CEI Today: Wind tax subsidy, regulations vs. jobs, copyright reform, Law of the Sea Treaty, and more

WIND TAX SUBSIDY – MYRON EBELL

CEI and Coalition Partners Urge Congress to Let the Wind Tax Subsidy Expire

Myron Ebell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, will join leaders and experts from nine other free market and conservative activist groups at a Thursday morning press conference to explain why Congress should not extend the Wind Production Tax Credit.

The press conference is set for Dec. 13 at 11 a.m. in the Dirksen Senate Building. Besides Ebell, it will feature remarks by Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, Larry Hart of the American Conservative Union, Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union, Christine Harbin from Americans for Prosperity and Patrick Hedger from Freedom Works.

These experts will discuss the bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee to extend and expand the wind subsidy and why this corporate welfare represents an enormous waste of tax dollars at a time of fiscal crisis.

REGULATIONS vs JOBS – WAYNE CREWS

Forbes:Regulation Vs. Jobs: Assessing The Employment Impact Of Rules and Regulations

One might think there’s some official acceptance that the thousands of regulations issued annually in Washington have a dampening impact on job creation.

Agencies, in arm’s length, detached bureaucratic fashion, typically downplay the jobs impact of regulation.

To them, regulations “merely” shuffle jobs around. And increasingly, regulators are inclined to claim that rules create jobs outright, and are a net plus.

LAW OF THE SEA TREATY – IAIN MURRAY & RILEY WALTERS

Human Events: The return of gunboat diplomacy

Last September, China deployed six surveillance ships in response to the Japanese government’s attempt to buy the disputed Senkaku islands, which the Chinese call the Daioyus, from their current owner, a wealthy Japanese family. Both countries are signatories to the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, better known as the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. LOST was supposed to settle disputes between countries over maritime boundaries, but China and Japan seem not to have gotten the memo.