Cloned Meat, Kagan’s Activism and Greenhouse Gases in Texas
1. HEALTH
Protesters object to the idea of cloned animals being part of the human food chain.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Food Safety Policy Gregory Conko on the Food and Drug Administration’s ruling regarding the safety of cloned animals.
“Since Dolly the sheep became the first successfully cloned animal in 1996, thousands of other healthy sheep, cattle and pigs have been born, but critics still claim the process will create monstrous new hybrids. The scary predictions of anti-technology activists have been shown to be nothing more than science fiction…The ability to drastically reduce illness among animals and to improve consumer safety arguably makes cloning more, not less humane than traditional breeding.”
2. LEGAL
Elena Kagan is sworn in as the nation’s 122th Supreme Court justice.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Journalism Fellow Ryan Young on why he hopes Kagan will become a judicial activist.
“Justice Kagan was nominated and confirmed because of her judicial passivism. But now that she’s in, she’s in for life. She can stand up for the judicial branch if she wants to. If a case comes before her involving a law that is clearly unconstitutional, her rightful duty is to strike it down. As she ponders her new responsibilities, she should consider the wisdom of Chief Justice Marshall. The Supreme Court badly needs a dose of judicial activism. That doesn’t mean legislating from the bench. It means saying no when Congress and the president go too far. As Justice Kagan prepares for her first term, she should practice saying it.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality rejects the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan for regulating greenhouse gases.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis speculates on how the EPA will respond.
“It will be interesting to see how all this plays out. If Texas sticks to its guns, the Environmental Protection Agency may simply take over the Texas [air quality] program, in whole or in part, through a federally-imposed Federal Implementation Plan (FIP). Florida, for example, told EPA it could not make the regulatory changes in time, so EPA would just have to take over the Florida program. EPA reportedly is working on a ‘backstop rule’ authorizing the agency to take over State permitting of greenhouse gases on a temporary basis.”