance with the states program for managing the disposal of waste mercury in the CFLs it sells.

The company was notified in February 2009 that it was out of compliance with the Mercury Management Act by failing to submit and certify that it had a mercury education plan in place and failing to submit reports that included lamp sales and life expectancy data for the years 2002-2007. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection issued the company a $6,000 administrative penalty for those violations.Since then, the company has taken steps to comply with the mercury management program, which requires that manufacturers like Lumiram develop and implement a plan for educating consumers about mercury and that burned-out mercury lamps be recycled. The company also agreed to refrain from making unsupported environmental claims in the future. Coakleys office and MassDEP settled similar claims in April against the Michigan-based company EarthTronics Inc., doing business in Massachusetts.

The states Mercury Management Act, which was signed into law in July 2006, is designed to keep the toxic metal mercury out of wastewater and trash. The law requires that manufacturers of bulbs sold in the state that contain added mercury must have a plan to educate consumers about the mercury content in their products and about the states requirements that the mercury be recycled. Manufacturers must also report information about mercury lamp sales and recycling to MassDEP for the agency to determine the recycling rate for these products.

via LegalNewsline | Light bulb settlement yields $7K, ad changes.

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