CO2, Microsoft’s Antitrust Overseers and Anti-Tax Activists
The Environmental Protection Agency prepares to release a document that could require the federal government to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide.
The Justice Department extends its antitrust oversight of Microsoft – originally implemented in 2002 – until at least 2011.
Activists gather for anti-tax “Tea Parties” across the nation.
For more news, listen to the LibertyWeek podcast here.
1. ENVIRONMENT
The Environmental Protection Agency prepares to release a document that could require the federal government to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis on why the EPA should reconsider its decision:
“An endangerment finding would lead to destructive regulatory schemes that Congress never authorized. Significant uncertainty persists with regard to climate sensitivity—the core scientific issue. Despite the ongoing increase in air’s CO2 content, various measures of public health and welfare—life-expectancy, heat-related mortality, weather related mortality, air quality, agricultural productivity—continue to improve. Endangerment of public health and welfare is not ‘reasonably anticipated.’”
2. BUSINESS
The Justice Department extends its antitrust oversight of Microsoft – originally implemented in 2002 – until at least 2011.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on why Microsoft’s market share is not a threat to consumers:
“Given the blow being dealt to Microsoft by antitrust regulation, it is worthwhile to reflect on some recent developments in the industry that illustrate just how dynamic this sector really is. The new capabilities are so sweeping that they render any requirement that Microsoft be broken up or even prevented from ‘bundling’ software with its operating system both ridiculous and unfair. Even a cursory overview illustrates these points. Like Microsoft, nearly everybody ‘bundles,’ gives software away free, favors some partners over others, places limits on the use of their software, and wants to ‘crush’ their competitors. Consumers benefit from such rivalry.”
3. POLITICS
Activists gather for anti-tax “Tea Parties” across the nation.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader on the people who are slandering the protesters:
“The ‘tea party’ protests against out-of-control government spending have been very clear in identifying what wasteful spending they object to. One example is Obama’s $800 billion stimulus package, which was falsely sold to the public as a way of preventing ‘irreversible decline,’ but which the Congressional Budget Office repeatedly pointed out would actually cut the size of the economy ‘in the long run.’ But the protesters are frequently criticized…for supposedly offering no solutions or constructive suggestions. For having the temerity to protest Administration lies and out-of-control spending, the protesters have been attacked elsewhere in the left-wing blogosphere in the most vicious language as ‘redneck, racist Republicons [sic]’ and as ‘a bunch of white old people and rednecks.’”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.