What a great Reno Hayek Symposium Dinner last evening. I want to thank Susie Evans and Manny Martinez of Charter for the excellent discussion of net neutrality and its potential impact on our First Amendment freedoms and the free-market functioning of our economy. Broadband pipes are not free they require invested capital on which a return is expected. Demands for priority use of those pipes must be compensated. In essence, the “net neutrality” free loaders, with no investment at stake, are demanding priority use of those pipes without adequate compensation. Note that the pipe owners are not monopolies they are subject to free market competition; cable, phone, satellite all compete in a non-common carrier environment.
George Gilder points out in his recent WSJ article, Cap and Trade for the Internet, since 2001 the U.S. has led the world in internet deregulation with some $4 Trillion of investment increasing residential bandwidth 54 fold. But new attempts to promote regulation including net neutrality will turn this on its head. Economics-abundance or scarcity-in a free competitive market is regulation enough. Of course that’s not the tack the Obama statist are taking. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is moving to expand government control of the web. The WSJ editorial, Broadband Trojan Horse, discusses Obama’s “national broadband plan” including reclassification of the web as a “telecom service” subjecting it to “common carrier” status regulation and “open access” regulation. This solution in search of a problem is emblematic of Obama’s Soviet style control freaks. If implemented, it will destroy private investment. Thanks again to Susie Evans and Manny Martinez.
Ryan Costella and Dana Andrus gave a brief presentation on Empowerment Nevada a grass roots community action program they are initiating that basically promotes community problem solving without government involvement. Ryan hopes to enlist concerned citizens to re-ignite the spirit that founded this country and this state. He sees this as a springboard to other communities, other states and eventually the nation. “We want people who raise their hands to help, not hold their hand out.” His argument is that both left and right can agree on one thing: grass roots problem solving works. We wish Ryan luck in his efforts.
John Dunn gave us an update on Nevadans 4 Carbon Free Energy’s recent publicity campaign. The two Reno public meetings and attendant press reports have been well received. Politically the concept of a Yucca Energy Park including storage, reprocessing, power generation and research, seems to be a non-starter. The group has concluded that grassroots support is the key. This may, in fact, include a ballot initiative to let the voters decide. One thing for sure, jobs and money for Nevada and safe storage nationally are real necessities. I’ll keep updating as the occasion arises. Meantime check out: NV4CFE.org.
Finally, Jerry O’Driscoll briefed us on the recent Cato Summit in which he participated as a panelist. There were two presentations that particularly impressed him: Afghanistan-we need to win enough of the inter tribal wars to get the Taliban in charge so we can negotiate an exit. Climategate-the wounded scientific community caught in their phony research and conclusions appears to be as rough as Chicago politicians. My current issue of the Weekly Standard summarizes the reason on the cover!
Tom Motherway