CEI Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. ENVIRONMENT
Al Gore’s “Live Earth” concert series leaves many observers underwhelmed.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on why Live Earth is a sign that global warming alarmism has jumped the shark:
This weekend, rock stars will jet around the world, cars and buses will clog traffic, and elaborate sound stages will be set up to burn massive amounts of fuel to send the message to fans at home that they better conserve their energy or face the allegedly dire threat of global warming.
2. TECHNOLOGY
The Federal Communications Commission looks into the proposed merger between satellite radio companies XM and Sirius.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Technology Studies Wayne Crews on why the FCC should take a hands-off approach:
Bureaucrats cause untold damage when they undermine network industries’ efforts to orient themselves, to attain the scale appropriate to fostering customization, and to achieve such feats as moving global information to the exosphere as satellite operations do. Liberalizing spectrum for future satellite and communications operations—not restraining the private operations of those that now exist—should be FCC’s focus.
3. HEALTH
National Geographic features the fight against malaria on its cover, including references to DDT and the impact of Rachel Carson’s writings.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk & Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini on the Carson legacy:
Many have praised [Rachel] Carson for raising concerns—some legitimate—about problems associated with the overuse of chemicals. Yet her extreme rhetoric generated a culture of fear, resulting in policies have deprived many people access to life-saving chemicals.
4. ECONOMY
Americans are working longer than ever to pay for the cost of government programs.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on the mostly hidden costs of federal regulation:
President George W. Bush’s federal budget for fiscal year (FY) 2008 proposed $2.902 trillion in discretionary, entitlement and interest spending. Although those costs fully express the federal government’s on-budget scope, the government’s reach extends far beyond the taxes that Washington collects. Federal environmental, safety and health, and economic regulations cost hundreds of billions of dollars every year—in addition to official federal outlays.
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
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