CEI Today: Obama global warming agenda, Greece economy & environment, and Wisconsin/Walker win in court

OBAMA TALK ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING - MARLO LEWIS

Globalwarming.org: President Obama’s Inaugural Speech: New Heat on Warming?

President Obama’s second inaugural speech featured climate change more prominently than did his first inaugural address.

Will that make any difference legislatively? Probably not. In the House, Republicans opposed to cap-and-trade, EPA regulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and carbon taxes are still in charge.

Is the President’s renewed emphasis on climate change just a sop to his environmentalist base? Doubtful. As a second termer, Obama has less reason politically to restrain his ‘progressive’ impulses. Several regulatory options are now in play. > View the full commentary on Globalwarming.org

> Inteview Marlo Lewis

ENVIRONMENT IN GREECE - IAIN MURRAY Huffington Post: Greece Shows Us How Poverty Degrades the Environment Environmentalists' hearts surely rose when they read recently Greek air pollution levels had decreased by 40 percent from 2008 levels thanks to the ongoing recession there. Fewer people were using their cars or trucks, and, as a result, levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the air had plummeted. But those gains have been reduced and then some. In fact, Greece recently has seen a massive increase in smog, which reminds us it is poverty that truly drives environmental damage.  > View the full commentary at Huffingtonpost.com > Interview Iain Murray Follow Iain Murray on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@ismurray

WISCONSIN, WALKER WIN IN COURT - MATT PATTERSON Openmarket.org: Walker, Wisconsin Ranger (Strikes Again) Gov. Scott Walker successfully pushed a budget repair bill in 2011 in part designed to loosen the grip of public unions on the state’s purse strings, a grip that was driving up the cost of government to Wisconsin taxpayers. And now a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court has given Walker’s reforms judicial imprimatur, rejecting complaints from seven public unions, including the Wisconsin Education Association Council, that Walker’s law violates the Equal Protection clause of the First Amendment. > Read the full commentary on Openmarket.org   > Interview Matt Patterson

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