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February 21, 2020
Our friend and Tech Policy Podcast host Ash Kazaryan recently recorded a fascinating interview with Reason Foundation Policy Analyst Spence Purnell on how Florida (and some other states) are regulating platform economy firms, in particular carsharing services like Turo.
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February 21, 2020
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) claims that it focuses on issues that are “financially material” to the companies they are assessing. But materiality is in the eye of the beholder. Critics of the SASB would say that very few, if any, investors actually care about many of the detailed sustainability topics that companies are supposed to provide disclosures on. Instead, many of the topics line up better with the agendas of left-wing advocacy groups who are hostile to market economies in general.
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February 21, 2020
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao announced a new proposed rule that would “align its definitions of unfairness and deception with the principles set forth by the Federal Trade Commission,” which “is intended to provide regulated entities and other interested parties greater clarity and certainty about the Department’s interpretation of unfair or deceptive practices in the context of aviation consumer protection rulemaking and enforcement actions.” This is great news for consumers and their aviation service providers.
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February 20, 2020
A recent Rhodium Group report purports to show by the numbers that the fuel economy “rollbacks” effected by the Trump administration’s forthcoming Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient (SAFE) Vehicle rule are “significant” both in terms of “greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions abatement and costs to drivers.” In fact, the numbers reveal the insignificance of the SAFE rule’s GHG impacts. Furthermore, the report’s analysis of consumer costs is one-sided and, thus, potentially misleading.
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February 20, 2020
Madam C.J. Walker founded and built a company specializing in hair care products that eventually made her a millionaire and international celebrity. Her army of mostly female sales representatives covered the United States and Caribbean and Latin American territories decades before Mary Kay distributors started driving their pink Cadillacs on American highways.
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February 19, 2020
PBS’s Frontline aired its documentary, “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos,” last night. While the tone of the piece was markedly suspicious, it didn’t offer up any new information to indicate antitrust concerns against the online retailer have any merit.
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February 18, 2020
Several conservative groups have signaled their support for what some are calling a “small-government solution” to perceived anti-conservative bias by tech platforms. The solution that seems to be gaining traction is to tie Section 230 intermediary liability protection to a “First Amendment standard.” Essentially, so long as companies do not remove any content that is otherwise protected by the First Amendment they will continue to be protected from liability over third-party content. There are a number of glaring problems with this idea, not the least of which is the fact that it is antithetical to the First Amendment.
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February 18, 2020
At the FCC open meeting on February 28, the commissioners will vote on a critical matter regarding a proposed public auction for what is known as the C-Band of wireless spectrum. This band of spectrum is currently allocated and underutilized by fixed satellite companies. While any underutilization of a finite yet critical resource such as wireless spectrum is problematic, the C-Band is ideally suited for fifth generation or “5G” wireless service. CEI has long supported efforts to make more efficient use of the C-Band.
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February 18, 2020
Spring Training began for all 30 Major League Baseball teams, bringing joy across the nation. Meanwhile, agencies issued new final regulations ranging from grains ounce equivalence to inactive fishing boats.
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February 15, 2020
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and several senior Republicans announced they were going to introduce four bills to address climate change. On the bright side, none of the bills includes a tax on carbon dioxide emissions or mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. On the dark side, the four bills propose to waste a lot of taxpayer dollars and extend subsidies for commercially uncompetitive technologies.
Our friend and Tech Policy Podcast host Ash Kazaryan recently recorded a fascinating interview with Reason Foundation Policy Analyst Spence Purnell on how Florida (and some other states) are regulating platform economy firms, in particular carsharing services like Turo.
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) claims that it focuses on issues that are “financially material” to the companies they are assessing. But materiality is in the eye of the beholder. Critics of the SASB would say that very few, if any, investors actually care about many of the detailed sustainability topics that companies are supposed to provide disclosures on. Instead, many of the topics line up better with the agendas of left-wing advocacy groups who are hostile to market economies in general.
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao announced a new proposed rule that would “align its definitions of unfairness and deception with the principles set forth by the Federal Trade Commission,” which “is intended to provide regulated entities and other interested parties greater clarity and certainty about the Department’s interpretation of unfair or deceptive practices in the context of aviation consumer protection rulemaking and enforcement actions.” This is great news for consumers and their aviation service providers.
A recent Rhodium Group report purports to show by the numbers that the fuel economy “rollbacks” effected by the Trump administration’s forthcoming Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient (SAFE) Vehicle rule are “significant” both in terms of “greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions abatement and costs to drivers.” In fact, the numbers reveal the insignificance of the SAFE rule’s GHG impacts. Furthermore, the report’s analysis of consumer costs is one-sided and, thus, potentially misleading.
Madam C.J. Walker founded and built a company specializing in hair care products that eventually made her a millionaire and international celebrity. Her army of mostly female sales representatives covered the United States and Caribbean and Latin American territories decades before Mary Kay distributors started driving their pink Cadillacs on American highways.
PBS’s Frontline aired its documentary, “Amazon Empire: The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos,” last night. While the tone of the piece was markedly suspicious, it didn’t offer up any new information to indicate antitrust concerns against the online retailer have any merit.
Several conservative groups have signaled their support for what some are calling a “small-government solution” to perceived anti-conservative bias by tech platforms. The solution that seems to be gaining traction is to tie Section 230 intermediary liability protection to a “First Amendment standard.” Essentially, so long as companies do not remove any content that is otherwise protected by the First Amendment they will continue to be protected from liability over third-party content. There are a number of glaring problems with this idea, not the least of which is the fact that it is antithetical to the First Amendment.
At the FCC open meeting on February 28, the commissioners will vote on a critical matter regarding a proposed public auction for what is known as the C-Band of wireless spectrum. This band of spectrum is currently allocated and underutilized by fixed satellite companies. While any underutilization of a finite yet critical resource such as wireless spectrum is problematic, the C-Band is ideally suited for fifth generation or “5G” wireless service. CEI has long supported efforts to make more efficient use of the C-Band.
Spring Training began for all 30 Major League Baseball teams, bringing joy across the nation. Meanwhile, agencies issued new final regulations ranging from grains ounce equivalence to inactive fishing boats.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and several senior Republicans announced they were going to introduce four bills to address climate change. On the bright side, none of the bills includes a tax on carbon dioxide emissions or mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. On the dark side, the four bills propose to waste a lot of taxpayer dollars and extend subsidies for commercially uncompetitive technologies.