By Geof Koss, CQ Staff

The House is expected to vote on legislation this week that would repeal federal light bulb efficiency standards — a seemingly innocuous issue that nonetheless exposed fractures in the GOP caucus after last year’s elections.

Lawmakers will vote as early as Monday on a bill (HR 2417) that would roll back a provision in a 2007 energy law (PL 110-140) that created minimum efficiency standards for incandescent light bulbs. The bill will be considered under suspension of the rules, and it is unclear whether proponents have the two-thirds majority needed for passage under the expedited procedure.

At the time of their invention by Thomas Edison, in 1879, incandescent bulbs were hailed as a symbol of American ingenuity and credited for revolutionizing life and fostering the spread of electricity around the world.

But even as their popularity as a cheap lighting source endured, mounting fears about global warming and energy costs have highlighted a major shortcoming in the incandescent technology the bulbs employ: About 90 percent of the energy used to produce light is lost as heat.

The 2007 law established efficiency standards for the bulbs — something the federal government has done for decades with a host of appliances. At the time, consumer groups and the lighting industry praised the move as a practical solution, and it generated little controversy.

Supporters note that the underlying bill, which also contained the first congressionally mandated increase in fuel-economy standards in three decades, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law by President George W. Bush.

But after the Republican sweep of the House in last November’s elections, conservative groups began targeting the light bulb rules as government meddling that would force U.S. jobs overseas, where many bulbs that use alternative technologies, including compact fluorescents and light-emitting diodes, are produced.

“The de facto ban on incandescent bulbs was the perfect example of the overreaching government intrusion that has so many people fed up with Washington,” said Rep. Joe L. Barton, R-Texas.

The controversy was fueled in large part by GOP infighting; Barton cosponsored a similar bill last year, which conservative groups seized upon after the November elections, to highlight the moderate record of Michigan Republican Fred Upton, whom Barton was challenging to chair the Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill was seen as a not-so-subtle dig at Upton, who teamed up with California Democrat Jane Harman to write the light-bulb language in the 2007 energy law. Upton ultimately prevailed in that contest, during which he pledged to revisit the light-bulb law.

Barton, who was named the committee’s chairman emeritus as a consolation prize, released a statement last week thanking Upton for bringing the bill to the floor, which suggests that the chairman made good on his pledge. But that also left backers of the law scrambling to deprive the measure of the two-thirds majority it would need to pass under suspension of the rules. The continued support for the light bulb standards by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., makes passage in that chamber unlikely.

In a conference call with reporters, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sought to dispel what he termed “myths” about the standards, including the oft-repeated claim that they constitute a ban on incandescent bulbs. The only difference between the older bulbs and the more efficient models “is they will help American consumers save money,” Chu said.

Additionally, he addressed concerns about the higher up-front costs of alternative bulbs, noting that the Energy Department is required by law to demonstrate that efficiency standards do not result in higher overall operating costs.

Although some conservatives have made the light bulb controversy a symbol of government excess, former Sen. John W. Warner, a Virginia Republican, saw another message in the House bill.