CEI Testimony Reveals Cartel’s Motives

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Full text of the testimony available in pdf

Contact:  Christine Hall, 202.331.2258

Washington, D.C., February 13, 2007—The president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Fred L. Smith, Jr., testified today before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the Climate Action Partnership’s plan and the effects it could have on America’s economy.

The Partnership’s plan includes the regulatory capping and trading of greenhouse gas emissions, in an effort to combat global warming. Mr. Smith will focus on the fact that “cap and trade” is not market-based, but rather an “ugly combination of two of the greatest ills to affect the market economy over the past 200 years—cartelization and central planning.”

“Simply because some business leaders join with environmental pressure groups to promote a policy does not mean that the policy is good for the economy or the American people,” said Smith. “In general, if a company’s stance on an issue appears to be too good to be true, it probably is. Strange alliances such as these—business allying with pressure groups to demand more regulation of those businesses—is actually all too common in history, and the motivation is rarely altruism.

“The corporations we see baying for a cap and trade program are out to enrich themselves without thought for the poor. A fair approach, an egalitarian approach, is to let the market work its magic for the good of all, rather than stacking the deck to enrich the few,” concluded Smith.

Mr. Smith’s entire written testimony is available online.