If you follow the conservative punditry, online or off, it’s a tough call. Today’s (April 24) “Mallard Fillmore” comic strip is just the latest example of conservatives taking aim at these energy-saving bulbs, focusing primarily on the fact that CFLs contain mercury.

So, for Mallard Fillmore author Bruce Tinsley, Thomas Sowell, Rush Limbaugh (whose content is not publicly available) and the crowd at WorldNetDaily, let’s review the facts:

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Making the switch to CFLs (compact flourescent lamps) will result in noticeable savings in your electricity bill. Plus, they last longer, produce more light, and emit less heat.

Want more good news about CFLs? They come in more than one variety. There’s a CFL for many different types of light fixtures, and you can choose your shape: spiral, or a more conventional ‘bulb’ look. Some manufacturers even offer CFLs that radiate that warm glow of an incandescent so many of us have grown accustomed to. But before you buy, check the label to make sure the CFL will work with your lamp or lighting fixture, and that it corresponds to the appropriate wattage. (For more facts about CFLs, Natural Path has some great answers to some CFL basics.)

However, all CFLs contain mercury - about 5 milligrams each (equivalent to the tip of a ballpoint pen.) On the upside, many CFL manufacturers are working on reducing that amount to no more than 2 milligrams per bulb by 2008. No matter which CFL you buy, always check with your local waste management company to find out how to properly dispose of your CFLs. (Smart HomeOwner has additional facts on mercury in CFLs and safe disposal information.)

If you live in California or Australia, you may not even have a choice soon, as regulations are in the works to ban the incandescent bulb altogether.

So get on that CFL bandwagon. Make the switch and start saving energy today.

Amy says: My roommate and I seem to have inadvertently stockpiled some 60w bulbs and haven’t run out yet, but the second we do I’m buying the CFLs.

More on CFLs from GO:

Tip o’ the Day: A Bright Idea

Environmental Defense: Why Today’s CFLs Are So Much Better

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

Daily Tip: A Bright Idea

Naturalpath Asks "CFLs — What’s the Deal?"

Smart HomeOwner: Safer CFLs

New Lighting Technology?

Kenny Luna: The Pied Piper of CFLs

Popular Mechanics Puts Efficient Light Bulbs to the Test

Thursday I attended the birth of what sponsors Yahoo! and AC Nielsen hope will be a grassroots movement to upgrade incandescent light bulbs to a new generation of CFL bulbs on a national scale, saving billions of dollars in the process. A grassroots campaign with corporate sponsors? Weird.

GO Contributor Michael d’Estries (who moonlights with us from Ecorazzi and GroovyGreen) was Johnny on the spot with a Thursday morning post about the launch and features of the website itself, but I thought the event for the launch deserved a little more coverage, so I put together a play by play run-down of the action, with my thoughts added in. If you were there, chime in with a comment with anything I forgot. If you weren't, share your reactions. More after the jump…

Thursday’s launch was the second such event held for the 18seconds organization: Las Vegas previously hosted a pre-launch brainstorming session among many of the same stakeholders. Officially, that "summit" was sponsored by Wal-Mart.

I have to say that I’m still not inclined to shop at Wal-Mart if I can help it (I understand that there are compelling reasons why people do), but you have to give credit to Wal-Mart’s VP for Sustainability Andy Ruben. Jeff, our Editor, interviewed Andy right when Greenoptions.com launched earlier this month about their pilot program to reduce the ecological footprint of their stores.

Another Inconvenient Truth

Right or wrong, the truth of the matter is that small, incremental steps like greening their big-boxes, leveraging online social networks (MySpace users, that means you: lobby Tom!), and supporting a compact fluorescent campaign like 18seconds.org have to be the starting point for creating a tide of public sentiment.

Steps like these are realistically all some of the largest corporations can be badgered into doing without public pressure, a law, or (oh no!) regulation to make them take major action. You can’t entirely blame huge companies when their reaction time to new concepts is found wanting; that’s what startups are for, so they can get bought by big companies and implemented on a wider scale. I think of it as federalism for the corporate world. (Maybe Joe Biden has a point?)

At the same time, it is nice to see unlikely bedfellows trying to force incandescent light bulb makers out of business. Thursday’s launch–which also included a lengthy brainstorming component–was hosted by Yahoo! and featured key figures from across the political, NGO, and business spectrum (plus me and Nick Aster from TreeHugger).

Motivational Speeches

Speakers included environmental guru and former Sierra club President Adam Werbach, all the way to Paul Dickerson, appointed by the CEO of our nation as the COO of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (was there always a COO there?). Oh well—that $1.5 billion budget has enabled many of the technologies that might just save us, right?

Dickerson received a warm welcome from the crowd, assuring everyone that although it won’t cater to demands of the liberal left and reasonable middle and just acknowledge that humans are a cause of climate change, the Bush administration firmly supports the 18seconds.org project. Well, he didn’t say all of that: Dick Cheney supplied the first half. Paul stayed on message, emphasizing that sustainability is a business strategy, useful for reasons of environmental respect, national security, and economic security. And no one in the room could disagree.

Werbach, on the other hand, viewed his time to speak as an opportunity to give context to the 18seconds.org project as an intersection between grassroots green movements and technological change in how we light dark places. (Did you know that whales would all be extinct now if oil from the ground hadn’t dropped in price? Thank you, Standard Oil!)

A common theme in the speeches of Werbach and many other speakers was that CFL technology is a great example of the state of a particular art at a tipping point in readiness for mass commercialization. But Werbach seemed more concerned with the CFL’s ability to create a simple mental frame for how to introduce larger principles of sustainability—to get the ball rolling, so to speak. After he spoke, the term “gateway bulb” was used several more times.

An Inconvenient Truth producer Lawrence Bender used a similar metaphor, calling the CFL a “Trojan horse” into the public consciousness, putting people on the lookout for new technologies that cost less over time but perform just as well when upgraded now. In the case of CFL's, a slight price premium gets you a longer lasting bulb, and saves you 10-20x it's original price over its lifetime.

The enthusiastic speeches are more fun to talk about, but there also were plenty of in-depth speeches addressing the issues that remain for CFL’s, such as how to recycle them, how to ensure quality standards as the industry and technology matures further, and how to best spread 18seconds.org's message. (Am I doing a good job with this post?)

The Nitty Gritty

After a quick website demonstration and some discussion about how to divide stakeholders into brainstorming groups… we broke for lunch. I won’t go into details on the brainstorming session, but I did come out of it with one basic message: there are obstacles to overcome, but those that used to be deal-breakers have largely been solved.

For example, a former Microsoft executive commented to me that with an off-white or tan lamp shade, he’s even converted to CFL’s for reading. Nit-picky or not, he hit the nail on the head: consumers don’t want new light bulbs to mean different light.

I personally came away with another lesson. If everyday people believe that their lives are too busy and filled with daily minutiae that they can just leave the thinking about environmental impact to the people who do it for a living and expect the world to be fine, then Houston, we have a problem. To me, that makes about as much sense as leaving politics solely to politicians and expecting that arrangement to work out to the benefit of society. Alas, one can only do so much. Thank you, internet, for empowering grassroots movements.

Which brings me back to: 18seconds.org.

Comments tip jar: which established star in the green business world or green leader in the regular business world do you want to see interviewed next on GreenOptions.com?

Los Angeles assemblyman Lloyd Levine is proposing to ban the incadescent light bulb in the state by 2012. Why? Because they are inefficient, they've been around for about 120 years, and they are inefficient.

What's the alternative? The compact flourescent light bulb of course! Or more lovingly referred to as the CFL - the traditional light bulb's spiral counterpart.

According to Energy Star, the US government agency that stamps its mark on energy efficient goods, CFLs provide the same amount of light, use 2/3 less energy, and last up to 10 times longer. That means you'll be spending less in your monthly electricity bill and you'll be changing light bulbs every couple of YEARS instead of every couple of months.

They also have some tips on how to get the most out of your new CFL bulb:

• Replace bulbs where lights are on the most, such as your family and living room, kitchen, dining room, and porch.
• Matching the right CFL to the right kind of fixture helps ensure that it will perform properly and last a long time. Read the packaging to be sure that the type you choose works for the fixture you have in mind

• if a light fixture is connected to a dimmer or 3-way switch, select CFLs that are labeled for this use
• For recessed fixtures, it is better to use a 'reflector' CFL versus a standard-shaped bulb.
• Choose the color that works best for you. For example, while most CFLs are created with warm colors for your home, you could choose a cooler color for task lighting.
• To get a CFL with the right amount of light, choose one that offers the same lumen rating as the light you are replacing. The higher the lumen rating, the greater the light output.

Read more about the proposed California ban on the bulb.

And Levine isn't the first to suggest the ban - keep up to date on more light bulb news at UK based BanTheBulb.org

Already made the great switch-out? Check out TreeHugger's top 10 tip on more ways you can green your lighting.