Michael Hiltzik: Trump's attack on lightbulb standards is his flimsiest environmental rollback yet

Consider the lightbulb.

One of the lowliest electric devices in our homes and offices, the lightbulb revolutionized daily life after it was improved through Thomas Edison's innovations. It became so ubiquitous as to be barely noticeable, except when it burned out and had to be replaced.

Or when rules requiring bulbs to be more energy-efficient became the subject of attacks launched by Tea Party adherents starting in 2011.

Surely one of the more witless political causes of our time, the attack on lightbulb standards sure enough got taken up by President Trump, who in September proposed rolling back the efficiency mandate.

Among his complaints was that higher efficiency bulbs made him "look orange," that they were more expensive than traditional incandescent lights and that when they break, "it's considered a hazardous waste site. It's gasses inside."

On Nov. 4, the counterstroke came from