Legislation + Regulation

While many in the lighting industry are aware that US DOE recently issued a Final Rule for a definition change of general service lamps (GSL) as well as General Service Incandescent Lamps (GSIL), many in the industry don’t realize the impact of this expanded GSL definition on many LED lamps. Most of the public discussion around the new GSL definition focused on the addition of incandescent and halogen specialty lamps to the regulated GSL category. However, the new expanded GSL definition encompasses many LED lamps, in addition to incandescent and halogen.

The DOE published two final rules for the General Service Lamps (GSL) definition and the backstop on April 26, 2022. Before this date, the big unknown was the timing of the effective date and the dates of enforcement.

Linda Longo, at US Lighting Trends, summarized the issues involved in proposed legislation to make Daylight Savings Time permanent and year-round, in the US.

According to the American Lighting Association (ALA), the first $34 billion of Section 301 tariffs on products coming from China have been in place for almost 4 years.

Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) announced it is modernizing buildings across its four campuses and the West Hills Center, as well as its building automation system, with occupancy sensing, improved LED lighting control systems, and Internet of Things (IoT) platform as part of a COVID-19 mitigation initiative and infrastructure upgrade from Enlighted, a part of Building Robotics Inc., a Siemens company.

The City of Denver recently approved an ordinance requiring all commercial and multifamily buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving energy efficiency, renewable energy, and building electrification.

With everything going on with the pandemic in late 2020 and early 2021, few in the lighting industry noticed a major change to the Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction, aka Section 179D.

New York City enacted two new laws aimed at curbing light pollution for City-owned properties. The proposed legislation allows for exemptions for landmark buildings – enabling the Empire State Building’s color-changing fixtures to continue illuminating the top 30 stories.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a pre-publication Federal Register notice proposing to codify in the Code of Federal Regulations the 45 lumens per watt backstop requirement for general service lamps that Congress prescribed in the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended.