Waxman-Markey in the Senate, Tobacco Regulation and Big Labor’s Payday
The Waxman-Markey climate bill passes the House of Representatives.
President Obama signs a new law expanding federal regulation of tobacco products.
The Waxman-Markey climate bill includes provisions to benefit organized labor.
For more news, listen to the LibertyWeek podcast here.
1. ENVIRONMENT
The Waxman-Markey climate bill passes the House of Representatives.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell sizes up the state of the debate:
“House Democratic leaders have managed to squeeze a 1,510-page energy-rationing bill through the House on a 219 to 212 vote by filling it full of payoffs to special interests, not releasing the full text until 3am the night before the vote, and restricting debate to three hours. The process should be an embarrassment to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), but once people find out what’s in it, the bill will become an embarrassment to everyone who voted for it. Waxman-Markey has no future in the Senate, and with any luck this first victory for energy-rationing legislation will be the last.”
2. HEALTH
President Obama signs a new law expanding federal regulation of tobacco products.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Attorney Hans Bader on the impact of the new law:
“Cigarettes are 100 times deadlier than smoke-free tobacco products, but 85% of smokers incorrectly believe that smoke-free tobacco products are just as hazardous as cigarettes. By switching to smoke-free tobacco/nicotine products, smokers reduce their health risks by nearly as much as by quitting all tobacco/nicotine, and millions have already done so. Patrick Basham of the Cato Institute calls the new law ‘an epic public health mistake.’ As I noted earlier, FDA regulation may actually undermine public health by making it harder to market to smokers other tobacco products, like snus, that are not as lethal as cigarettes.”
3. LABOR
The Waxman-Markey climate bill includes provisions to benefit organized labor.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Ivan Osorio on how giveaways to labor unions increase costs for everyone:
“… provisions of this sort also make it more difficult for non-union companies to compete for bids. This results in higher costs, which are paid for by taxpayers. With their share of the private sector work force declining to around 8 percent, unions need such alliances with environmentalists to gain political goods like this. Expect to see more of this.”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.