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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   3496 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 11, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/19/politics/led-cfl-light-bulb-rule-biden-climate/index.html

What act of congress gives the Biden administration the power to ban CFL lightbulbs that were made mandatory only a decade ago? Standards for everything keep getting incrementally and arbitrarily worse, and congress hasn't ever lifted a finger.

The same thing is being done with the gas stove ban that's both a ridiculous conspiracy theory and also happening and good.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/chapter-77/subchapter-III/part-A

(6)Standards for general service lamps.—

(A)Rulemaking before january 1, 2014.—

(i)In general.—Not later than January 1, 2014, the Secretary shall initiate a rulemaking procedure to determine whether—

(I)standards in effect for general service lamps should be amended to establish more stringent standards than the standards specified in paragraph (1)(A); and

(II)the exemptions for certain incandescent lamps should be maintained or discontinued based, in part, on exempted lamp sales collected by the Secretary from manufacturers.

They were empowered to do it once, with a final date no later than Jan 2022. Now they keep changing the rules every few years based on what power or rule?

The normal remedy for an administrative agency's failure to enact a rule by a statutory deadline is a mandamus lawsuit to compel it to act. If delay instead deprived the agency of the ability to act, then administrative agencies -- the deep state, if you will -- could frustrate the will of Congress by dithering. See discussion in the Congressional Research Service reports here and here.

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