Global Warming Endangerment, Free Expression, and the War on Salt
The Senate will soon battle over Lisa Murkowski’s resolution challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding” on global warming.
The Supreme Court overturns a ban on a cross on public land built to honor veterans.
The Institute of Medicine releases a report urging the Food and Drug Administration to revoke salt’s GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) classification in order to give the agency authority to regulate.
1. ENVIRONMENT
The Senate will soon battle over Lisa Murkowski’s resolution challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding” on global warming.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on why John Christy’s letter to Lisa Jackson last year is again relevant.
“Dr. Christy makes a key point that will need to be made again and again in the upcoming Senate battle over the Murkowski resolution of disapproval to veto EPA’s endangerment finding. The endangerment finding is the statutory prerequisite for the joint greenhouse gas/fuel economy standards rule that EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finalized on April 1, 2010. Veto the endangerment finding, Murkowski foes warn, and NHTSA will have to ‘de-couple’ its portion of the joint GHG/fuel economy rule, which could delay by a year implementation of model year 2012 fuel economy standards.
2. LEGAL
The Supreme Court overturns a ban on a cross on public land built to honor veterans.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Counsel Hans Bader on this decision and other legal news.
“[The decision] left open the possibility that the judge could issue an injunction all over again if he makes certain findings, although it suggested that the cross could probably remain in the midst of public land as long as the parcel of land immediately around it is transferred to private hands. (The trial judge had found unconstitutional a federal law transferring the parcel of land immediately around the cross to private hands, since that parcel was surrounded by public land, in Salazar v. Buono.)”
3. HEALTH
The Institute of Medicine releases a report urging the Food and Drug Administration to revoke salt’s GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) classification in order to give the agency authority to regulate.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Research Associate Daniel Compton on why the FDA should not launch a new initiative to regulate salt intake.
“Decades of research, encompassing multiple lines of evidence, have shown that our bodies naturally self-regulate salt intake. Not unlike the feeling of thirst we experience when we need more water, our bodies send us queues—though more subtle than thirst—that lead us to unconsciously adjust our diets to meet our salt requirements. One recent study by nutritionists at the University of California at Davis examined data collected from over 19,000 individuals across 33 countries to find that the normal range of salt consumption is 2,700-4,900mg per day. The study went on to conclude that, because of our natural ability to regulate salt intake, it is ‘unlikely to be malleable by public policy initiatives, no matter how well intended.’”