The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. ENVIRONMENT
The Washington Post celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of environmentalist icon Rachel Carson.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk & Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini on the darker side of Carson’s legacy:
“Cultural myths often stand in the way of human progress—in some cases producing devastating consequences. In fact, today millions of people around the world suffer the painful and often deadly effects of malaria because one person sounded a false alarm. That person is Rachel Carson, author of the 1962 best selling book Silent Spring. Many have praised Carson for raising concerns—some legitimate—about problems associated with the overuse of chemicals. Yet her extreme rhetoric generated a culture of fear, resulting in policies have deprived many people access to life-saving chemicals. As the world commemorates the 100th birthday (May 27, 2007) of the late Rachel Carson, it is time to acknowledge the unintended, adverse effects of Carson’s legacy and find ways to correct them.”
2. ENERGY
Over 38 million Americans are expected to travel to vacation destinations by car over Memorial Day weekend.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Bastiat Scholar Doug Bandow on the debate over high gas prices:
“It would be nice if the oil companies were charities, giving away their wares for free. But they aren’t. They are profit-making ventures. Their goal is to make money, and to do so they charge “what the market will bear,” as the saying goes, investing the proceeds to find and produce new sources of energy, also to be sold for a profit. This shocks some people, who apparently believe that free, or at least cheap, gasoline is a basic human right. Yet attempting to maximize profits by charging people more rather than less is the way most businesses operate. Consider grocery stores, software developers, and book publishers: All cheerfully take advantage of market conditions to make money.”
3. BUSINESS
Insurance companies feud with the Florida legislature over a recent state law regulating premiums.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer on how to fix Florida’s insurance mess:
“If … residents don’t like Florida’s property insurance environment, they only have to wait. Things will get worse. With Gov. Charlie Crist’s leadership, the Legislature has so damaged Florida’s insurance markets that it now seems only federal laws opening the state’s market to outside competition can help the state’s residents in the long term. Quite simply, the package of insurance ‘reforms’ will accelerate the collapse of both state-controlled Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and much of Florida’s private insurance market over the next decade.”
Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.
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