A States’ Rights Battle over Light Bulbs

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/a-states-rights-battle-over-light-bulbs-11102011.html

Conservatives challenge the federal law requiring incandescent bulbs to be replaced with fluorescents and LEDs

In July… Representative Joe Barton (R-Tex.), gave it another try. His Better Use of Light Bulbs Act got 233 “yeas”—a good showing, but not enough to save the venerable bulb.

Washington having failed them, the light bulb brigade is now taking its case to the states. Legislatures in Georgia and South Carolina are considering bills that invoke the state powers spelled out in the 10th Amendment to argue for allowing incandescent bulbs to be manufactured and sold within state lines. Last month in Lansing, Mich.—80 miles from a replica of the lab where Edison perfected the light bulb—the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill that would let the bulbs be made and sold in the state. “There’s no reason our citizens should have this choice taken away from them,” says state Representative Tom McMillin (R-Mich.), who introduced the legislation. “Plenty of people like [incandescents], plenty of people don’t like the alternatives.” The lawmakers hope that if their measures pass, Congress will reconsider the energy efficiency rules.

Some of the states, including Michigan, aren’t currently home to a light bulb manufacturer. The three largest light bulb makers—General Electric (GE), Osram Sylvania, and Royal Philips Electronics (PHG) —either don’t make regular incandescent bulbs in the U.S. or will phase them out in favor of technology that meets the new federal standards, according to the American Lighting Assn. “The future is LEDs,” says W. Lawrence Lauck, the association’s vice-president of communications. “That’s what the lighting industry is gearing its investments toward.” McMillin says that if his law passes, the birth of a light bulb industry in Michigan “could happen.”

One state is giving bulb activists hope. In May the Texas legislature adopted a measure almost identical to McMillin’s, despite opposition from environmental groups that argued it made Texas look like it was marching into the last century. Governor Rick Perry signed it into law in June. Unless a court overturns it, Texas light bulb factories—which currently number zero—will be free to light the way, the old-fashioned way.