CEI Today: Kicking the carbon tax, the Durbin assault on energy drinks, and pension reform fail in LA

CARBON TAXES - MARLO LEWIS

Globalwarming.org: Carbon Taxes: Kick ‘Em While They’re Down

House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy have signed a No Climate Tax Pledge. Bad news for those pushing carbon taxes as part of a budget deal. 

Friends of affordable energy can ill-afford complacency, however. The Dumb Party has been known to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and carbon tax advocates are nothing if not tenacious. So when it comes to carbon taxes, I say kick ‘em while they’re down. > View the full commentary at Globalwarming.org

 

> Interview Marlo Lewis

ATTACK ON ENERGY DRINKS - MICHELLE MINTON The Hill's Congress Blog: Senator Durbin is wrong on energy drinks ban Several lawmakers have called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “do something” to protect the public from the alleged threat of energy drinks after the agency received a small number “adverse event reports” related to the products. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has called for an outright ban. Such overheated reactions are out of line with reality. Basing policy on a knee-jerk reaction to a handful of incidents that may or may not be related to energy drinks could rob consumers of their right to make their own choices about their health and diet. > View the commentary on TheHill.com > Interview Michelle Minton

PENSION REFORM #FAIL - RUSS POHL Openmarket.org: LA Public Pension Problem a Microcosm of California’s Financial Woes Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan abandoned efforts this week to gather signatures for a ballot initiative to reform the city’s public pension plan. Riordan said he didn’t think he could acquire 300,000 signatures by the Dec. 28 deadline to get his measure, which would rquire city workers to contribute more toward their pensions and convert all employees to 401K-type plans, on the May ballot. It will come as no shock that Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents public service workers in Southern California, and the Los Angeles Police Protective League led the opposition to Riordan’s initiative. > Read the full commentary on Openmarket.org > Interview Russ Pohl

More in the news... Stacking the Deck for Dodd-Frank EDITORIAL: Overturning Dodd-Frank, Legal challenge targets Obama’s unaccountable regulatory bodies The Real Thanksgiving Turkey? SEIU’s Failed LAX Demonstration Regulatory Uncertainty Drives A Fish Farmer To Foreign Waters

I, PENCIL The Competitive Enterprise Institute is proud to announce a new ambitious film project: an animated adaptation of I, Pencil by Leonard Read. > View the I, Pencil short film > Tweet about I, Pencil

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Today: EPA email scandal, biofuel ruling, carbon tax prospects, online poker, and more

EPA BIOFUEL RULING - MARLO LEWIS

National Review: The EPA vs. State Economies

On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency rejected petitions from the governors of Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, and North Carolina to suspend the biofuel-blending requirements established by the federal renewable fuel standard (RFS) program.

However, the EPA stacked the decks against petitioners, establishing a burden of proof that was virtually impossible to meet. Indeed, the agency’s August 30 Request for Comment telegraphed the decision Jackson reached on Friday. The EPA stated petitioners would have to show that the “RFS itself” was the cause of severe harm, not merely a “contributing” factor. In addition, petitioners would have to show that waiving the RFS would be a “remedy” for the hardship facing livestock producers.

These criteria are ridiculous. The Clean Air Act does not require the EPA to don analytical blinkers and ignore other factors that, in combination with the RFS, cause severe harm, nor does it say that any waiver granted must be a silver bullet.  > Read the full news story on NationalReview.com

> Interview Marlo Lewis

CARBON TAX - IAIN MURRAY American Spectator: A Carbon Copy of a Bad Idea There are good reasons for conservatives to contemplate how their approach to young single women, gays, and immigrants might have contributed to recent defeats, but there is no reason to think that a switch on energy policy -- which is really economic and industrial policy -- might help. A carbon tax would punish the middle class and harm the broader economy now and going forward. It should be defeated the same way as cap-and-tax was defeated. > View more at Spectator.org > Interview Iain Murray

ONLINE POKER - MICHELLE MINTON Breitbart/Big Government: Harry Reid's Online Poker Folds on Freedom The Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2012, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to introduce soon, is being touted as a way to legalize online poker. In fact, it is a self-serving piece of legislation that protects large Nevada-based casinos at the expense of consumer choice. The bill in effect criminalizes just about any other form of online wagering, while providing a tiny carve-out for online poker companies in a way that protects Nevada against competition from any other state in the nation.  > View the commentary on Breitbart.com > Interview Michelle Minton

More in the news... Profile: The Union That Took Down Twinkees Investment Falls Off A Cliff, Threatening Economy "From the Sea, Freedom!" Overhyped Energy Drink Reaction Liberal Judges: Equality Is Unconstitutional CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation Why Courts Should Repeal EPA’s ‘Carbon Pollution’ Standard (and why you should care)

I, PENCIL The Competitive Enterprise Institute is proud to announce a new ambitious film project: an animated adaptation of I, Pencil by Leonard Read. > View the I, Pencil short film > Tweet about I, Pencil

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Today: Carbon tax folly, labor union v. Hostess Twinkies, and the war on coal

CARBON TAX - CHRISTOPHER HORNER

Orange County Register: New carbon tax would be folly

A proposed carbon tax is actually about finding a new, massive and ultimately expanding revenue source, an ATM machine, a European-style revenue gusher to fund a European-style government.

When the carbon tax's proponents can acknowledge these things, or demonstrate that they are not true, we can have a useful debate over their new energy tax. > Read the full commentary on OCRegister.com

> Interview Christopher Horner

UNION v. HOSTESS TWINKIES - CRISSY BROWN Openmarket.org: Union Strike-Showdown Could End In Hostess Shutdown They are messing with our Twinkies. Upset over cuts to pensions and salaries brought on by a new collective bargaining contract, employees of Hostess, which makes Twinkies, Wonder Bread and other iconic snacks, are on strike. The workers, members of Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), walked out Nov. 9 to send the message recent changes to their compensation package are “outrageous.” > View the full commentary on Openmarket.org   > Interview Crissy Brown

OBAMA WAR ON COAL - MARLO LEWIS Forbes: Why You Should Care That Courts Overturn EPA's Carbon Pollution Standard The 2012 elections ensure that President Obama’s “war on coal” will continue for at least two more years. The administration’s preferred M.O. has been for the EPA to “enact” anti-coal policies that Congress would reject if such measures were introduced as legislation and put to a vote. Consequently, defenders of free-market energy are stuck playing defense and their main weapon now is litigation. This is a hard slog because courts usually defer to agency interpretations of the statutes they administer. But sometimes petitioners win. > View the article on Forbes.com > Interview Marlo Lewis

WORLD PREMIERE! The Competitive Enterprise Institute is proud to announce a new ambitious film project: an animated adaptation of I, Pencil by Leonard Read. > View the I, Pencil short film > Tweet about I, Pencil > RSVP to today's screenings in Washington, D.C.

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Today: Treasury's carbon tax emails, businesses against deregulation, and "I,Pencil" premiere tomorrow

CEI SUES TREASURY

CEI.org: CEI Sues To Force Release of Carbon Tax E-Mails

On Tuesday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed suit to force the Treasury Department to release more than 7,300 emails that discuss a new “carbon tax” Obama administration allies in Congress are expected to propose in the upcoming lame duck session.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., seeks emails on official government accounts that CEI had requested under the Freedom of Information Act.  Treasury has said nothing about this topic publicly, but the existence of such extensive email traffic likely reflects extensive discussions between Treasury officials, outside pressure groups and other special interests groups.

The administration has refused to issue one of its relatively common fee waivers for the documents. It cited the cost of photocopying 7,000-plus emails and claimed disclosure “would not significantly inform the public about operations or activities of government.”  > Read more about the lawsuit

> Interview Christopher Horner, author of The Liberal War on Transparency

> Related: EPA chief’s secret ‘alias’ email account revealed

DEREGULATION - RYAN YOUNG Openmarket.org: Businesses Against Deregulation Most people believe that businesses abhor regulations and would love to do away with them entirely. This belief is often wrong. Many regulations make it harder for startups to enter the market, and can hobble smaller competitors. That’s why incumbent firms in many industries regularly welcome new regulations with open arms, and will spend millions on lobbying to pass them. It’s a way to keep the competition out. > View the full commentary on Openmarket.org   > Interview Ryan Young

COMING THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15... The Competitive Enterprise Institute is proud to announce a new ambitious film project: an animated adaptation of I, Pencil by Leonard Read. > View the I, Pencil trailer

More news... Jeffrey Sachs: Macro-Keynsianism Is “Outdated And Outmoded”… So, We Need Micro-Keynsianism! Immigration Reform Resurrected! Austerity For Europeans, But Not For Europe CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation Is Colorado's "new energy economy" still viable in light of recent setbacks in the industry? No

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.

CEI Today: Anti-trust attack on Google, reigniting a carbon tax, and the virtues of immigration

GOOGLE - RYAN RADIA

CNET: Google is many things -- but not an illegal monopoly

Perhaps no Internet leader faces as much scrutiny from government as Google, which has been the subject of a Federal Trade Commission antitrust probe for over a year. As this investigation comes to a close, the government is reportedly leaning toward suing Google before year's end. Naturally, its rivals are lobbying the feds to come down hard on the search giant.

Yet Google's critics haven't put forward a serious legal case against the company. The world's top search firm may be many things -- some of which aren't pretty -- but an illegal monopoly, it is not.  > Read the full commentary at CNET.com

 

> Interview Ryan Radia

 

CARBON TAX - MARLO LEWIS Forbes: Carbon Tax: Will Tweedle Dum Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory? The big attraction of carbon taxes these days is not as a global warming policy but as a revenue enhancer. In both parties, deficit hawks and big spenders (often the same individuals) are flailing for ways to boost federal revenue. However appealing the creation of a carbon cash cow may seem, GOP endorsement of this agenda would be a blunder comparable to President George H.W. Bush’s abandonment of his “read my lips, no new taxes” campaign pledge. > Read more at Forbes.com > Interview Marlo Lewis

IMMIGRATION - DAVID BIER Openmarket.org: Immigration Policy Should Strive For The “City On The Hill,” Not The “Deserted Town” Opponents of human movement, also known as “immigration,” argue that if the U.S. government stops forcibly preventing foreign-born people from relocating to the United States, the wages of American workers will suffer dramatically. By appealing to economic terms — prices, wages, supply and demand — this argument maintains the illusion of intellectual credibility that merely shouting “they’re-taking-our-jobs” lacks. >View the article on Openmarket.org > Interview David Bier

Read more... Banking Union Means the End of the EU But Not the Eurocrisis PolitiFact Fixes Two Of Its Three Errors Related To The Supreme Court’s Ledbetter Decision

COMING NOVEMBER 15... The Competitive Enterprise Institute is proud to announce a new ambitious film project: an animated adaptation of I, Pencil by Leonard Read. > View the I, Pencil trailer

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website, cei.org, and blogs, Globalwarming.org and OpenMarket.org.  Follow CEI on Twitter! Twitter.com/ceidotorg.