A decision by a D.C. federal appeals court earlier this month allowing telecommunications companies to block users from accessing certain content sparked a major debate over Net neutrality, and now the Federal Communications Commission is fighting to regulate Internet broadband services. The FCC, which rolled out its National Broadband Plan in March, wants to phase out the Universal Service Fund, a program initially designed to keep telecommunications costs low in rural communities and instead impose a 15 percent tax on current broadband users that would be used to connect rural America to ... Read More
Pay, Baby, Pay
April 30, 2010 • By • 3 Comments
This story originally appeared June 17, 2009. At the start of 1981, Ronald Reagan moved into the White House and named James Watt secretary of the interior. Almost immediately, Watt became the bête noir of liberals — particularly environmental liberals — across the land. Within months, Watt announced an ambitious program that would have expanded offshore energy development into the Pacific and the Atlantic and resulted in the lease of the rights to extract oil and gas from under as much as a billion acres of sea bottom over five years. Watt's plan drew immediate and harsh criticism, ... Read More
The Salty Taste of Energy Independence
April 1, 2010 • By • 2 Comments
Barack Obama made good this week on his promise to Republicans to remain open-minded about offshore drilling. The United States, he announced, will end a moratorium on the practice, opening up stretches along the East Coast, in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Alaskan coast to oil and gas exploration. It was as much a political move as anything else — one designed to deflate the Republican rallying cry of "drill, baby, drill!" while also improving the chances of a bipartisan energy bill in the Senate this year. Offshore drilling will not, of course, solve the problem of energy ... Read More
10 Things You Didn’t Know Were in the Health Bill
March 29, 2010 • By • 16 Comments
The 2,000-page health care bill that became law last week is packed with major reforms probably well known (in concept if not in detail) by anyone who has channel-surfed through the nightly news over the past year. There's an individual mandate, a system of exchanges, new government subsidies and a ban on some of the worst practices of the insurance industry. Let's say the small print on the big stuff accounts for about 1,500 pages, give or take a ream. What's in the rest? Some random, weird and interesting solutions to problems you may or may not have known you had, some with dubious ... Read More
Maine Passes Landmark Product Stewardship Law
March 25, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
With a green light from local business, Gov. John Baldacci of Maine today signed a landmark product stewardship bill, paving the way for the state to shift more of the cost of recycling and trash disposal to the manufacturers of consumer goods. "As Maine goes, so goes the nation," they say in America's easternmost state. If true, Congress take note: The Maine Legislature has Democratic majorities, but this month's vote for the "Act to Provide Leadership Regarding the Responsible Recycling of Consumer Products" was unanimous and bipartisan. "I hope people take the message that it can be ... Read More