Global Warming Bottoms Out, the Future of Digital TV in Doubt and Cap-and-Trade on the Horizon
A new poll finds that global warming has dropped to the bottom of the list of issues concerning the American public.
The future of digital TV broadcasting is thrown into doubt.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) promises to pass a “cap-and-trade” bill for greenhouse gas emissions by Memorial Day.
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1. ENVIRONMENT
A new poll finds that global warming has dropped to the bottom of the list of issues concerning the American public.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell on what this means for the political debate over global warming:
“That’s the background for trying to enact energy-rationing programs that can only work if they raise energy prices considerably. Perhaps Al Gore needs to raise more than the $300 million goal of his ‘We Can Solve It’ advertising campaign, which is designed to convince people that they agree with him that global warming is our most serious problem and demands immediate and radical action (such as replacing all the coal-fired power plants that supply half of America’s electricity within ten years). Although Mr. Gore has insisted that the American people already agree with him on global warming, this poll demonstrates that his mass media advertising campaign is going to be an uphill climb.”
2. TECHNOLOGY
The future of digital TV broadcasting is thrown into doubt.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on the problems with the transition from analog:
“Looks like the ‘digital television transition’ to abandon analog and make high-definition broadcasts the standard is not going to happen as planned, but is quite likely to be delayed until June. We never favored government forcing a technology on the public and industry in the first place; But it struck us as at least a little bizarre to, years into the making and planning, to pull the rug out from those who’d teed up for the changeover, from broadcasters to equipment makers, to you and me.”
3. CONGRESS
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) promises to pass a “cap-and-trade” bill for greenhouse gas emissions by Memorial Day.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Christopher C. Horner on Waxman’s wider agenda:
“Waxman is chairman-by-coup d’etat of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, overthrowing former Energy and Commerce Committee chairman John Dingell in an ominous sign for those who value particular liberties such as free speech and freedom of the press. Dingell was no conservative, but Waxman is a hyperliberal. (His 2006 rating by the ACLU was 100, and by the American Conservative Union, 4). Waxman will likely spend most of the 111th Congress in show trials of Bush administration officials and passing freedom-destroying measures such as the Air America Bailout — otherwise mislabeled as the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ — and a radical ‘cap-and-trade’ rationing scheme to disguise a massive, competitiveness-killing and job-exporting energy tax in the name of ‘global warming.’”
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