CEI Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. AUTOMOBILITY
A new study suggests that wider use of “plug-in” hybrid vehicles could dramatically reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on why hybrid-electric cars don’t live up to the hype:
“Hybrid-electric cars are the flavor of the moment for environmental campaigners. Activists like Arianna Huffington, Larry David and Leonardo DiCaprio urge us all to ‘break the chain’ and drive them. Al Gore, meanwhile, used the previews…of the scientifically implausible disaster film The Day After Tomorrow to commend them, saying, ‘I think the new fuel-efficient vehicles represent ethical choices.’ Yet there are a few problems with this dream of a hybrid tomorrow. Surveys show that people are highly resistant to them; their owners are starting to realize that they aren’t quite as fuel-efficient as advertised; and when it comes to their expense, a new study suggests that lack of access to affordable cars hurts minority employment.”
2. CONGRESS
The Senate Finance Committee approves a large increase in federal tobacco taxes.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Communications Director Christine Hall on how the states are also milking the tobacco companies for revenue:
“Major tobacco companies Philip Morris and R. J. Reynolds have accused the states of failing to enforce anti-competitive laws that were instituted as a part of the major tobacco settlement of 1998. Under the terms of the settlement, the companies were given the right to reduce their payments to the states if they could prove two things: that the settlement caused them to lose market share, and that the states failed to ‘diligently enforce’ laws imposing special taxes and regulations on small competitors.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
Slate editor William Saletan argues in favor of biofuels in the pages of the Washington Post.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Policy Analyst William Yeatman on the errors in Saletan’s argument:
“His claim that the rising costs of grains because of increased demand for fuel from food would boost incomes for farmers in the world’s poorest countries ignored evidence that in those countries past upswings in global commodity prices have favored only large landowners. As biofuel demand pushes up food prices, the world’s poorest will be forced to live on even thinner margins.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
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