Obama’s Greenhouse Gas Plan, Accounting Rules for Economic Recovery and Science v. Politics
The Obama administration plans to dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
The House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on the economic crisis and accounting standards.
The White House issues a directive aimed at shielding science policy from political influence.
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1. ENVIRONMENT
The Obama administration plans to dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on the only likely way to get there:
“The President’s budget aims at restructuring American energy production to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. His primary policy vehicle for achieving this is a ‘cap-and-trade’ scheme that will essentially tax greenhouse gas emissions, making energy that generates them more expensive. However, the program is so ambitious as to stretch the bounds of plausibility. If America is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions substantially, prolonged recession may be the only way to do it.”
2. BUSINESS
The House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on the economic crisis and accounting standards.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau on the need to change “mark-to-market” accounting rules:
“In his interview with business news network CNBC this week, legendary investor Warren Buffett became yet the latest expert to opine that mark-to-market accounting is adding fuel to the fire in our financial crisis. He joins everyone from conservative Republican Steve Forbes to Democratic economic adviser Mark Zandi who argue that mark-to-market exaggerates losses and results in tighter lending.”
3. SCIENCE
The White House issues a directive aimed at shielding science policy from political influence.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell on the President’s curious choice for science adviser:
““President Obama’s goal is laudable, yet the scientist he wants to put in charge of implementing this memorandum is Dr. John P. Holdren. Dr. Holdren is the very model of a scientist who puts his political agenda ahead of sound science. A long-time advocate of population control and industrial de-development, most recently Dr. Holdren has distorted, concealed, exaggerated, and misrepresented the scientific data in order to promote his extreme global warming and energy-rationing agenda.”
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