Is This A States’ Rights Issue?

Frank Antenori a Republican member of the Arizona State House has an idea as bright as a 100-watt light bulb. His proposal takes on federal mandate.  It's lighting up conversations at the Capitol over states' rights and the role of the federal government.

Antenori picked what he believes is an inoffensive field of battle: A glass bulb with a tungsten filament. It was in 1879 that Thomas Edison patented the incandescent electric light. The Edison bulb allowed electric lighting to become a commercial success.  Facts not taught in most public schools today.

Antenori is proposing that Arizona become the national epicenter of incandescent light bulb manufacturing. The Tucson Republican hopes to provoke a fight with Washington, D.C., over states' rights and interstate trade.   The freshman lawmaker decided to use light bulbs as his weapon of choice in a states'-rights push.

The federal Energy Independence and Security Act, signed into law by then-President George W. Bush, imposes new efficiency standards beginning in 2012. It bans the sale of the most widely used incandescent bulbs, those ranging from 40 watts to 100 watts. The idea is to move the country toward compact-fluorescent light bulbs and LEDs, which consume less energy.

The federal law is one of those "touchy-feely legislation," pieces of legislation Antenori told a House panel earlier this month. He said it will expose consumers to the mercury in CFLs, as well as kill jobs, because no one makes them in the United States.
But those are side arguments. As with the gun bills being introduced from Arizona to New Hampshire, Antenori's light bulb bill aims to assert a state's rights.

"The real intent of this legislation is to challenge the federal mandate in court," he told the House Commerce Committee. "We could make history by having the U.S. Supreme Court rule that the federal government overstepped its bounds."  We and our state governments need to fight for our state’s rights.  Washington on a daily basis attempts to usurp state’s rights and take them.

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