Washington wants to trash the traditional light bulb. Deroy Murdock explores the silliness of it all in his latest column.

What the Wizard of Menlo Park, N.J., required 10,000 experiments to perfect, Brooks Brothers socialist George W. Bush needed just one signature to make anathema.

If the law is left unchallenged, Jan. 1, 2012, will bring stricter standards that Congress designed in 2007 to eliminate Edison’s invention and dragoon Americans into using more energy-efficient alternatives.

Courtesy of our federal masters, Americans are enduring a parade of unforeseen consequences — all because “the experts” want to extinguish one of this nation’s greatest contributions to humanity.

Those swirly bulbs that Washington hopes will replace incandescents are called compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). They brighten slowly, function poorly with dimmer knobs, and emit light that many find unappealing. Even worse, according to EnergyStar.gov, each CFL contains 4 milligrams of toxic mercury. Given the Environmental Protection Agency’s “maximum contaminant level” of 0.002 milligrams per liter, an average CFL contains enough mercury to pollute 528 gallons of water — more than enough to fill ten typical 50-gallon residential water heaters.

As the EPA warns, “High exposures to inorganic mercury may result in damage to the gastrointestinal tract, the nervous system, and the kidneys.”