Grades for Cars, Lobsters, and Bed Bugs

Grades for Cars

The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration wants to label all passenger cars with a grade from A-D ranking fuel efficiency and emissions.

Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis says that sticking a letter grade on the windows of cars is a ridiculous idea, even for the NHTSA.

“The proposed rules imply two judgments about Americans. One is that we’re too stupid to understand how miles-per-gallon and estimated annual fuel costs affect our wallets. Our math skills are so poor that quantitative information must be supplemented with letter grades labeling ‘this car good, that car bad.’ The second judgment, closely related to the first, is that Americans are school children and EPA/NHTSA are the Nation’s teachers. The agency folks apparently think that no matter how old we get, we still want to be teacher’s pet.”

Lobsters

Researchers claim to have linked massive lobsters die-offs to the chemical Bisphenol A.

Director of Risk and Environmental Safety Angela Logomasini points out that the lobster deaths could easily have been caused by changing water temperatures or other natural phenomena.

“Nonetheless, the pollution angle gets the headlines — even when though the research is not yet available. Apparently, too many people have too much to gain. Greens gain more opportunities to hype BPA risks, activist researchers garner more headlines, and the lobstermen may find another industry to sue for ‘damages.'”

Bed Bugs

Bed bugs–which had long ceased to be a major problem in American cities–are now back with a vengeance.

According to Director of Risk and Environmental Safety Angela Logomasini, bed bugs wouldn’t be a major problem today if the government hadn’t been so quick to ban DDT in the 1970s.

“DDT is long gone from U.S. markets. Now the bugs are so hard to control that they are infesting cities around the nation–in hotels, homes, and offices. Yet many people support DDT bans, regardless of the consequences in other countries. Millions of children die every year in developing nations from mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria that could be controlled with limited use of DDT. Yet advocating its increased use there is too politically incorrect for many Americans on the left who wrongly think DDT cannot be used in a safe and effective manner.”