The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update

Issues in the News

1. POLITICS

Democrats win control of the House of Representatives.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy Policy Myron Ebell on how Republicans with the most liberal records on the environment led the list of losers:

“Although many green Republicans, such as Senator [Lincoln] Chafee (RI) stressed their environmental records, it didn’t seem to do them much good. It is also worth noting that groups such as the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club didn’t spend any money to support their Republican allies in Congress.”

2. LEGAL

Arizona voters approve restrictions on eminent domain abuse by a 2-to-1 margin.

“The Court’s decision contradicts the language and intent of the Fifth Amendment. The Constitution says you can’t take private property except for ‘public use.’ But when government seizes land and hands it over to business interests to jack up tax revenue, the public isn’t ‘using’ the land.”

3. ENERGY

The American Enterprise Institute holds a panel discussion entitled “Ethanol: Boon or Boondoggle?”

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Former Journalism Fellow Tim Carney on ethanol’s questionable environmental credentials:

“It turns out that ethanol distilleries can be criminal polluters. In 2002, 12 ethanol plants entered into a settlement with the Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the State of Minnesota. The plants lacked pollution controls mandated by the Clean Air Act, and so had to pay small civil penalties and install the controls immediately. Two days earlier, the Sierra Club had sued two Midwestern ethanol plants for emitting illegal amounts of hydrocarbons.”