VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 4 Forum: Bureaucracy New Book Acclaims vs. the Environment Electric Choices any environmental laws not only in- n the late 1970s, the regulatory landscape in Mfringe upon property rights and hamper Ithe United States began to change signifi- economic growth, they also harm the environ- cantly as competition and deregulation were ment, according to the speakers at the June introduced to telecommunications, airlines, 28th Independent Policy Forum, “Bureau- trucking, natural gas and oil transportation, cracy vs. the Environment: What Should Be financial services, and other industries. Done?” Eventually reform came to the electric power First, Independent Institute Academic Af- industry, but in a more piecemeal fashion. fairs Director Carl Close noted criticisms that What lessons can be learned about the conservationists have leveled against various successes and failures of past restructurings? environmental policies, and then showed how How much regulation does the electric industry (L. to R.) Michael Shaw, Randy Simmons, and Carl Close address the Independent Policy Forum. the findings of Re-Thinking Green: Alterna- tives to Environmental Bureaucracy, a book he co-edited with Robert Higgs, shed further light on these problems and their cures. Three main problems plague environmental regulations today, Close argued: they are inef- ficient, leading to wasted resources and slower (continued on page 3) IN THIS ISSUE: Independent Policy Forums ......................... 1, 7 need? Are coordination and distribution best New Book on Electric Power ............................1 handled publicly or privately? If the latter, President’s Letter .............................................. 2 would for-profit or non-profit organizations Independent Institute in the News .................. 4 better serve consumers? The Independent Review ................................... 5 In Electric Choices: Deregulation and the Future of Electric Power, edited by Andrew N. Exposing Pork in the Defense Budget ............. 6 Kleit (Pennsylvania State University) ($29.95) Tax-wise Gifts for 2006 ....................................8 (continued on page 3) 2 The INDEPENDENT EXECUTIVE STAFF DAVID J. TH EROUX, Founder and President MARY L. G. TH EROUX, Vice President MARTIN BUERGER, Vice President & Chief Operating Offi cer ALEXANDER TABARROK, Ph.D., Research Director BRUCE L. BENSON, Ph.D., Senior Fellow IVAN ELAND, Ph.D., Senior Fellow ROBERT HIGGS, Ph.D., Senior Fellow ALVARO VARGAS LLOSA, Senior Fellow RICHARD K. VEDDER, Ph.D., Senior Fellow K. A. BARNES, Controller JOHN CAMPBELL, Development Director CARL P. CLOSE, Academic Affairs Director PAT ROSE, Public Affairs Director President’s Letter: FRED HAMDEN, Sales and Marketing Director BOARD OF DIRECTORS Congratulations to All GILBERT I. COLLINS, Private Equity Manager ROBERT L. ERWIN, Chairman, Large Scale Biology Corporation ith our 20th Anniversary this year, we are JAMES D. FAIR, III, Chairman, Algonquin Petroleum Corp. PETER A. HOWLEY, Chairman, Western Ventures Whonored by the many awards being received ISABELLA S. JOHNSON, Director, Speakman Company W. DIETER TEDE, Owner, Hopper Creek Winery for the superb work of our fellows. DAVID J. THEROUX, Founder and President, The Independent Institute MARY L. G. THEROUX, former Chairman, Garvey International • The Thomas S. Szasz Award for Outstand- PETER A. THIEL, Managing Member, Clarium Capital Management ing Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liber- SALLY VON BEHREN, Businesswoman BOARD OF ADVISORS ties has gone to Senior Fellow Robert Higgs. HERMAN BELZ Professor of History, University of Maryland THOMAS BORCHERDING Coinciding with his new book, Depression, Professor of Economics, Claremont Graduate School BOUDEWIJN BOUCKAERT War, and Cold War, the award is a tribute for Dr. Professor of Law, University of Ghent, Belgium JAMES M. BUCHANAN Higgs’s work on how government usurps liberty Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, George Mason University ALLAN C. CARLSON by creating and exploiting fears. Dr. Higgs also President, Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society ROBERT D. COOTER received the Friedrich von Wieser Memorial Herman F. Selvin Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley ROBERT W. CRANDALL Prize for Excellence in Economic Education from Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution RICHARD A. EPSTEIN James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago the Liberal Institute in Prague. A. ERNEST FITZGERALD Author, The High Priests of Waste and The Pentagonists Alvaro Vargas Llosa, Senior Fellow and B. DELWORTH GARDNER • Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University Director of our Center on Global Prosperity, has GEORGE GILDER Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute NATHAN GLAZER received the first Juan Bautista Alberdi Award Professor of Education and Sociology, Harvard University WILLIAM M. H. HAMMETT from the Hispanic American Center for Economic Former President, Manhattan Institute RONALD HAMOWY Research for “promoting the institutions of free Emeritus Professor of History, University of Alberta, Canada STEVE H. HANKE societies in the Americas.” The Institute also Professor of Applied Economics, Johns Hopkins University RONALD MAX HARTWELL received the Sir Antony Fisher International Emeritus Professor of History, Oxford University JAMES J. HECKMAN Memorial Award for our book by Mr. Vargas Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, University of Chicago H. ROBERT HELLER President, International Payments Institute Llosa, Liberty for Latin America. The award is WENDY KAMINER Contributing Editor, The Atlantic Monthly presented by the Atlas Economic Research Foun- LAWRENCE A. KUDLOW Chief Executive Officer, Kudlow & Company dation for “publications deemed to have made the JOHN R. MacARTHUR Publisher, Harper’s Magazine greatest contributions to public understanding of DEIRDRE N. McCLOSKEY Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago J. HUSTON McCULLOCH the free society.” Professor of Economics, Ohio State University FORREST McDONALD • Senior Fellow Bruce Benson was awarded Distinguished University Research Professor of History, University of Alabama THOMAS GALE MOORE the Adam Smith Award, the highest award of Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution CHARLES MURRAY the Association of Private Enterprise Education Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute MICHAEL NOVAK for his “lasting contribution to the perpetuation Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy, American Enterprise Institute JUNE E. O’NEILL Director, Center for the Study of Business and Government, Baruch College of the ideals of a free market economy.” CHARLES E. PHELPS Provost and Professor of Political Science and Economics, University of Rochester Research Analyst Gabriel Gasave has PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS • Chairman, Institute of Political Economy received the Fundacion Atlas’s Freedom Award NATHAN ROSENBERG Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Jr. Professor of Economics, Stanford University SIMON ROTTENBERG for Brave Defense of Liberty for his “permanent Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts PAUL H. RUBIN contribution to the defense of liberty.” Professor of Economics and Law, Emory University BRUCE M. RUSSETT • For the third year , the Independent Institute Dean Acheson Professor of International Relations, Yale University PASCAL SALIN has received the highest rating of Four Stars Professor of Economics, University of Paris, France WILLIAM F. SHUGHART II (★★★★) by Charity Navigator, the premier orga- Robert M. Hearin Chair and Professor of Economics, University of Mississippi VERNON L. SMITH Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, George Mason University nization rating non-profit organizations, and is JOEL H. SPRING Professor of Education, State University of New York, Old Westbury ranked in the top 10% of American policy organi- RICHARD L. STROUP Professor of Economics, Montana State University zations, ahead of virtually all other think tanks. THOMAS S. SZASZ Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Syracuse Institute books such as Electric Choices (p. ROBERT D. TOLLISON Robert M. Hearin Chair and Professor of Economics, University of Mississippi ARNOLD S. TREBACH 1), our journal The Independent Review (p. 5), Professor of Criminal Justice, American University GORDON TULLOCK events (pp. 1, 7), media projects (p. 4), and other University Professor of Law and Economics, George Mason University GORE VIDAL programs are providing the crucial difference. Author, Burr, Lincoln, 1876, The Golden Age, and other books RICHARD E. WAGNER Your tax-deductible support as an Independent Hobart R. Harris Professor of Economics, George Mason University SIR ALAN WALTERS Associate Member makes this far-reaching work Vice Chairman, AIG Trading Corporation PAUL H. WEAVER possible, while providing you with our new stud- Author, News and the Culture of Lying and The Suicidal Corporation WALTER E. WILLIAMS Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University ies plus other benefits (see enclosed envelope). CHARLES WOLFE, Jr. We welcome your involvement! Senior Economist and Fellow, International Economics, RAND Corporation THE INDEPENDENT (ISSN 1047-7969): newsletter of The Independent Institute. Copyright ©2006, The In de pend ent In sti tute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA 94621-1428 • 510-632-1366 • Fax: 510-568-6040 • Email: info@independent. org www.independent.org. The INDEPENDENT 3 Independent Policy Forum: Bureaucracy vs. the Environment (continued from page 1) economic growth; they