This newsletter highlights relevant analysis done by the JLF
and other think tanks, as well as items in the news.

1. The Eco-nanny state rolls on

In this article, the Competitive Enterprise’s Ben Lieberman
gives us a heads up on all the new appliance and home related regulations
that are coming down the pipe. As Lieberman notes, these regulations will impact
every room in our house, from the basement to the upstairs bedroom. Over the
next few years, thanks to the control-freaks in the Obama Administration, as
opposed to the control-freaks in the Bush administration who gave us most of
our mandates to this point (can you say light bulbs?), we will be seeing new
standards on furnaces, water heaters, shower heads, refrigerators, washers,
dryers, and more. All these will be on top of those that already exist. As
Lieberman notes:

In nearly every case, consumers who want more efficient
appliances (or those compact fluorescent light bulbs) are free to buy them.
Energy use labels provide all the information needed for consumers to make
comparisons. The only thing federal regulations accomplish is to force the
government’s preferred choice on everyone.

Undt you vill obey!!

 

The Washington Times has recently editorialized
on this same issue.

2. SB3 for the Nation

One of the dumbest things the state of North Carolina has
done in the last decade is to pass a "renewable portfolio standard" for
electric utilities and customers (Senate Bill 3, 2007), requiring that minimum
amounts of electricity be generated from high cost and unreliable energy
sources, like wind and solar, forcing citizens to use less electricity, so-called "energy efficiency." Now Congress is looking into going down this same
path, dragging with it states that have had the good sense to stay away from this
economy-killing nonsense. Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Tom Udall, D-N.M., are proposing legislation that would require that 3 percent of electricity be
generated from renewables over the next year (by 2012) with that jumping to 15
percent by 2021. The
JLF’s Daren Bakst has recently written on the implications of this law for NC.

For more information on SB3 see the following JLF
publications:
https://www.johnlocke.org/research/show/policy%20reports/202


https://www.johnlocke.org/research/show/spotlights/208

https://www.johnlocke.org/research/show/spotlights/178

3. Another reason to homeschool

The Secretary of Education is vowing to step up the propogandization of our children when it comes to promoting the religion of
environmentalism.
Secretary Arne Duncan is pledging to make our children into "good environmental
citizens." His plan is to teach kids as early as kindergarten about climate
change and to prepare them for a workforce filled with "green jobs." As he
stated, teachers need to "teach students about how the climate is
changing … explain the science behind climate change and how we can change our
daily practices to help save the planet. They have a role in preparing students
for jobs in the green economy." He went on to say, "I want my
department to help advance the sustainability movement through education."
His plans are "to build the science of sustainability into the curriculum,
starting in kindergarten and extending until the students graduate high
school." 

For a perspective on sustainability that is unlikely to find
its way into any classroom curriculum designed by this president or his minister
of children’s propaganda
 Secretary of Education, see this John Locke Foundation report.

4. Weekly Ozone Report

For
the week of September 19-September 25, the NC DAQ reports 6 high ozone readings
registered on North Carolina monitors. From April 1 through September 18, a
total of 26 weeks, North Carolina has had 106 high ozone readings (.076 ppm or
above over an 8 hour period). The highest reading for the week was reported at
Enochville with .08 ppm slightly above EPA’s high ozone standard. These
readings were scattered around the state over 33 out of 39 different monitors
and over 26 different days. Most of the high ozone days to date have occurred
in the Charlotte area and in the Triad. [Note: When an ozone alert is made
through the media, this is only a prediction. Very often an ozone alert is
issued but a high ozone day does not materialize. This is why we are reporting
here that during certain weeks there were no actual high ozone days even though
ozone alerts may have been issued and reported in the media.
]

Links to Recent JLF reports on ozone:
https://www.johnlocke.org/research/show/spotlights/234
https://www.johnlocke.org/research/show/spotlights/2