In a serious effort to save energy, a California assemblyman from Los Angeles will propose a ban on the common, incandescent light bulb within five years in a bill cleverly named the "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb Act."

The change is long overdue, considering conventional light bulbs haven't been modified much at all over the past 125 years and are so inefficient, converting only 5 percent of the energy they receive into light, according to California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine.

By comparison, 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) were sold in America in 2005, only 5 percent of the overall light bulb market. Unfortunately, the California bill caught the attention of Wal-Mart, leading the predatory retailer to predict it will sell 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs on their own by the end of the year.

The catch about the California proposal: There's no provisions for encouraging the use of full-spectrum lighting -- your next best option after sunshine -- that offers the very same energy benefits as CFLs and exposes your body to far healthier photons.

By the way, don't be fooled about products you'll see at your neighborhood hardware store that are labeled and promoted as full-spectrum lighting, but are merely imitation neodymium incandescent bulbs. If can't find the real thing near you, you may want to consider the Way Healthier Full Spectrum Light Bulbs available in my Web store.