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Issues in the News

1. HEALTH

New York City bans restaurants from selling food containing trans fats.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Steven Milloy on why the hysteria over trans fats could be the next bonanza for trial lawyers:

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“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.”

2. ENERGY

Leaders in the House of Representatives postpone an anticipated vote on a bill that would open up offshore oil and gas resources to exploration.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy Policy Myron Ebell on why Congress should lift the ban on offshore drilling:

“For too long the federal government has tied the hands of state governments that wish to permit oil and natural gas leasing in their adjacent offshore zones.  Congress should remove the moratoria on offshore gas production and share the federal royalties with the States that decide to allow offshore production, just as they share the royalties from production on federal lands with the States.”

3. TECHNOLOGY

A report finds that spam messages now account for 90% of all email traffic.

CEI Experts Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on why more legislation is not the answer to the problem:

“Market solutions, unlike legislation, better lend themselves to cross-problem application. For example, just as the emerging e-mail problem was anticipated years ago, one might similarly predict problems emerging as costs imposed on Internet-service providers by free file-sharing services like Kazaa escalate.  Spam (getting stuff) and piracy (taking stuff) alike are partly fostered by a pair of broader features: The lack of tiered pricing for network use, and the ability to hide one's identity or origin online.”

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, 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].