Big Labor in Congress, Private Conservation and White House Science Policy
Potentially dramatic changes in U.S. labor law make their way through the legislative process.
Efforts to eliminate E. coli contamination on farms leads to unintended environmental degradation.
The Environmental Protection Agency is criticized for censoring the work of analysts
skeptical of assumptions about global warming.
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1. CONGRESS
Potentially dramatic changes in U.S. labor law make their way through the legislative process.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Editorial Director Ivan Osorio on the status of the pro-union legislation:
“Senate Democrats and organized labor leaders are reportedly near a deal on removing the card-check provision from the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). That provision, if enacted, would have made secret ballots in union organizing elections a dead letter. Naturally, it generated a lot of opposition. Having lost that public opinion battle, Big Labor is now trying to push through the other parts of the bill, including its binding arbitration provision, which would subject newly unionized companies to the whims of a federally appointed arbitrator — who is unlikely to be knowledgeable about a company’s operations.”
2. ENVIRONMENT
Efforts to eliminate E. coli contamination on farms leads to unintended environmental degradation.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar R.J. Smith on how the campaign threatens private conservation efforts:
“Unfortunately, such foolish ‘wisdom’ undermines good conservation efforts. For example, it discourages conservation at California vineyards. In the past, some have gone out of their way to use tail ponds to collect irrigation and rain water–and any dissolved pollutants–and then pump it back up hill for more irrigation. These tail ponds themselves become wetland habitats. Similarly, vineyards in the Temecula area – Viansa Winery and others – pioneered placing hawk roosting and nesting structures on their property to attract birds of prey to help control rodents, as well as placing nesting boxes for owls and falcons.”
3. SCIENCE
The Environmental Protection Agency is criticized for censoring the work of analysts skeptical of assumptions about global warming.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on why the White House’s science office should be concerned:
“The Office of Science and Technology Policy should be especially concerned about the possibility that other agencies and institutions may be so committed to certain points of view on these issues, that their procedures and assessments fail to fairly reflect new and contrary findings. In assessing these implications, OSTP should be especially concerned about the possibility that other agencies and institutions may be so committed to certain points of view on these issues, that their procedures and assessments fail to fairly reflect new and contrary findings.”
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