By John Ostapkovich

Philadelphia (CBS) – One New Year’s resolution you won’t have to make is to get ready for the phase-out of 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. Enforcement of the change was de-funded by Congress.

The future does not belong to the past, says Drexel’s Dean of Engineering Bruce Eisenstein, so the new bulbs will replace the old eventually, although he thinks Congress was premature to order incandescent phased out so soon.

He even likes his 100 watt old style bulbs for some purposes and notes that the new ones cost more and, in the case of CFL’s, come with some hazmat concerns.

“The upside is that they last for a very long time. I replaced a lot of my exterior lights with the compact fluorescent and I was changing them every couple of months when they were incandescents. These compact fluorescents have lasted more than a year now.”

Dean Eisenstein says he expects LED to prevail over CFL’s because their light is whiter and therefore easier to color, if you want to get fancy.