The Cato Institute's Love-In with Gas-Guzzlers

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When Barack Obama announced new fuel efficiency standards for passenger vehicles, the Cato Institute, a Washington D.C. think tank, reacted angrily. In an opinion column for USA Today, senior Cato fellow Jerry Taylor claimed that the measure "is likely to be all cost and no benefit." Taylor claimed that foreign oil imports would not decrease, fuel savings would not offset increased costs "if gasoline prices remained in today's neighborhood," greenhouse gas emissions might not decrease, and car safety would be reduced. Cato Institute senior fellow Patrick Michaels got in on the act, too. Michaels landed interviews on ABC, WIBA's "Upfront with Vicki McKenna," FOX's "Happening Now" program and FOX's "Special Report" program. What wasn't disclosed to USA Today's readers or any of the television viewers or radio listeners was that the Cato Institute's latest annual report (pdf - see page 47) lists its corporate sponsors as including General Motors, Honda, Mazda, Toyota, Volkswagen and the American Petroleum Institute.