January 2012

Obama Ignores even Internal Dissent on Environmentalist Agenda

by Matthew Melchiorre on August 12, 2011

in Environment, Regulation

President Obama will stop at nothing to pursue his war on coal. He won’t even listen to those within his own administration.

His Small Business Administration advocacy office sent a long and detailed letter regarding the new Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) regulations to EPA Director Lisa Jackson, in which the SBA reported that the “EPA may have significantly understated the burden this rulemaking would impose on small entities.” The law mandates the installment of new filters in energy plant smokestacks, but it also imposes higher energy costs on businesses and consumers as the cost of compliance is passed down.

Despite the EPA’s own admittance that the mandate “is unlikely to substantially affect total risk,” Obama and Jackson remain steadfast in supporting it even though it risks the loss of 251,000 jobs, according to the Unions for Jobs and the Environment.

Actions speak louder than words. With unemployment at 9.2 percent and Obama’s relentless pursuit of a job-killing environmentalist agenda, it’s clear that his cries for “creating jobs” are merely rhetoric. His loyalties do not lie with the American worker, consumer, or businessman nearly as much as they do with “green” groups and the American bureaucrat.

EPA-Backed Study: Products Containing BPA Harmless

by Aaron Buchhop on August 12, 2011 · 1 comment

in Deregulate to Stimulate, Health and Illness, Nanny State, Precaution & Risk, Regulation

The US Environmental Protection Agency officially backed a study last week underscores what scientists around the world have been saying for years: BPA is not a significant public health risk.

The study proved what many others have indicated was true: Humans metabolize BPA very quickly and pass it before it can do any harm. Accordingly, we should not fear the fact that BPA is found in human urine as many greens say we should. CEI had detailed many of the other reasons we should not fear BPA and why it is critically important to protecting human health.

For roughly half a century, the industrial chemical BPA has been used in polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, helping to create thousands of useful products. The invaluable compound came under siege in 2008 by green activists obsessed with its supposed carcinogenic properties.

Despite years of extensive tests repeatedly making the case for its safety, governments the world over have declared war on BPA, enacting nanny state policies banning its usage. Canada has banned BPA from baby bottles, and in the face of at least two opinions from the European Food Safety Agency, the European Union worked to ban it as well.

In the recent EPA-backed study conducted by Justin Teeguarden at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 20 adult humans were primarily fed canned foods and beverages, a potentially significant source of BPA. Over a 24 hour period, blood, urine, and tissue samples were taken hourly from the participants. The tests revealed that the human body quickly metabolizes or releases BPA, making it essentially harmless due to its short-lived existence within the body.

Surprisingly, the EPA emerges as the proverbial knight-in-shining-armor, out to rescue a beneficial compound from certain ruin. The very likely reality appears that help came too little too late. The damage may have already been done.

Fear and hysteria by green groups have impacted public opinion about BPA. A US company, Sigg Switzerland USA, once produced metal drinking bottles. At the start of the BPA scare, Sigg began to cash in on the mass transition away from plastic bottles due to the fear of contamination. Once speculation arose regarding the presence of BPA in the lining of Sigg’s bottles, however, lawsuits and campaigns against the corporation eventually drove Sigg Switzerland USA into bankruptcy.

While the study might be a win for the EPA, the deliberation over bisphenol-A has certainly been a costly and time consuming lesson. BPA should be here to stay, but thanks to fanning the flames of fear, it probably won’t be making a comeback anytime soon. Moving forward, let’s not sacrifice technological and economic progress for the sake of unfounded uncertainty.

Post image for Alcohol Regulatory Round-up: August 11th 2011

Alcohol Regulatory Round-up: August 11th 2011

by Michelle Minton on August 12, 2011

in Odds & Ends

Federal: A proposed bill, Brewer’s Employment and Excise Relief Act, would reduce the federal excise taxes for craft brewers in order to help them grow in the hope that they will provide jobs, revenue, and economic stimulus. This is a smart move since craft brewers have had a strong showing in the last five years. According to a recent report from the Brewer’s Association, craft brewers saw a 15% increase in production while big beers like Bud, AB-inBev and MillerCoors have suffered with the rest of the economy. The more government gets out of the way of these businesses the more likely they are to grow, and the bigger and more financially secure they are the more people they can afford to employ.

Alabama: A clear example of how deregulation equals stimulation is occurring in Alabama, a state with a grand total of 6 brewers. It’s not surprising there are so few. But a new law seems likely to encourage a few brewers to give Alabama a try. Thanks in particular to the efforts of grassroots beer-lovers, Free The Hops, which I detailed in an earlier post, Alabama legislators passed the Brewery Modernization Act in May. It was signed by the governor in June, and a few months later new breweries are reportedly making plans to open in the state. While Alabama still has really stupid laws regulating brewing, (like the one that limits brewpubs to historic buildings and counties where brewing occurred before prohibition) the new regulations allow brewers to offer tours, tastings, sell their beer on-premise whether or not they have a restaurant, and it allows brewpubs to sell their beer to wholesalers for retail sales where previously they were limited to selling on-premise.

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In Wake of Financial Woes, Staffers Pack Up and Leave for Hawaii

by Matthew Melchiorre on August 12, 2011 · 3 comments

in Politics as Usual

Despite their calls for fiscal responsibility, Senate Democrats of the Indian Affairs Committee sent their staffers on a weeklong vacation to Maui. Although the trip’s official purpose is business, the lucky travelers jetted off to the Hawaiian paradise an entire week before the work begins. The hearing on “Overcoming Barriers to Economic Development in Native Communities” that the staffers left Washington to attend isn’t until next Wednesday.

Rick Manning of Americans for Limited Government , which was the first to report the hearing, illuminated the absurd timing of this all-expenses paid getaway.

It’s outrageous that Senate Democrats have so little respect for the American taxpayer that in the same month they buried our credit rating, they’re heading to Hawaii to celebrate.

But that’s how government works. It gets rewarded for failure, as I point out in The Daily Caller.

Morning Media Summary

by Lee Doren on August 12, 2011

in Odds & Ends

Tech:

Google Parcel Service? Search company patents electronic shipping notifications:
“Google’s battle against Microsoft and Apple over their use of “bogus” patents promises to result in greater scrutiny of its own intellectual property holdings. And we have a hunch that Amazon.com, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service and pretty much everyone else in the shipping business will be highly interested in this new addition to Google’s portfolio.”

Global Warming / Environment / Energy:

100-Degree Streak Ends – Temps Drop Into 80s:
“The Dallas-Fort Worth area’s streak of 100-degree days is over — just two shy of the record set in 1980.”

Insurance / Gambling:

NY Governor: State Must ‘Come to Grips’ with Gambling:
“The Oneida Indian Nation says the state has two options for expanding gaming: It can partner with Indian nations for immediate success or spend years trying to pass a law to allow commercial gaming.”

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Canada’s PM praises trade pact with Colombia — a good act for President Obama to follow

by Fran Smith on August 11, 2011

in Economy, International, Labor, Politics as Usual, Trade

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with his strong defense of Canada’s trade agreement with Colombia, provides a stark contrast with President Obama’s weak-kneed approach to the long-languishing U.S.- Colombia Free Trade Agreement.  In Bogota, for talks with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Harper called critics of the trade pact phonies who are using human rights issues as a screen to mask their protectionist agendas. The trade agreement with Colombia goes into effect August 15.

Harper said:

“Colombia is a wonderful country with great possibility and great ambition. And we need to be encouraging that every step of the way. That’s why we have made this a priority to get this deal done. We can’t block the progress of a country like this for protectionist reasons.”

Harper noted that free trade can help Colombia improve its economy and better deal with security problems in that country.

 “I think there are protectionist forces in our country and in the United States that don’t care about development and prosperity in this part of the world. And that’s unfortunate.”

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Make S&P like Zagat

by John Berlau on August 11, 2011

in Odds & Ends

I was the first entry in National Review Online’s symposium “Down on the Downgrade” on whether the Standard and Poor’s downgrade was fair (Was probably listed first because they went alphabetically.).

I argued, “The downgrade itself was fair. However, S&P’s timing and ‘partisan gridlock’ rationale were questionable, as is its implicit advocacy of higher taxes.”

Focusing on the government’s barriers to competition among credit ratings firms and the way ratings are embedded in regulatory capital requirements for financial firms, I said, “In a truly free market for credit ratings, … S&P and Moody’s would be to securities what Zagat is to restaurants, a rating influential because of its reputation but without undue power over a restaurant and its customers.” [click to continue…]

More Social Engineering and Failure from Federal Housing Policy

by Matthew Melchiorre on August 11, 2011 · 1 comment

in Politics as Usual

Federal vouchers that encourage low-income families to move to the suburbs have caused severe problems in Lancaster, California. The government housing program created in 1974, called “Section 8” because its authority comes from the 8th section of the United States Housing Act, was intended to break up concentrations of urban poverty by encouraging low-income families to move to the suburbs where they could get better jobs and their children could go to better schools. Unfortunately, it has had the opposite effect.

As the housing bubble burst and home prices plummeted, a large number of low-income families moved from their LA apartments to houses that they couldn’t otherwise afford in the SoCal suburb under Section 8. As such, the program incentivizes uprooting individuals from urban homes—where they have job prospects, easy access to public transportation, and support networks—to Lancaster—where they have none of these things. [click to continue…]

The War on Lemonade

by Ryan Young on August 11, 2011

in Regulation

Besides today’s CEI Podcast, Iain Murray and I have a column over at Townhall.com about Lemonade Freedom Day:

Bureaucrats have the power to pick winners and losers—a power many are happy to exploit. Lydia Coenen of Appleton, Wisconsin, recently learned about this dark side of competition. Appleton hosts an Old Car Show every year near her house. She and a neighbor have been selling lemonade and cookies to passersby for the last six years. This year, they were shut down by police. Vendors inside the car show didn’t appreciate the competition, so they convinced the city council to ban concession sales within a certain radius of the Old Car Show, putting young Lydia and her friend out of business.

Read the whole thing here; the Lemonade Freedom Day website is here.

CEI Podcast for August 11, 2011: Lemonade Freedom Day

by Ryan Young on August 11, 2011

in Nanny State, Personal Liberty, Podcast, Regulation

Post image for CEI Podcast for August 11, 2011: Lemonade Freedom Day

Have a listen here.

Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray talks about the rash of children’s lemonade stands being shut down by police, and his plans to celebrate Lemonade Freedom Day on August 20. Started by Robert Fernandes, families across the country will set up lemonade stands in their neighborhoods without going through the permits and inspections that many towns now require.

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