Fri, Jul 18 2008
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Published May 16, 2008 09:29 pm - Going green shouldn’t sell out American businesses By Bill Steigerwald Cagle Syndicate When Al Gore and his global warming alarmists take over, one of the first citizens they'll slap in a prison and charge with crimes against the (green) state will be Steven J. Milloy, founder and publisher of the popular Web site JunkScience.com. For 12 years, JunkScience.com has worked to debunk the bad science that has been used to advance the harmful or merely silly political and social agendas of environmentalists that have led to things such as bans on DDT and incandescent light bulbs. Milloy is a self-described libertarian whose other unforgivable crimes include working for Fox News Channel and associating with think tanks that accept oil and/or tobacco money. He visited Pittsburgh Thursday, May 8, to appear at an Alcoa stockholders meeting. I talked to him by cell phone as he drove back to his home near Washington, D.C. Q: Why did you drive all the way to Pittsburgh to go to an Alcoa stockholders meeting? A: I am the portfolio manager of the Free Enterprise Action Fund. We’re a libertarian/conservative activist fund and we own shares in Alcoa. We’re concerned that by lobbying for global warming regulation, the Alcoa CEO (Alain Belda) will not only help drive the U.S. economy into a ditch but will help drive Alcoa into a ditch. Q: How were you received? A: I spoke at the meeting. I expressed our concerns. I asked the CEO for a commitment that the board of directors would take a hard look at this through their due diligence -- and I got no response. Q: What is it specifically that Alcoa is doing that you are concerned about? A: Alcoa belongs to something called the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, which is a group of companies and environmental groups in Washington, D.C., that are lobbying for global climate regulation. All the parties that belong to the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) have different interests, so you never know if they are going to be able to achieve their goal. But nevertheless they are lobbying for regulation that every economist in the world says is going to harm the United States and the global economy. Q: Is there anything wrong about a private corporation choosing to spend its money on going green -- even if it’s foolish? A: Management has a fiduciary duty to shareholders. If shareholders want management to be foolish, well, then that’s just the way it is. The problem here is that it is not Alcoa just being foolish on its own. Alcoa is lobbying for laws that will make everybody be foolish. If Alcoa wanted to be foolish by itself, that’s fine; but they’re trying to make everybody be foolish. Q: What is JunkScience.com and what’s its purpose? A: Junk Science is a Web site I started about 12 years ago and the purpose is to spotlight bad science that is being used to advance special agendas -- like activist agendas, environmental agendas, regulators, politicians, trial lawyers, companies that are using bad science to sell products to consumers. Q: What’s the most important example of junk science or bad science that needs to be exposed because of the danger it poses to our economy or our freedoms? A: Well, the most important junk science issue right now is global warming because it’s going to affect our freedoms and it’s going to affect our economy. It’s all based on the unproven notion that human emissions of carbon dioxide are affecting global climate. … There’s much at risk. Global warming regulation means higher energy costs, and it means reduced freedom. 
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