Jacqueline Cramer, the Dutch minister for the environment, wants to ban old style incandescent light bulbs within the next four years. If she can overcome political opposition to the plan, only energy saving light bulbs could be sold in the Netherlands once the ban goes through.

A similar law, only allowing energy saving light bulbs, will come into effect in Australia in 2010. Bans are also subject of discussion in Belgium and in the state of California. And finally there’s talk of a proposed European Union directive that would ban regular light bulbs in all EU member states from the end of 2008.

Energy saving light bulbs live up to their name, producing the same amount of light while using far less energy. They are, however, more expensive to buy.

Read more on this story in Dutch from nu.nl or use babelfish to translate