During President Barack Obama’s second term, his Department of Energy decided to extend a George W. Bush-era rule that encouraged a move to LEDs and other energy-efficient options. Under the department’s rules, specialty fixtures — large, decorative globes found in bathrooms, candle-shaped lights, recessed lighting, etc. — would also have to move away from incandescent bulbs. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, there are about 2.7 billion such light sockets in the U.S., so the change would have a significant impact on energy consumption in many homes.
However, the Trump administration believes that in issuing that rule, the Department of Energy
overstepped its authority. That view is backed by the lighting industry, which has argued that the law was never intended to be applied to specialty bulbs. The Department of Energy under Trump has adopted this view as well and has issued a proposal that would reverse the agency’s previous position
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