The Fairness Doctrine, Windfall Profits and Recycling Mandates

Prominent politicians debate a windfall profits tax for oil companies.

1. CONGRESS

Lawmakers clash over FCC broadcast regulation known as the “Fairness Doctrine.”

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist on what’s at stake in the debate:

 

“The doctrine, abandoned in 1985, placed political speech by broadcasters under the scrutiny of the Federal Communications Commission. FCC regulators mandated broadcasters ‘make reasonable judgments in good faith’ on how best to present all sides of controversial issues. Conservatives on Capitol Hill have banded together to oppose such a revival of the doctrine while pundits and free speech advocates have railed against the reinstatement of rule, citing the 1985 Supreme Court decision that found that the Fairness Doctrine had a ‘chilling effect’ on speech.”

 

2. CONSUMER

Prominent politicians debate a windfall profits tax for oil companies.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on why a tax on oil companies is a tax on consumers:

 

“All targeted tax hikes on energy-company profits are energy taxes no matter how they’re labeled. As every policymaker should know from Economics 101, when government taxes something, the economy produces less of it, and when supply falls relative to demand, consumer prices go up. Thus, ‘windfall profits’ taxes or their accounting-gimmick equivalents are bound to make energy less affordable. Yet the leading proponents claim to be ‘consumer advocates.’”

 

3. ENVIRONMENT

European lawmakers pass stringent new recycling mandates.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on why recycling doesn’t always make sense:

 

“Contrary to received wisdom, paper is one of the least recyclable materials in circulation. Each time paper is recycled, it loses part of its physical construction. Structure is crucial to paper’s performance – lose it, and performance plummets. Paper is often recycled far more than once. According to a study for the Corporate Forum on Paper and the Environment, the first time paper is recycled, it retains about 85 percent of its strength. By the time it is recycled the sixth time, that drops to 38 percent. Yet each time, it is using the same energy and emitting more and more carbon for the value you get from it.”