Earth Day, Net Neutrality and Beef Exports
Environmentalists around the world celebrate the 38th anniversary of Earth Day, crediting with helping launch the modern environmental movement.
Senators hear testimony on future Internet regulation, including calls for “net neutrality.”
Presidents Lee Myung-Bak and George W. Bush reach an agreement on resuming U.S. beef exports to South Korea.
1. ENVIRONMENT
Environmentalists around the world celebrate the 38th anniversary of Earth Day, crediting with helping launch the modern environmental movement.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on the legacy the environmental movement has created:
“Since I started working on environmental regulation five years ago, I have come to the conclusion that the liberal environmental movement is grounded in the idea that freedom is detrimental to the environment. My experience—as a government regulator, as a student, and as a policy expert—shows me that the exact opposite is the case. The dogmatic ideologies and restrictive policies pushed on us by the environmental Left have harmed nature more than helped it, but the environmentalists have never borne the blame.”
2. TECHNOLOGY
Senators hear testimony on future Internet regulation, including calls for “net neutrality.”
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on the dangerous assumption behind neutrality proposals:
“The underlying premise of net neutrality is that infrastructure companies should not control content, but that it’s perfectly acceptable for content companies, with the help of government regulation, to control infrastructure. The implications of entrenching this idea further in law are extremely serious.”
3. TRADE
Presidents Lee Myung-Bak and George W. Bush reach an agreement on resuming U.S. beef exports to South Korea.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith on the background to the Korean beef ban:
“At the Saturday briefing featuring a range of critical issues discussed by the presidents of [the U.S. and South Korea], President Bush gave prominent mention of Korea’s resumption of U.S. beef imports after the country had banned U.S. beef after detection of a case of BSE in Washington State in December 2003. The U.S. Trade Representative’s website posted a fact sheet giving background information on the beef issue and noted that before the closing of the Korean market, it was the ‘third largest — and growing — export market for U.S. beef and beef products with annual sales of $815 million in 2003.’ Under the agreement, Korea will judge its beef imports according to international standards based on science.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].