WASHINGTON (July 10, 2012) — The R Street Institute welcomes today’s launch of the Energy and Enterprise Initiative, a new campaign launched by former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., that aims to promote free-market solutions to vexing energy and environmental problems.

Based at the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, E&EI favors pro-growth and pro-market policies that also seek to mitigate the substantial risks the United States faces from climate change. Inglis, who served two stints in Congress from 1993 to 1999 and again from 2005 to 2011, is the group’s executive director.

Like R Street, Inglis and E&EI propose eliminating all federal fuel subsidies. The group also proposes creating a revenue-neutral tax swap to offset the health, productivity and environmental costs associated with various forms of energy. As E&EI puts it: “Tax the bad, quit taxing the good, and let the free-enterprise system deliver the fuels of the future.”

“In our work at R Street, we see that insurers and reinsurers take all kinds of risks into account,” R Street President Eli Lehrer said. “E&EI is calling conservatives to consider those risks and it’s equipping conservatives to confront those risks with free enterprise solutions.”

R Street is a non-profit public policy research organization that supports free markets; limited, effective government; and responsible environmental stewardship. It has headquarters in Washington, D.C. and branch offices in Tallahassee, Fla.; Austin,Texas; and Columbus, Ohio. R Street’s co-founders previously were the staff of the Heartland Institute’s Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. Its website is www.redesign.rstreet.org.

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