Polar Bears, Biofuels and Employment Discrimination
A federal judge orders the Department of the Interior to determine whether the polar bear is a threatened species.
More than 100 million people are being driven to the edge of starvation by rising food prices, spurred in part by demand for biofuels.
The New York Times editorializes in favor of a proposed employment anti-discrimination bill, the “Fair Pay Act.”
1. ENVIRONMENT
A federal judge orders the Department of the Interior to determine whether the polar bear is a threatened species.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell on what’s behind the efforts to classify the polar bear as threatened:
“The campaign for designating polar bears as officially threatened or endangered is not really about protecting wildlife. The larger goal is to compel regulatory controls on energy use that global warming alarmists have been unable to persuade Congress to enact.”
2. FOOD
More than 100 million people are being driven to the edge of starvation by rising food prices, spurred in part by demand for biofuels.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on what demand for more biofuels is doing to the environment:
“…massive tracts of rainforest are being cleared in Indonesia to produce biodiesel, threatening the orangutan and other magnificent animals with extinction. In Brazil, the growth of sugar cultivation for ethanol is forcing food producers into the Amazon. Little of this would have happened without the demands for less carbon-intensive energy from the environmental movement. Now they’ve let the genie out of the bottle.”
3. LEGAL
The New York Times editorializes in favor of a proposed employment anti-discrimination bill, the “Fair Pay Act.”
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader disputes the Times’ reasoning:
“The proposed ‘Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act’ would get rid of the short 180-day deadline for bringing pay discrimination claims that applies under some federal laws, like Title VII. As I point out in today’s New York Times, that’s unnecessary, since another law, the Equal Pay Act, has a longer 3-year deadline for bringing claims. My letter disagreeing with the New York Times’ editorial in support of the law also points out that the proposed ‘Fair Pay Act’ would allow not just employees, but certain third parties, to sue over alleged pay discrimination, making it harder to negotiate settlements.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
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