The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. ENERGY
Oil company BP, citing mechanical failures, makes further cuts to oil production in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy Policy Myron Ebell on the action in Congress needed to increase access to domestic energy sources:
“While Americans struggle to pay higher gas prices, the Senate left for its August recess after refusing to take votes on two outstanding bills passed by the House of Representatives that would significantly increase domestic oil and natural gas production. Instead, the Senate pretended to do something by voting to open a tiny area of the Gulf of Mexico to exploration—an area currently under a moratorium that expires next year.”
2. HEALTH
The unexpected presence of a genetically modified strain of rice in conventional harvests sparks a debate over the safety of GM foods.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Food Safety Policy Gregory Conko on why bioengineered food is nothing to fear:
“The good news is that the new gene in [rice strain] Liberty Link 601 and the protein it helps to make are known to be perfectly safe for consumers and the environment. Two other rice varieties carrying the same herbicide-tolerance gene were approved by the USDA in 1999 and cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000. Other approved crops, such as corn and soybeans, also carry the gene. And numerous varieties with the gene have been approved for food use in other countries, including Canada, the 25-nation European Union, Japan, and Mexico.”
3. ENVIRONMENT
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and colleagues travel to Greenland to observe local effects of climate change.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on what everyone needs to 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.”
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