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An environmental group put a major manufacturer of home thermostats on its holiday "naughty list" for allegedly working to block a state law mandating recycling of older thermostats that contain toxic mercury.

Sales of old-fashioned thermometers containing mercury were phased out under state law starting in 2005, but millions remain in use, and hundreds of thousands are thrown out each year, said Laura Haight of the New York Public Interest Research Group during a Wednesday news conference at the state Capitol.

Each thermostat contains about a seventh of an ounce of mercury — about 400 times more than an energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulb. Each year, more than 310,000 old thermostats are removed from homes, offices and elsewhere in the state. That represents about 2,700 pounds of mercury, a potent neurotoxin that causes developmental problems in developing fetuses and children.

Unlike states such as Vermont and Maine, New York has no mandatory collection and recycling for old mercury thermostats, and less than 2 percent of those discarded are now being recycled. Proposed laws to compel manufacturers to create a program with higher recycling goals failed to pass the state Legislature the last two years.

Haight pointed to state lobbying records that show Honeywell, which manufactured the majority of the mercury-tainted thermostats, spent $90,000 with influential lobbying firm Patricia Lynch Associates for work on bills including the thermostat measure. Records filed by the company this fall showed that it lobbied only on thermostats.

Asked about the lobbying, Honeywell spokeswoman Marie Yarroll said the company "strongly supports voluntary thermostat-recycling programs," and pointed to a voluntary program in Maryland that she said had the nation's highest recycling rate.

The Thermostat Recycling Corp., an industry group including Honeywell that promotes voluntary efforts, has so far recycled roughly 1.5 million thermostats. In 2008, the last year for which figures are available, there were about 3,700 mercury thermostats collected in New York.

That likely means the vast majority of thermostats in New York end up in as trash, said Haight. Some may be sent to one of the state's 10 refuse incinerators, which in 2009 emitted about 128 pounds of mercury into the air.

In New York, proposed thermostat recycling laws have been considered by state lawmakers for the past two years, but have failed to pass each time.

The Assembly has twice adopted a thermostat recycling bill. The last time, in May 2011, members voted 108-30 for a bill that by 2014 would require thermostat makers to support a program that recycles at least 25 percent of discarded thermometers — or roughly 75,000 units, reflecting about 650 pounds of mercury.

It must have been an unenviable task for BMW designers and engineers to rework the 3 Series sedan. To pick out the best selling car from the BMW stable and expect to better its design and performance is likely to have weighed very heavily on their shoulders.

The new sixth generation 3 Series sedan which debuted in October this year at Munich will be launched globally in a phased manner starting February next year. It will attempt to replace the fantastically agile and one of the most enthusiastic performers of this segment. Naturally, I was bristling with curiosity when BMW invited me to Barcelona for the international media test drive of the new gen 3 Series.

For generations, the 3 Series has defined the concept of elegant, yet aggressive design in the compact luxury segment. And the existing fifth generation model is a fine specimen already. So, when I stepped out of the hotel in Barcelona and saw the line-up of the new 3s waiting for us to take out on our test drives, it was evident that BMW designers did not want to tamper too much with the design.

There are a quite a few bits from the existing 3's design that have been retained. The sixth-gen 3 Series' design also seems to have been influenced by a few other BMW family cars. For example, the front of the new 3 Series sedan and its wedge-shaped silhouette reminded me of the Z4 and the stubby rear looked a bit like the 7 Series. There are few lines that you can trace back to the 5 Series too.

But, quite apart from the obvious lineage, the new 3 Series design is still very distinctive. It is to the credit of the designers that the new look manages to be instantly recognisable and is yet very new too. Marking progress in design for this sports sedan, the new gen 3 Series also draws inspiration from some of the recent BMW concepts as is reflected by the new wider kidney grille design and the new eyelets of the flattened headlamps that join into the grille.

The bonnet slab is more defined with the prominent centre crease and the new ridge that increases the perception of width. From the side and at the rear, the new-gen is clearly identifiable as a 3 Series. The new tail-lamp combination gets the L-shaped LED tubes from the 7 Series and the 5 series.

The new 3 Series is not meatier due to the new lines that adorn its panels, it has also actually grown in proportions compared to the predecessor. The new model's overall length has increased by 93mm and its wheelbase is up 50mm, making it substantially longer even visually than the fifth gen. It is also squat and looking more planted due to an increase in its track width, which is up 37mm in the front and 47mm at the rear.

The longer wheelbase now frees up some more space inside the passenger cabin and the rear passenger gets 15mm of extra knee room and about 8mm of extra headroom – key factors for enhanced comfort in the Indian context. The boot space also gets a bump up to 480 litres, about 20 litres more than the predecessor.

Despite all that bulking up, it gets even better when you are told that the new 3 is actually lighter than its predecessor. Kerb weight is down by about 40 kg, thanks to the use of high strength steel and light alloys. BMW says that the intelligent lightweight body construction with flow optimised underbody structure uses their Air Curtain Technology.

This improves air flow around the front wheels and together with its sophisticated chassis technology gives the car high torsional rigidity and contributes to its sporty handling.

Christmas Decor is a national franchise with local decorators spotted across the country to make your holiday bright for you, including one here in Great Falls.

Kathy Bostic explains, "I felt sorry for my husband trying to put the decorations up each year outside": Christmas Decor has decorated the Bostic home for the last four years helping make their holiday extra bright. Kathy says, "Christmas is my very favorite time of year and I always like to have a lot of decorations".

Kevin Ferguson owns Nitro-Green Professional Lawn and Tree Care. He joined the Christmas Decor franchise seven years ago to stay busy in the winter. He had attempted to do start a holiday decorating business himself, but found it too difficult finding quality decorations each year. Now he decks the halls, so you don't have to.

Unlike waiting for things to grow in the landscaping business, decorating offers instant gratification. Ferguson says, "it's really rewarding to go out and see them and see the happiness that people have, you know people come out and are all excited to see their lights". Even the workers love driving around at night seeing the houses and businesses in their full glory after decorating them earlier in the day.

The Bostics say service has always been terrific and fast. Lining roofs with lights only takes a few hours. Houses that go all out may take a few days to decorate at most. Throughout the season two teams are checking on their work to make sure nothing needs repairs. Kathy says, "they come by and check. If there's any light bulbs that are out they replace them".

The convenience and quality makes the cost well worth it for the Bostics. Plus, the decorations are customized to your home, so you control the price tag. Kathy says, "if we wanted to decrease something to cut the cost down, we could do that. If we wanted to add more and pay more we could do that."

Christmas Decor can decorate the entire exterior from roof lines, garlands, wreaths, and more. All lights are energy efficient and on a timer. Ferguson says, "new LED technology has gotten a lot better. Our C-9 LED bulbs actually have 5 LEDs inside of each bulb so they're really bright". LED lights conserve 77% more energy compared to old incandescent lights.

Weather plays a big role in business. Most of the decorating happens in October and lights get turned on after Thanksgiving. Tear down happens after the new year. Some decorations, like windows, can only be put up in warmer weather. Ferguson describes a unique sticky clip made by Christmas Decor that sticks to the glass when decorating windows. However, it will not stick if the temperature is below 40 degrees.

Weather also affects safety. They cannot get on a roof with frost or snow on it, but most houses can be finished just using ladders. Ferguson says, "we have to make sure our ladders are used correctly and everyone's trained how to use ladders".

Hard winters the last two years cut business off early, but with the mild weather this year they are still decorating even days before the holiday.

The palm-sized Hornet LED luminaires are accurately designed for superior optical and thermal performance. The advanced 15-W LED, a result of one-year extensive research by Philips Lumileds, delivers a lumen output comparable to 50-W halogen light, while consuming only one-third, the power. The operating life of the new LED is 50,000 h at an initial lumen output of 70%.

Amerlux offers Hornet in a broad array of beam-spread distributions with specialized optics and complete range of dimmability. The Hornet is compatible with a 15-degree spot that provides 775 lm for a 45-degree Wide Flood or an 800 lm for a 28-degree Flood with 785 lm. It also features tool-free, field-exchangeable optics. The company employs microbinned LEDs to keep color stability and quality between fixtures.

The Hornet uses a white light having a CRI of 82 and constant color temperature of 3000 K that provides steady beams devoid of ultraviolet or infrared radiation and projected heat, making it suitable for heat or color sensitive products.

The installation package of the Hornet LED track luminaire comprises a ballast housing, lamp, die-cast lens bezel as well as a die-cast aluminum heat sink. The Hornet also features a 360 rotation and a lockable vertical tilt of 0-90° for accurate focusing. The lighting fixture can be fixed on low-voltage canopies or track systems.

Silver texture, black texture and white texture finishes are the regular options offered by Amerlux. However, the company offers more than 200 powder coat paint finishes as custom color options to match almost any design scheme.

Yes. Illumination planners have taken extra steps to save electricity. Some also urge visitors to the light displays to make donations to support survivors of the disasters.

The organizers of the Omotesando display offered 60,000 lights for Sendai to use because all of the city's lights were lost in the tsunami. The Omotesando event also offered a donation to the disaster-hit city.

Sendai started the Light Pageant display in 1986, setting a row of zelkova aglow. That display served as the inspiration for the Omotesando display when it started up in 1991.

In this year's Light Pageant, 160 zelkova trees are sporting about 460,000 lights, including those borrowed from Omotesando, until the end of the year.

Omotesando has cut power use by lighting up only 96 zelkovas with 650,000 lights this year, instead of 153 trees with 900,000 lights last year.

Tokyo Tower, which boasts 50,000 LEDs on a 14-meter-high Christmas tree and 100,000 more on ornaments around it, is aglow from 4 p.m. till midnight daily until Christmas, seven hours shorter than last year. This has led to a 42 percent cut in electricity consumption, according to Nippon Television City Corp., which owns and operates the tower.

The Yomiuri Land amusement park cut power consumption by 25 percent from last year by using LED lights this year in the illumination art designed by lighting designer Motoko Ishii.

It is encouraging that the ridiculous incandescent light bulb ban has been placed on temporary hold. But that is just part of the story when it comes to the government's social engineering of energy usage.

The light bulb ban was certainly an annoying case that jolted everyone, got their attention, and generated much resistance, but here in California forced energy savings have been going on for quite some time.

In kitchens it used to be fairly easy to comply with these regulations. The first switch had to control a high efficiency luminaire such as a fluorescent. So we often had to add fluorescent under cabinet lights to the recessed ceiling can lights that most people wanted. This increased cost both construction costs and overall total wattage, but it complied with the regulation.

The new Title-24 requirements are a little more stringent. Now 50% of the total connected Wattage in the kitchen must come from a high efficiency (poor color rendering fluorescent or expensive LED) lighting source. Sounds like a feel good solution that will save energy right? Not necessarily.

You start with what the customer wants (what a concept) for kitchen lighting. Let's say that they want six recessed and three pendant incandescent lights. You will use 65W lamps in the cans and 40W in the pendants but you must calculate for their maximum rated Wattage which is usually 100W.

That adds up to 900W in this case. So if you want to use the incandescent lights and satisfy the client as well as the government you have to come up with an additional 900W of lighting from a high efficiency source in order to have the government sign off on your work.

If this kitchen had room for six fluorescent under-cabinet lights that only gets you to 156W. If you want to stay with the original design you are forced to add an additional 744W of high efficiency lighting in order to comply. Trust me -- we find a way to comply.

That's just the requirements for the kitchen. In bathrooms you're forced to install expensive occupancy sensor switches if your fixtures aren't high efficiency. Throughout the rest of the house every switch that controls an "evil" incandescent light has to be a dimmer. All outdoor lighting must be high efficiency as well. If it isn't, it must be controlled by an annoying motion detector that has a built-in daylight sensor (I wonder if those get disconnected after inspection?).

Having all of these wonderful energy saving products available for people to freely choose is one thing (I really like LED) but unfortunately, as is the case with most of the Left's social engineering projects, the end results are much different than the original intentions. They're not as bright as they think they are.

What's wrong with saving energy? As far as I'm concerned absolutely nothing -- as long as it's voluntary. But tossing aside the free market and forcing inferior or highly expensive products upon Americans is -- un-American