Ed. Note: Fred L. Smith Jr. (1940–), founder and chairman emeritus of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, originally published this article in April 1999. Its insights remain as relevant today as 21 years ago.
April 22, once associated with the optimism of revolutionary Marxism (as the birthday of Lenin) and then with the pessimism of modern Malthusianism (as the environmentalist’s Earth Day since 1970), merits redemption.
A new label, Resourceful Earth Day, is appropriate as we enter the 21st century, a title selected to honor mankind’s increasing ability to solve environmental as well as economic problems.
This title, of course, is inspired by the late Julian Simon, author of “The Resourceful Earth,” who combated with passion and power those who viewed man as the cancer of this planet and his future as bleak and austere.…
[It] is very frustrating that after 25 years of the anti-pessimists being proven entirely right, and the doomsayers being proven entirely wrong, their credibility and influence waxes ever greater. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there is every scientific reason to be joyful about the trends in the condition of the Earth, and hopeful for humanity’s future, even if we are falsely told the outlook is grim. So Happy Earth Day.” (- Julian Simon, 1995)
April 22 [1995] marks the 25th anniversary of Earth Day. Now as then its message is spiritually uplifting. But all reasonable persons who look at the statistical evidence now available must agree that Earth Day’s scientific premises are entirely wrong.
During the first great Earth Week in 1970 there was panic. The public’s outlook for the planet was unrelievedly gloomy.…
“… the rule plus the revocation of the California waiver is a huge win for auto buyers and drivers, but it should and could have gone much further in increasing consumer choice, especially in terms of safer vehicles, and still have complied with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 that created CAFE standards.” (Myron Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute)
“Demand destruction from the current Pandemic offers a new opportunity for demand construction. Letting the petroleum industry, from the wellhead to the pump, receive its rightful free-market demand in the car and truck market should be a ‘restart’ strategy of the Trump Administration. Full repeal of CAFE would be part of this.” (below)
The Trump Administration has rolled back Obama’s 2012 proposal to mandate a 5 percent annual fuel reduction per mile from covered motor vehicles.…