What sense did it make, all the way back in the1930s, for the Central Government to be able to regulate a farm within a single state?It only took a generation for the Seventeenth Amendment to destroy federalism.
But what we have here is a real case of interstate commerce...which places is clearly in the federal realm.
As you have probably noticed, Ohio is the chosen state to get the blame for New York's piggy energy demands which overloaded the Midwesterner's ability to supply their habit. New York (like California) doesn't want to build any power plants (they are sooooo... unsightly, you know), so they import a good fraction of their electricity from flyover country. How rude of the hicks out there to not build enough transmission lines to supply our needs... "My God, our cellphones went off and everything!"
So are the taxpayers of Ohio supposed to foot the bill to beef up their grid for the convenience of New Yorkers? Some in our government would like that. That concept is clearly what is behind Hillary, Richardson, and all the other usual suspects coming out in support of increased federal oversight.
What they really want is increased subsidies by the rural (read: Republican) areas of the nation in support of the urban (read: DemocRAT) areas. It's that simple.
Like Ellen RATner said on Fox, "Follow the money". OK I took her advice, and didn't find an Enron or Halliburton at the end of that road, I found a greedy welfare state looking for more victims.