The highest source of mercury in our air comes from burning fossil fuels such as coal. Coal is the most common fuel used in Michigan to produce electricity. A CFL uses up to 75% less energy than an incandescent light bulb and lasts up to 10 times longer. A power plant will emit about 10mg of mercury to produce the electricity to run an incandescent bulb compared to only 2.4mg of mercury to run a CFL for the same time.

CFLs also reduce green house gas emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2). If every household in Michigan replaced one 75 watt incandescent light with a compact fluorescent light (CFL), it would prevent 624 million pounds of CO2 from being discharged into the air and save nearly $40 million dollars every year! This would be equivalent to removing 46,000 cars from the road. (1) Electric utilities produce a significant amount of the pollutants that are released to the environment every day. You help reduce this pollution by improving energy efficiency in the home. One way to help is to simply replace one or more of your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. You can use the calculators provided on the main web site to calculate your energy and environmental savings.