CEI Daily Update

Issues in the News

1. ENVIRONMENT

Delegates to the United Nations’ global warming summit in Bali generate as much carbon dioxide as 20,000 cars in a year.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Energy & Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell on what to expect from the Bali negotiations:

“With many European countries failing to meet their Kyoto targets and major developing world emitters like China and India refusing to make any concessions, it has become clear that the United Nations’ global warming strategy has failed. Another round of promises to reduce emissions may make the delegates feel good, but the Kyoto Protocol has demonstrated that meaningless symbolism can be very expensive.”

 

2. SAFETY

Congressional leaders and the White House support stricter mileage requirements for new cars.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar Doug Bandow enumerates the flaws with the federal government’s fuel economy rules:

 

“Fourth, and most important, CAFE kills. Design modification and materials substitution can make cars lighter and safer, but doing so costs money and it is not easy to do both simultaneously. The easiest way to improve mileage is to cut vehicle weight, but reducing the amount of metal surrounding drivers and passengers leaves them more vulnerable in an accident. In 2002, the National Academy of Sciences reported that CAFE kills an extra 1,300 to 2,600 people a year.”

 

3. BUSINESS

The White House proposes freezing “subprime” mortgage rates for five years.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on the misguided motives behind the Bush plan:

“At the very least, if the Bush Administration plan is truly voluntary, it’s unnecessary. Loan holders and servicers have plenty of incentive to do that themselves. No one sitting in a central office can hope to set the right mortgage terms for millions of borrowers, lenders, and investors.”

 

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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