The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. CONGRESS
Al Gore prepares for dual testimony appearances this week before the House and Senate on global warming.
CEI Experts Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on Gore’s take on climate science:
“An Inconvenient Truth (AIT), former Vice President Al Gore’s film and book on ‘The planetary emergency of global warming and what can be done about it,’ purports to be a non-partisan, non-ideological exposition of climate science and moral common-sense. In reality, AIT is a colorfully illustrated lawyer’s brief for global warming alarmism and energy rationing. The only facts and studies Gore considers are those convenient to his scare-them-green agenda. And in numerous instances, he distorts the evidence he cites.”
2. ENERGY
Legislators consider making federal fuel economy regulations more strict.
CEI Experts Available to Comment: General Counsel Sam Kazman on why tightening mileage requirements would be a mistake:
“Demands for tighter auto fuel-economy standards are a major part of the global-warming bandwagon, and the newly unveiled Markey-Platts bill on auto fuel economy is being touted by environmentalists as a ‘bipartisan milestone’ on the issue. Unfortunately, it’s a milestone of a mistake. It continues a central tradition of proponents of this program, known as CAFE (for corporate average fuel economy)—namely, never admit that CAFE has any impact on auto safety.”
3. BUSINESS
Jet manufacturer Airbus flies its new “superjumbo” airliner, the A380, across the Atlantic for the first time.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Former Journalism Fellow Timothy Carney on the history of U.S. and European trade tension over airliners:
“The Bush administration made this decision [to involve the World Trade Organization is a dispute over airliner subsidies] after the EU’s announcement that France, Germany and Britain would provide well over US$1-billion in aid for Airbus’s next big project—the A350. This news came only four months after Airbus unveiled its ‘super-jumbo’ A380, the first jet ever built to directly compete with Boeing’s 747 jumbo jet. At that time, Boeing was preparing to unveil its 787—a mid-sized jet capable of long journeys. Airbus did not want the 787 to go unanswered, so the EU turned its efforts to building the mid-sized A350. When European governments said this year they would subsidize the A350, the United States decided to take the EU to court. In response, the EU filed a counter-complaint at the WTO against U.S. subsidies to Boeing.”