Broadcast Update on Issues in the News

New Ideas for a New Earth Day

Using Market Incentives to Achieve Environmental Goals

As people around the world gather to celebrate Earth Day, the environmental community faces a key decision – whether to pursue feel-good policies that frequently do more harm than good or to align environmental goals with market incentives.  Banning, taxing, and regulating everything from SUVs to toilets has been the philosophy of much of the environmental movement for decades; the challenge now is to combine the desire for increasing environmental quality with a science-based approach that combines stewardship with the prosperity and freedom that Americans cherish.   

Expert: Myron Ebell, Director of Global Warming & International Environmental Policy

Bio: http://www.cei.org/dyn/view_bio.cfm/125

Background: http://www.cei.org/sections/section1.cfm

Losing Weight on the McDonald’s Diet

Filmmaker to Document 30 Healthy Days of Fast Food Meals

Filmmaker Soso Whaley is taking on the debate over obesity and public health in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />U.S., highlighted by such recent efforts as “Super Size Me,” a documentary film in which the director ate three meals a day at McDonald’s for 30 days.  Whaley has recently passed the halfway point in her own project to replicate the month-long experiment, this time with the goal of showing that not only are fast food chains not responsible for overweight Americans, it is possible to eat healthy even under the Golden Arches. 

Expert: Soso Whaley, Adjunct Fellow

Bio: http://www.cei.org/dyn/view_bio.cfm/245

Background: http://www.cei.org/pages/debunk/debunk_the_junk.cfm

West Nile Virus vs. Pesticides

Why Some Activists are Siding with the Virus

Since the summer of 1999, environmental activist groups around the country have been attempting to halt the use of pesticides to combat the deadly West Nile virus.  CEI’s Angela Logomasini has recently authored a study detailing environmentalist claims about pesticide use and the need to keep spraying in order to save lives.

Expert: Angela Logomasini, Director of Risk & Environmental Policy

Bio: http://www.cei.org/dyn/view_bio.cfm/31

Background: http://www.cei.org/gencon/025,03893.cfm

Another Record High for Gas Prices

Government Restrictions Add to the Bill

As gas prices continue to hit record highs, the debate over what’s behind the increase and how best to respond to it is heating up.  Unbeknownst to most Americans, the federal government’s web of rules regulating specialized gasoline blends has made it much more difficult to produce the affordable fuel consumers have come to expect.  The importation of refined gasoline is also increasing costs, necessitated by the limited capacity of U.S. refineries and the near impossibility of building new facilities (the last one was opened in 1976).  Both sets of regulations are adding to the tab Americans are paying at the pump.

Expert: Ben Lieberman, Director of Air Quality Policy

Bio for Ben Lieberman: http://www.cei.org/dyn/view_bio.cfm/6

More information at http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,03970.cfm