Texas Gov. Rick Perry today signed a law that will free Texans from the federal government’s impending incandescent light bulb ban:

The measure, sent to Gov. Rick Perry for consideration [he subsequently signed it], lets any incandescent light bulb manufactured in Texas – and sold in that state – avoid the authority of the federal government or the repeal of the 2007 energy independence act that starts phasing out some incandescent light bulbs next year.

Texas wasn’t the first state to explore this kind of legislation: South Carolina has advanced a similar bill and, last year, the Arizona legislature passed a bill to the same effect — but Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed it.

Few issues illuminate the consumer will to choose — and the disparate faith in consumers of liberals and conservatives, as revealed by proposed policies — as clearly as the federal government’s light bulb ban. As Heritage Foundation energy analyst Nick Loris puts it, “Consumers can make intelligent decisions on their own without the government forcing choices upon them.”

Not surprisingly, environmentalist groups — chief among them the New-York based Natural Resources Defense Council — wanted Perry to veto the bill. But the governor’s slick signature on this is yet one more reason to like the man many want to run for president.