Op-Eds

Here Comes Tomorrow

The fatuous new special-effects extravaganza The Day After Tomorrow (which, judging from the plot summaries so far released might just as well have…

Climate

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Cultural Wars Benefit No One

What's the dirtiest word in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />United States political dictionary these days?  That's easy: “outsourcing.”<?xml:namespace prefix…

Free Speech

Op-Eds

Adolf Lomborg?

Back in 1990, Mike Godwin, then legal counsel for the advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, noted that online discussions on the various…

Climate

Op-Eds

Socialist Capitalists

It's not easy to explain the anti-globalization movement's attraction or its successes.  Much of the writing on the movement's growth, ideology, and influence…

Free Speech

Op-Eds

Glimpsing Another Mindset

  Kevin Danaher and Jason Dove Mark’s new book Insurrection presents the views and strategies of those who resist global free trade and markets. The activist…

Free Speech

Op-Eds

Et Tu, Edison?

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />   The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the association of shareholder-owned electric power companies, opposes…

Climate

Op-Eds

Sensible Policy Lost in Smog

 The Environmental Protection Agency recently launched its massive new plan to fight smog. Get ready for another <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington mandate that will do more economic harm than environmental good.  Ozone, the primary constituent of smog, is a lung irritant caused by motor vehicle and industrial pollution as well as natural emissions. Smog was perhaps the single biggest reason for the 1970 Clean Air Act, and has been heavily regulated since. According to EPA, it has declined more than 30 percent in the last three decades.   Outside several trouble spots in California, virtually the entire nation now is in or near compliance with existing ozone air quality standards. And, due to measures already in the works (new motor vehicle emissions standards starting with the 2004 model year, new control requirements for power plants), those areas not yet in compliance are on their way toward it.  Despite lack of evidence the existing ozone standard was deficient, the Clinton administration decided to tighten it. EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee concluded this tougher standard would not be “significantly more protective of public health,” and called the change a “policy judgment.” The agency's own cost-benefit analysis found the modest marginal benefits of the new standard outweighed by its costs. Nonetheless, EPA went ahead with the rule, sparking several years of legal challenges, all the way to the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court essentially deferred to EPA's judgment, and upheld the new standard. However, the legal delays meant this Clinton administration's rule, first promulgated in 1997, would have to be implemented by its successor. And George Bush's EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt now has obliged.   Mr. Leavitt estimates compliance costs of $50 billion over the next 15 years. The specific control measures for the 474 counties currently violating the new standard will depend on the extent of noncompliance in each county.  The possibilities include more stringent requirements on new or substantially modified industrial facilities, restrictions on highway construction projects, measures affecting small businesses, and more onerous vehicle inspection programs. Each of the 31 states with non-attainment areas must submit a compliance plan for EPA approval by 2007. These plans will likely remain in effect many years after.  The expense will affect employment, traffic congestion, and the cost of living. Even gasoline prices may be pushed up. Areas violating the new smog standard may have to use one of the costly specialized gasoline blends that have proliferated in recent years. And many refiners now will have more difficulty obtaining approval for much-needed capacity increases.  Of course, EPA's announcement of the rule gave the impression the U.S. smog problem is worsening. Nothing could be more untrue. But while the benefits of this new standard may prove hard to identify, the costs almost certainly will not.

Energy and Environment

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Get Shorty

Americans appear to have stopped growing.  Europeans, on the other hand, are continuing to grow taller.  That's an interesting phenomenon, but probably little…

Free Speech

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NGO, Reform Thyself

These days, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) face increasing criticism.  This is something new for the global NGO movement, whose actions, campaigns, and goals have,…

Free Speech

Op-Eds

Down in the Dumps

When most people hear the words “illegal dumping,” they probably think of someone using somebody else's trash dumpster without permission.  However, in the…

Free Speech

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Why We Need Sound Science Rules

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> In the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />United Kingdom, the Sir…

Free Speech

Op-Eds

A Cast of Thousands

In <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Hollywood's glory days, studios peppered movie posters with the words “cast of thousands” in bold…

Antitrust

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Culture Wars

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> When Americans hear the word “outsourcing,” they typically imagine the movement of <?xml:namespace prefix =…

Free Speech

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Protecting our Exports

Auto parts, precious metals, lumber—Canadians have found many ways to export their way to success in the global economy.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns…

Free Speech

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UN-Dermining the Net

There's mounting evidence that the Internet's good old days as a globalcyberzone of freedom—where governments generally take a “hands off” approach—may be numbered. [Last year] delegates from 192 countries met in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Geneva to discuss how the Internet should be governed and what steps should be taken to solve the global “digital divide” and “harness the potential of information” onbehalf of the world's poor. Also on the table at the session—the UnitedNations World Summit on the Information Society—was the question of domainname management and how much protection free speech and expression shouldreceive on the Net. The real issue, however, is whether a “United Nations forthe Internet” is on the way. The great advantage of the Net is precisely the ability to reach as many peopleas possible and overcome artificial restrictions on trade or communications attraditional geographic boundaries. The Web, whatever problems it has raised,has provided far more opportunity and freedom to mankind. The United Nationsappears eager to assume greater control over the Net, not because of itsfailures, but because it undermines members' authority. That sounds like thebest reason ever to make sure a United Nations for the Internet never becomes areality.  …

Regulatory Reform

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The Global Network of Snobs

Cultural creativity is big business in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />America.  According to the most recent data from Economists Incorporated, U.S.

Free Speech

Op-Eds

Extreme Measures

James Hansen, one of the fathers of global warming theory, commented in the online journal Natural Science in September last year, “Emphasis on…

Climate

Op-Eds

France Launches Global Culture War

Cultural creativity is big business in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />America.  According to the most recent data from Economists Incorporated, U.S.

Free Speech

Op-Eds

Time to Move on

No doubt trying to distract attention from the recent Bush-Hitler ad controversy and its sponsorship of an event where B-list celebrities used the F-word to…

Climate

Op-Eds

An Apple a Day

“Who are those guys?”<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />   That's the question that keeps popping up…

Energy and Environment

Op-Eds

A Clear Mistake

The Clear Skies Initiative, President Bush's big environmental bill targeting power plant emissions, appears to be stalled in Congress.  In an effort to…

Climate

Op-Eds

Russian Revolution

On <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />December 2, 2003, Andrei Illarionov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's chief economic adviser, stunned green activists…

Energy and Environment

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Virtually Extinct

It seems that virtually every news organ in the English language has carried the story of new scientific claims published in Nature magazine that…

Climate