CEI Weekly: EPA Should Reopen Proceedings After Data Deletion Story
CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI’s fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in the Weekly newsletter is a brief description of CEI’s weekly podcast and a feature on a major CEI breakthrough made during the week. To sign up for CEI Weekly, go to http://cei.org/newsletters.
CEI Weekly
October 9, 2009
>>CEI Petitions EPA to Reopen Proceeding After Discovery of Data Deletion
In mid-August the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) disclosed that it had destroyed the raw data for its global surface temperature data set because of an alleged lack of storage space. CEI’s petition, filed late Monday with EPA, argues that CRU’s disclosure casts a new cloud of doubt on the science behind EPA’s proposal to regulate carbon dioxide. EPA stopped accepting public comments in late June. As CEI’s petition argues, court rulings make it clear that agencies must consider new facts when those facts change the underlying issues. Read more here at CEI, including the petition put out by CEI.
>>Greg Conko Writes on the FDA’s Consideration of Regulating Internet Drug Promotion
A new report released by the Competitive Enterprise Institute challenges the Food and Drug Administration to bring its “1960s approach” to prescription drug advertising into the 21st Century by acknowledging that the Internet and other new media let ads present complete risk and benefit information in unique ways. The agency will hold a public hearing next month to consider developing its first ever policy on Internet drug promotion, which the study authors say is long overdue. Quotes by Greg Conko and the report are available at CEI.
>>Shaping the Debate
Price Fixing
Wayne Crews and Ryan Young’s Op-ed in the American Spectator
Cool Cash to be Made on Warming Mania
Christopher C. Horner’s Quote in the Orange County Register
Curbs on Bonuses Would Simply be an Overreaction
Alex Nowrasteh’s Letter to the Editor in the Financial Times
>>Best of the Blogs
Obamacare’s Provisions Have Already Been Tried, and Failed, at the State Level
by Hans Bader
When the Senate Finance Committee votes on President Obama’s health care plan, it won’t even have the text of the bill in existence. It will just be voting on a summary of what the bill will supposedly contain. . . The desire of Obamacare’s supporters to avoid any scrutiny or review of their bill is understandable, because its provisions have already been tried, and failed, at the state level.
Regulation of the Day 56: Kahlua in Ohio
by Ryan Young
Kahlua contains 20% alcohol in 49 states. But in Ohio, it is 21.5%. Weird, huh? Turns out regulations are the reason. My friend Jacob Grier pointed me to an article showing that Ohio groups alcoholic beverages into two categories: wine/beer and spirits. Any beverage below 20% alcohol is in the wine/beer category and can be sold in grocery stores. Anything above 20% is classed as a spirit and can only be sold in state-run liquor stores.
Eminent Domain Abuse in New York (Upstate Edition)
by Marc Scribner
Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Scullin dismissed the majority of a lawsuit filed by J.C. Penney against the owner of the mall where it leases retail space. In its complaint, J.C. Penney alleged that the mall owner violated the terms of its lease agreement, including provisions that required the retailer’s consent before any significant alteration to the mall was allowed to take place. The court found that the mall was not liable because the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency had condemned the property through eminent domain, which stripped all rights J.C. Penney had to its retail space per the original lease agreement.
>>Liberty Week Podcast
Episode 63: Suing the Government Into Honesty
We start with CEI’s FOIA fight with the U.S. Treasury, 7-Eleven’s attempt to give consumers a big gulp of government and the solution to a jobless recovery. We then move on to union pension politics, Ireland’s regrettable embrace of EU hegemony and some scantily-clad Olympic News.
>>Support CEI
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Competitive Enterprise Institute
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