The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
GLOBAL WARMING
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces the creation of a new committee on global warming.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on what everyone should know about global warming.
“Alarm over the prospect of the Earth warming is not warranted by the agreed science or economics of the issue. Global warming is happening and man is responsible for at least some of it. Yet this does not mean that global warming will cause enough damage to the Earth and humanity to require drastic cuts in energy use, a policy that would have damaging consequences of its own. Moreover, science cannot answer questions that are at heart economic or political, such as whether the Kyoto Protocol is worthwhile.”
FREE TRADE
House Democrats complete their initial legislative agenda with the passage of an oil and energy bill.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Myron Ebell on why the bill is a lose-lose scheme for American consumers and taxpayers.
“Speaker Pelosi’s package would make us more dependent on imports of foreign oil by raising taxes on domestic energy production. While some of the provisions to remove subsidies are justified, most are simply tax increases. Increasing the cost of domestic oil and natural gas production will lower domestic production and also discourage investment in new domestic energy production. ”
ENERGY
The anti-spam law known as CAN-SPAM produces its first conviction.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar Hana Metchis on why the law won’t be an effective deterrent to email spam.
“Bolstered by the widespread popularity of the national Do Not Call Registry, the Senate recently passed an anti-spam bill, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which directs the Federal Trade Commission to create a Do Not E-Mail list. The concept sounds great: Put your e-mail address on a list, and the government will ban spammers from sending you junk mail. But while Do Not Call really can limit the number of telemarketing calls you receive, Do Not E-Mail would not only be ineffective, it could make the spam problem even worse.”