The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update

1. ECONOMY

California’s new plan to restrict greenhouse gas emissions could prove costly.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell on why California is heading down a failed path:

““While its actions are being lauded as a step into the future, California is actually a late entry into the already failed game of energy rationing. Europe, Japan and Canada are all failing spectacularly to meet their emissions reductions targets under the Kyoto Protocol, despite years of breathless cheerleading for cap-and-trade mechanisms. What California has done today is to decide to become a Third World economy.”

2. BUSINESS

Mayor Ray Nagin travels to New York in hopes of attracting investment dollars to New Orleans.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: President Fred L. Smith, Jr. on the public policy choices of the past that left residents of Louisiana poorer and more vulnerable to natural disasters:

“[Because of anti-business regulation], however, over the past 50 years, industries have sought to shift their operations to more favorable climes.  Houston became the nation’s oil capital and grew far more rapidly.  Indeed, Houston is now sheltering refugees from New Orleans.  Atlanta became the South’s commercial capital and Charlotte its financial capital.  Even Louisiana’s natural advantages faded as shipping firms—finding corruption rampant—sought to move their goods through other ports wherever possible.  Populist policies have consequences: A politicized economy becomes too often a corrupt one. “

3. SCIENCE

Hurricane season continues to raise questions about the possible relationship between hurricanes and global warming.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Steven Milloy on how to weather the hurricane hysteria:

“It’s peak North Atlantic hurricane season again and much is being made of a supposedly increased hurricane threat due to man-made global warming. It’s a contentious issue, to say the least. JunkScience.com has tried to slice through a little of the overblown rhetoric to see what, if any, cold, hard facts are available.”

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI Open Market.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].