Government Engagement Newsletter - October 2017

Big Week for ENERGY STAR Program

This has been an exciting week for the ENERGY STAR program.

Earlier in the week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hosted their annual Products Partner Meeting in Chicago, Ill.

Tuesday marked ENERGY STAR Day in both Canada and the U.S. ALA participated by promoting the newly released Light the Moment video.

Additionally, the application portal is now open for the 2018 ENERGY STAR awards competition. Complete applications are due by December 4.

Lastly, ENERGY STAR just released their new lighting market report, titled The Light Bulb Revolution. The full report provides interesting insights on the future of LEDs. Check out the full report.

Prop 65 Q&A for Businesses



Hopefully by now you have heard of the changes coming to California’s Prop 65 hazardous warning label. Beginning August 30, 2018, businesses will be required to provide “clear and reasonable” warnings about products that might expose someone to a chemical that is known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive harm. The penalties for violating Prop 65 can be as much as $2,500 per violation, per day. To help ensure proper compliance, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Awareness (OEHHA), the state agency responsible for administering Prop 65 has published an updated Q&A for businesses. Click here to see the Q&A.

ALA has previously published a one pager about the impending changes and it is available on ALA’s website. Also, ALA will be hosting two webinars on Prop 65. The first will be with OEHHA and the second will be a panel of business minded Prop 65 experts. Additional details on the webinars will be forthcoming.

DOE Requests Industry Insight on Two Topics

The Department of Energy (DOE) sought comment on two different topics having recently published two requests for information. The first topic focused on general service incandescent lamps (GSIL) and the second topic was information collection and sharing with other government entities. With regards to GSILs, ALA was asked to submit comments on behalf of the lighting consumer and the comments submitted talk about consumer choice and a marketplace free from government regulation. As for the comments on information collection, ALA joined with other like-minded associations to offer DOE our support but to also ask DOE to reevaluate certain aspects of current certification process.

Lamps Containing Mercury

(End-of-Life)

Environment Climate Change Canada is making changes to the end-of-life management practices for mercury containing lamps. Passed back in June of this year, The National Strategy for Safe and Environmentally Sound Disposal of Lamps Containing Mercury Act does not establish specific requirements but instead offers three suggestions:

1.     Identify practices for safe and environmentally sound disposal of those lamps;

2.     Establish guidelines for facilities involved in end of life management; and

3.     Develop a plan to promote public awareness.

You can read the entire release from Environment Climate Change Canada, here.