The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update

Issues in the News

1. POLITICS

Al Gore’s book “The Assault on Reason” becomes one of the summer’s best selling titles.  

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Journalism Fellow Jeremy Lott reviews the former Vice President’s latest offering: 

“‘The Assault on Reason’ is another entry into the Bush-bashing genre from the perspective of someone who was only a few dangling chads away from being in the position to fashion America’s response to that awful day. Even if you aren’t enamored of Mr. Bush’s response to September 11 (as this reviewer is not), Mr. Gore’s second-guessing is both self-serving and, in its own way, deeply troubling.” 

2. BUSINESS

A new study suggests that environmentally-friendly construction techniques are cheaper than generally thought.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk & Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini critiques the findings:

“According to a story in today’s Greenwire, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development has conducted a survey showing that people in the real estate industry don’t understand the cost-saving benefits of ‘green building.’ Accordingly, the president of the organization concludes: ‘In order to achieve a step change in energy efficiency in buildings, there is a need for strongly supportive policies and regulatory frameworks.’ Hogwash. If such ‘green building’ was saving money, there would be no need for government regulation and support. It is most likely that real estate professionals shun politically designed ‘green’ building standards because they are foolish or even wasteful.”

3. ENERGY

The New York Times finds recent energy legislation laden with “earmark” spending for special interests.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar Doug Bandow on the predictable outcome:

“Is nothing sacred? Congress passes an energy bill in the name of fighting global warming, and what it best accomplishes is passing pork off to campaign supporters of leading legislators. Who would have imagined!?”

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

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