Republicans are complaining about the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The title of the bill gives away the problem. Obama wasn’t president in 2007, so he could not have signed the legislation into law. The lightbulbs that have so enraged Trump became law under Republican president George W. Bush.

The Obama lightbulb conspiracy has been floating around in conservative and right-wing media for years. What began as Obama’s lightbulb socialism has morphed into Trump and the Executive Branch of the United States government declaring war on lightbulbs.

Trump has been ranting about lightbulbs for months. In October, he said, “Of course, who cares about looks? But you do look better with incandescent, but they weren’t allowed, and you have the privilege of buying now a much more expensive bulb, under the passed rules, much more expensive bulb that doesn’t have a good looking light, but maybe very importantly when the bulb is out, and not good, it’s literally considered a hazardous waste site because of all the gasses. If it breaks, you’re supposed to bring it to a certain location, and I say who does that? Nobody. Nobody.”

"The rollback will eliminate energy-efficient standards for lightbulbs that were slated to take effect in January that would save consumers billions of dollars and reduce millions of tons of climate change carbon dioxide emissions," says Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project.

"The Trump administration is trying to protect technology that was first invented in the 1800s. It's like trying to protect the horse and buggy from the automobile technology. It makes no sense to go back to technology from two centuries ago, when we have new technology today which saves consumers money and helps protect the environment by reducing the amount of power that we need," deLaski said.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the affected bulbs account for billions of light sockets that are currently in use in the U.S.

"The rollback will lead to higher energy bills for homes and businesses, plus significantly more pollution harming our health and the environment due to all the extra electricity that will need to be generated," the NRDC said in a statement.

Some companies that manufacture lightbulbs opposed the expansion to higher standards of energy efficiency.

DeLaski says, "Every time a consumer shifts to an LED, that lightbulb is going to last 10 years or longer. So the lightbulb manufacturers are trying to save technology that keeps the consumer coming back to buy another bulb every year, but still wastes a lot of energy."