John Edwards post clarifies several distinct issues:

1) Learning to live with AHB

2) Keeping beekeeping legal in areas where AHB is moving in—especially in
urban and suburban areas.

3) A kneejerk impulse (or ideological bent) to smaller government that leads
beekeepers to support the dismantling of state apiary inspection programs
that could do them much good and be a great ally in dealing with the larger,
nonbeekeeping community. I'll allow that there could be some legitimate
criticism that led to dissatisfaction with the program, but I'd like to hear
why that necessitated throwing it out, rather than fixing it.

<<Requeening seldom works in areas flooded with pioneer AHB swarms. Ask the
Texas beekeepers.>>

    As cited in someone's earlier post, commercial beekeepers in rural areas
will probably be largely unaffected by efforts to outlaw beekeeping. That
battle will be fought by urban and suburban beekeepers—by and large,
hobbyists where the viability of requeening could be important.
   I've heard of AHB swarms colonizing European hives, but my understanding
is it's infrequent, and usually only happens to weakened colonies. I wonder
if your conversations or source documents deal primarily with commercial
beekeepers? "Infrequent" in a commercial operation could still be a lot of
hives. Due to a hobbyist's reduced scale of operation, much more control is
possible than for someone with a 1,000 colonies, or 10,000 colonies. A
commercial operator cannot be constantly vigilant over that many hives and
remain economically viable. He or she just has to accept AHB, and learn to
live with it.
   My impression is that beekeeping studies rarely look at hobbyist
operations, where the colonies are more likely to be near people and
communities with no affiliation with agriculture—and where anti-beekeeping
ordinances are much more likely.
   A few strong hobby hives with fresh young queens are not going to be very
susceptible to colonization, unless my information about the susceptibility
of European hives is incorrect. Furthermore, a hobbyist manages his hives
differently from a commercial operator. Hobbyists are often criticized for
going out to the hives every week or two and messing around. AHB colonization
would be discovered fairly quickly under this kind of management scheme, and
the situation could be promptly corrected. Of course, until the requeening
was accomplished, the hobbyist would be working an AHB hive. This is why
urban and suburban hobbyists are going to have to acclimate to the idea of
working AHB hives too (as Mark in South Africa points out, this might not be
as bad as we are making it out to be).
   How much money would I be willing to pay to cure an AHB colonization?
Requeening twice over the course of a season will cost me $20 for 2
open-mated queens, $80 for 2 AI queens. Not enough to make me give up a hobby
in which I've already invested a significant sum.

<<...how many queens per season are you willing to buy and see killed ??>>
We need to learn new techniques to succeed at this. I'd like to see a state
extension or the USDA produce a document explaining how best to requeen an
AHB colony with a European queen. Or post your experiences here.

<<The beekeepers of Arizona decided to dump the entire inspection system
about ten
years ago, supposedly to avoid possible gov't. controls.>>

   I'd like to hear from some Arizona beekeepers why they thought this was a
good idea.
   The state inspector here in Massachusetts was a great resource to me when
I started. My original plan was to keep hives in my urban backyard. I
contacted Al Carle (our state inspector) who gave me very good information on
urban beekeeping, and offered to come out and help me install my first
packages. He made himself  helpful and accessible. And by his offer, visible.
(Ulimately, I installed the hives elsewhere without assistance). It was a
reassurance to my uncertain city neighbors when I told them an expert from
the state would be on-site to advise and assist me.

<<...if you are going to be a beekeeper below the "frost line", this is the
time to plan and learn.>>

   Do we know for certain and conclusively that AHB won't show up here above
the frost line? Last I heard, that was educated conjecture, supported by a
smattering of empirical evidence. I'd certainly like the public up here to
think that...