Japan’s Nuclear Plants, Text Messaging, and the CEI Podcast

Japan’s Nuclear Plants

People are rightly concerned about the current state of nuclear plants in Japan—but are they exaggerating the dangers of nuclear energy?

Vice President Iain Murray chides Energy Secretary Steven Chu for not calming alarmist fears.

“Steven Chu has both the authority and the credibility to put paid to scaremongering and refocus America’s energy debate to where it should be: the price of oil. So far, however, Secretary Chu has shown no willingness to tackle public fears regarding the crisis in Japan, beyond a few words of boilerplate at a House hearing on the Energy Department budget on Tuesday morning. One would assume that the White House would want Dr. Chu to be actively making the case for its energy policy—unless they think that the Secretary is simply not up to the job. This is especially unfortunate when major environmental advocacy groups (including some with whom Secretary Chu has associated) have exploited the Japanese disaster for political advantage.”

Text Messaging

In a bid to lower text message rates, federal officials are considering text messaging as a possible anti-trust issue.

Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan Young explains.

“Five years ago, the going rate was 10 cents per text message. Then Sprint raised the price to 15 cents. Competitors could have used their lower prices to lure away Sprint’s customers. They didn’t. They raised their prices to match Sprint’s. The move to 20 cents per text followed a similar pattern. Suspicious. So maybe this is an antitrust issue. But it could be something else, too. Maybe phone companies are unbundling texting from their other services. That way the only people who pay for text messages are the people who use them. If phone companies don’t have to provide texting service for people who don’t want it, they can keep costs down and charge lower prices.”

CEI Podcast

In the latest CEI Podcast, Senior Fellow Greg Conko talks about his recent trip to Kenya to advise government officials about genetically-modified crops.

Listen here.