Throwback Thursday is a regular weekly feature in which we dip into the archives of the Hardlines Weekly Report.
In our Hardlines Weekly Report of Jan. 13, 2014, we reported on the “federal ban on incandescent light bulbs that went into effect on New Year’s Day.”
Well, we got it mostly right. Ottawa had not, technically, “banned incandescent light bulbs,” but they were prohibited for importation into Canada and manufacture in this country from Jan. 1, 2014. Retailers could still sell them—and most retailers had already stocked up. It would take many years for incandescent bulbs to disappear from the supply chain. They are still available from some online suppliers. Certain formats of incandescent bulbs are still legal.
It took an extra nine years for the United States to finally clamp down on the less efficient bulbs. The U.S. Department of Energy passed a regulation prohibiting the sale of incandescent bulbs in August 2023.
