It continues to puzzle GallonDaily that Canadian governments are stalling on mandating energy efficient lightbulbs. Even our neighbour to the south, under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, is moving more aggressively than Canada to phase out use of energy inefficient incandescent lightbulbs. No company makes cheap tungsten lightbulbs in Canada so there is nothing to lose for our economy by following the US lead.
One of the most aggressive lightbulb energy conservation programs is coming from our neighbour to the South once removed. Mexico is handing out 44 million free compact fluorescent lightbulbs, four at a time. The program is expected to save US$3.39 million to Mexico during the ten years of the program, will reduce consumption of electricity by 4.17 Gigawatt hours annually and will save fuel equivalent to 7.44 million barrels of oil per year. It will avoid 28 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and eliminate the construction of 2 new power plants.
The program is a partnership of the Government of Mexico and CoolNRG International and was announced in October of this year. The GHG emission credits to be generated are already sold to the Netherlands.
If anyone understands why Canada is not participating in such a program, we welcome your comments and will publish the most plausible in the monthly Gallon Environment Letter.
Details of the Mexico initiative are at http://ahorraenergia.mx/2011/10/luz-verde-mexico-focos-ahorradores/ and click on the Translate button then the rollout for English if you are not fluent in Spanish.
gallondaily 
Mexico is saving US$3.391 billion (in English with a period). The reference article, written in Spanish, uses the language-appropriate term US$3,391 million (in Spanish with a comma).
The reason for the confusion is that the word “billion” in Spanish is 10^12, while the word “billion” in Engish is 10^9.
Thank you so much for the clarification.
Colin Isaacs