The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. ENVIRONMENT
William F. Buckley compares the attitude towards global warming skeptics to the Inquisition.
CEI Experts Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on the threat of eco-censorship:
“[T]oday, there appears to be a band of scientists and agitators who are willing to use the methods of Galileo’s persecutors to protect their own cherished theories. In the field of climate science, some people want to declare the scientific debate closed, allowing only those public statements that advance the approved idea that global warming is occurring, that man is responsible for it, and that it will probably be catastrophic unless greenhouse gas emissions are drastically curbed.”
2. TECHNOLOGY
Local governments sue the Federal Communications Commission over new rules meant to open up competition in the cable TV market.
CEI Experts Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on the wisdom of the FCC’s decision:
“The Competitive Enterprise Institute applauds the FCC’s [decision] to prevent the nation’s local franchising authorities from unreasonably impeding the rollout of new multi-channel video and broadband services by competitors to the cable industry. CEI supports liberalization for all sectors of the telecommunications industry, and believes rivals in this dispute all ultimately benefit, as will their customers, from this move and future deregulatory measures that remain necessary.”
3. HEALTH
The Food and Drug Administration extends the period for public comments on its finding that milk and meat from cloned animals is as safe as food from conventionally bred livestock.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Food Safety Policy Gregory Conko on some of the objections to cloning farm animals:
“Because extensive scientific research has provided no meaningful basis for questioning the safety of animal cloning, some critics have tried to exploit religious and ethical concerns about cloning in order to prevent its commercial use. While FDA can be commended for taking seriously ethical questions related to the humane treatment of animals, the agency’s statutory mission is to focus on consumer and animal safety and leave moral choices to consumers.”