The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. ENVIRONMENT
The Supreme Court takes on the question of whether the federal government should be treating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellows Marlo Lewis on the arguments behind the case:
“The attorneys general are attempting to litigate America into submission to the Kyoto Protocol. Their whole case is built on the premise that carbon dioxide (CO2) is an ‘air pollutant’ within the meaning of the Clean Air Act. To pin the ‘air pollutant’ label on CO2, the AGs use a selective reading of Section 302(g), the two-sentence provision that defines ‘air pollutant.’”
2. COMMUNICATIONS
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe proposes extending his government’s authority to monitor all cell phone calls.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Fran Smith on the details of the plan:
“According to their military spokesperson, the mobile phone providers should have to route their international calls through the state-owned TelOne so that people couldn’t “communicate without our knowledge.” This crackdown comes on the heels of a proposed law to monitor mail and Internet communications – again in the name of security. If the proposed law is passed by Mugabe’s hand-picked parliament and the new initiative goes through, then the military could monitor all forms of communication – in the name of security.”
3. MEDIA
The Federal Communications Commission announces a new series of studies on media ownership rules.
CEI Experts Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on how we could have a communications marketplace without the FCC:
“A next generation communications policy must distinguish economic regulation from social welfare initiatives. Congress should eliminate rules that regulate market performance and focus on ways to implement social policy—such as universal service—in ways that do not require FCC oversight. Finally, Congress should restructure the FCC and provide a legislative mandate to increase the market’s role in managing spectrum rights. The FCC of the future (if it is to exist at all) should be limited to applying general unfair competition rules similar to that of the Federal Trade Commission.”