The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. ENVIRONMENT
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the new chair of the Environment & Public Works Committee, has big plans for global warming policy.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy Policy Myron Ebell on the role environmental issues played in the midterm elections:
“Although many green Republicans, such as Senator Chafee (R-RI) stressed their environmental records, it didn’t seem to do them much good. It is also worth noting that groups such as the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club didn’t spend any money to support their Republican allies in Congress.”
2. TECHNOLOGY
A new study finds an increasing number of doctors using information from Internet searches to help diagnose illnesses.
CEI Experts Available to Comment: President Fred L. Smith, Jr. on how online resources are helping people take change of their own health and well being:
“The Internet has made it possible for victims of rare conditions to find ways to communicate with one another. These sites today are generally ‘noisy’ and a bit paranoid; many of their sponsors and members see rare contaminants or industrial pollutants causes for almost everything. Nonetheless, they are maturing. While some argue we need government oversight of this profusion of speakers, the solution to bad information is not censorship but rather better information.”
3. HEALTH
The American Council on Science and Health releases a study debunking exaggerated fears about trans fatty acids in foods.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Steven Milloy on how the public health hysteria over trans fats could lead to a big payday for trial lawyers:
“Food companies like McDonald’s, KFC and IHOP recently announced their intent to stop cooking their foods in trans fats — industrially-produced vegetable oils used in a variety of food products for their cooking, preservative and cost benefits. The companies are reacting to widely publicized claims that trans fats cause heart disease and more than 1-in-5 heart attacks. Emanating from a decade-long campaign launched by a small group of Harvard University researchers, anti-trans fat hysteria has been so ‘successful’ that New York City and Chicago have announced moves to ban restaurant use of trans fats.”