-By Warner Todd Huston
In a small step in the right direction, the House of Representatives passed a provision to defund the 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, denying the government the funds to enforce the new lightbulb standards that would have levied a defacto ban on incandescent bulbs.
Of course, the problem is that this is a temporary, stopgap measure not a full solution. This defunding process will have to be repeated every year or the lightbulb standards will slip into effect anyway. This amendment does not eliminate the new EPA standards, but it does give manufacturers of the bulbs and retailers of the same another year to sell their product without the weight of Big Brother coming down upon their heads.
The amendment to the 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Act was put forward by Rep. Michael Burgess (R, Texas) and passed on a voice vote on Friday morning, July 15.
“If a manufacturer should choose to continue to make 100-watt bulbs, they would be permitted under this language, as there is clearly a market based on the thousands of consumers who have contacted Congress upset about their inability to buy 100-watt lightbulbs,†Burgess said. “This is about the consumer driving the market, not the federal government deciding the market.â€
The problem is, of course, that this does not fix the law. With this solution we are still saddled with the nannystate defacto lightbulb ban and if some future congress inattentive to this issue does not offer another in a series of yearly amendments to continue defunding the enforcement of the rules, well, we are right back at square one with having incandescent lightbulbs banned by the nannystate federal government.
These “standards” need to be repealed and removed from the law. Simply defunding the enforcement every year is not a satisfactory solution.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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