Will Gas Lines Come Back?

WASHINGTON, DC, December 3, 1997 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) began an ad campaign this morning attacking the proposed climate treaty being negotiated in Kyoto. The campaign is running on WTEM in Washington, D.C. during the Imus in the Morning Show through next Wednesday.

The ad compares the fuel crises and gasoline lines from the 1970s with the probable consequences of a binding international treaty limiting carbon emissions.

“The Clinton Administration has consistently ignored the real human costs of an emissions-cutting treaty. Those long gas lines of the ‘70s will be a reality again if Clinton gets his way in Kyoto,” commented Emily McGee, Director of Public Relations at CEI. “While the threat of global warming remains unproven, the threat of global warming policies is only too real. It will take jobs and money away from working Americans and send it overseas and it will have absolutely no effect on the climate.”

“The climate treaty is an inherently bad idea,” noted Fred Smith, President of CEI. ” It rests on the false and dangerous premise that government can make the world safer by controlling and suppressing people’s access to affordable energy.”

CEI has been involved in the global warming debate for several years. It recently published a book, The Costs of Kyoto: Climate Change Policy and Its Implications, that was based on studies presented at its global warming conference last July. Currently, CEI is distributing Kyoto Media Alert, a daily update from Kyoto written by Mr. Smith, for the duration of the UN conference.

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to free markets and limited government. For more information or to obtain copies of the book or to be placed on the Kyoto Media Alert distribution list, call Emily McGee at (202) 331-1010 or check out www.cei.org.