Its a shame we even have to bother with this. I say let the market place decide...just like 8 track tapes, cassettes, etc, went by the wayside over time.
But NO...the gubment decides what you can have now.
I will offer a counterpoint. And, in this case the market forced the decision.
Consumers don't want to pay higher electricity bills. Utilities are being forced to switch to green power generation which is quite expensive. That leaves zero money left for upgrading the power grid which is operating close to capacity (Tier 1 and 2 power alerts, etc.) Oh right, and we're using more power than ever.
So what's the solution? If you use less power the grid can continue to operate in its current state without huge upgrades/expansion. This frees up money the utilities use to pursue green power initiatives that
consumers want.
Pick your poison. A recent article in the LA Times stated the city of LA has replaced about half of its street lights with LEDs. LA has about 200k street lights. They've replaced 114k units, saving over $5 million annually in electricity and over a 60% improvement in efficiency.
Plus, CFL and LED lighting tends to produce less heat so you have less heat load to deal with during the summer months. So either be prepared for increased energy costs or use energy more efficiently. Its exactly like gas prices. They go up, people are suddenly willing to buy fuel efficient cars. Funny how that works.