Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

President Barack Obama visited the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London last Wednesday, bearing an Al-Gore-like message to the assembled military troops. “ Obama Stresses Security Threat Of Climate Change ” read an editorial in a Hartford paper. Shaken editorial writers proclaimed, “… Mr. Obama has an urgent alarm to sound. He's made climate change a top priority for the remainder of his second term. He's had trouble, however, bringing the Republican-led Congress onboard, so he's resorted to a series of executive orders. ‘Going forward,’ he said Wednesday, ‘I've committed to doubling the pace at which we cut carbon pollution’ on many fronts — more efficient buildings and power plants, renewables, energy research.

Twenty-eight years ago, on January 28, the space shuttle Challenger exploded. For want of asbestos, the putty did not work. For want of reliable putty, the O rings did not hold. For want of reliable O rings, the Challenger exploded, 73 seconds after lift-off in freezing weather 25 years ago. Asbestos was used in adhesives for strengthening and fireproofing and many other essential functions. It was used in electric hair driers, which the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) thought unsafe and banned it. The company that was manufacturing O rings for NASA’s space shuttles then went out of business. NASA had to try to find a substitute. The O rings might have held had the outside temperature been warmer (it was 32 degrees). The freezing temperature, CPSC’s ban on asbestos, and NASA managers’ decision to not postpone takeoff, caused the Challenger’s explosion. The reason for hurtful regulations like CPSC’s is monopolistic federal regulators acting under the precautionary p...