[governance] More (yawn) regulatory swing doors... US FCC...
Riaz K Tayob
riaz.tayob at gmail.com
Sun May 12 04:53:33 EDT 2013
How does MS take this intimacy into account?
Weekend Edition May 10-12, 2013
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Why the Senate Should Reject Tom Wheeler
Another Industry Crony at the FCC?
by B. BLAKE LEVITT
President Obama's nomination of Tom Wheeler to head the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) is the height of cynical cronyism and
industry-pandering. He should not be confirmed. Obama, in fact, could
not have found a /worse /nominee than Tom Wheeler to head this most
significant regulatory agency -- one with long tentacles into all our
lives whether we know it or not. Wheeler is the last person who should
have his hands on the levers of the FCC, though he's been aching to do
just that for decades.
Wheeler has far too many conflicts of interest and industry biases to
head the FCC. The FCC, regulates the nation's airwaves and all
communications plus its accompanying infrastructure, including all
broadcasters, cable companies, telephone-service providers both wired
and wireless, satellite communications and the Internet. FCC is at a
crucial juncture regarding decisions on new airwave auctions, further
media consolidation, net neutrality, and most importantly the updating
of the nation's obsolete exposure standards for radiofrequency
radiation. The stakes are high. These decisions will affect all U.S.
citizens for decades to come in ways great and small.
Below are 12 good reasons why the U.S. Senate* should reject Tom Wheeler:
*1. Wheeler's financial conflicts. * As the managing director of
Core Capital Partners LP in Washington, D.C., Tom Wheeler helps
manage a $350 million venture capital firm that invests primarily in
the high-growth technology sector -- all with potential business
involving the FCC. Founded in 1999, Core Capital has invested in
over 45 companies and partnered with over 100 others with a focus on
wireless information technology, communications, infrastructure,
security, cloud-based software, digital media and technology-enabled
service areas. Examples of Core Capital's investments include
PureWave Networks, which develops outdoor base stations for the 4G
wireless networks; Twisted Pair Solutions, which makes mobile
communications software interfaces, BridgeWave Communications, an
outdoor gigabit wireless infrastructure/interface company, among
many others. (See: http://www.core-capital.com for portfolio
information.) Nearly all of Core Capital's clients rely on friendly
FCC regulation, lax radiofrequency radiation exposure standards, or
more importantly no regulation at all. In 2008, /FierceWireless
/included Tom Wheeler in their top ten all-time list of people who
helped shape the wireless industry. Wheeler is on a mission and it
goes way beyond regulating the quality of our connectivity.
*2. Wheeler's professional conflicts/bullying. *Wheeler headed two
major industry trade groups: the National Cable Television
Association from 1979 to 1984, which includes the largest US cable
companies --- Comcast, Time Warner, and Charter Communications; and
the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, now called
CTIA -- the Wireless Association, which includes the four biggest
wireless companies --- Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile
USA. CTIA, founded in 1984,//includes not only wireless carriers,
but their suppliers, service providers, and manufacturers of
wireless data services and products. CTIA advocates at all levels of
government and claims to coordinate the industry's voluntary best
practices and initiatives. Their behaviors indicate otherwise,
however, and Tom Wheeler set their tone years ago. In 2010, CTIA
sued the city of San Francisco over that city's first-in-the-nation
law that point-of-sale information regarding a cell phone's
radiofrequency radiation level, and its specific absorption rate
(SAR) be made available prior to sale. It also required a handout be
made available saying that the World Health Organization determined
radiofrequency radiation to be a 2B possible carcinogen. It was a
simple right-to-know law containing the same radiation exposure
information buried in company literature deep within the box,
available only after purchase. (Increasingly that information is now
available only online.) CTIA sued on First Amendment grounds.
Apparently making them tell the truth goes against their right to
obscure. The 9^th Circuit Federal Court agreed with CTIA and on May
7, 2013, the San Francisco City Board of Supervisors revoked the law
because they did not want to open taxpayers to a potential $500,000
penalty in attorney's fees for CTIA. They were also humiliated into
accepting a permanent injunction against the right-to-know ordinance
just to make sure they didn't come back with anything similar in the
future. Despite scores of letters and petitions from across the
country encouraging San Francisco to stay the course, CTIA's
bullying worked.
http://news.yahoo.com/san-francisco-surrenders-fight-over-cell-phone-warnings-124624361.html
And for good measure, CTIA not only sued but also moved CTIA's
annual conference, traditionally held in San Francisco, to Texas,
thereby taking significant revenues out of the California economy.
These are all punitive tactics, honed under Wheeler while at CTIA
and continued by his predecessors. Other states are considering
similar legislation. On May 2, 2013, Rep Andrea Boland (D) Maine
reintroduced The Children's Wireless Protection Act. It would
require that retailers provide a flyer stating the same information
about the World Health Organization's classification, require that
manufacturers' manuals provide language to avoid direct cell phone
contact with the head and body, as well as information on how to
reduce excessive exposure, if one chooses, such as limiting use by
children, keeping a phone away from reproductive organs, and
operating it with a wired headset. The bill would also require
retailers to label cell phones at point of purchase with stickers
stating the following: "This device emits radiofrequency
electromagnetic fields. Avoid direct contact." (Full text: :
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_126th/billtexts/HP071101.asp)
Rep. Boland says it's time to give Maine constituents fair warning
of the serious, potentially lethal ramifications of cell phone use,
now associated with gliomas -- the deadliest form of brain cancer,
among other problems. But the ruling in San Francisco has had a
chilling effect, just as intended by CTIA. Boland's bill was tabled
until further notice on May 8^th . Pennsylvania, Oregon, New York
and others are also considering such legislation. Hopefully these
other states will have more pluck than San Francisco. CTIA's
aggressive behaviors are well documented and were considerably
ramped up under Tom Wheeler's long tenure. He will institute those
behaviors in favor of industry if affirmed at the FCC. Expect an FCC
ruling that makes point-of-sale information illegal at the state
level, a lot more litigation, and bullying.
*3. Wheeler's political conflicts.* Tom Wheeler was a top
fundraising bundler for President Obama, raising**more than $500,000
in 2012, and from $250,000 to $500,000 for the 2008 campaign.
Wheeler has made at least $172,524 in campaign donations since 2007,
all to Democratic candidates and party committees. He donated the
maximum allowed to both of Obama's presidential campaigns, and the
maximum $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee in 2011 and
2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. /Time
Business & Money /called Wheeler a "true believer," noting that
Wheeler and his wife went door-to-door for Obama in Iowa.
//(http://business.time.com/2013/05/02/tom-wheeler-former-lobbyist-and-obama-fundraiser-tapped-to-lead-fcc/).
His nomination reeks of a /quid pro quo./
*4. Wheeler* *would increase radiofrequency radiation exposures. *
After decades of unchecked wireless exposures, continued concern
about safety, and three law suits, the FCC is finally reviewing
their obsolete radiofrequency (RF) safety standards, instituted in
1996 --- 17 years ago --- but which even back then did not take any
studies past 1986 into consideration. Thousands of studies have come
out since that time, many indicating adverse effects. (See
www.bioinitiative.org) This FCC review affects all aspects of modern
life, from broadcast to broadband, cell phones, wifi, smart metering
--- virtually all wireless products and infrastructure. The CTIA
recently released its 2012 year-end survey. There are now more
wireless subscriber connections (326.4 million) in the U.S. than
people, and more than 300,000 cell tower sites. That is a tremendous
amount of RF exposure to the population that simply did not exist as
little as 15 years ago. Concerns over the safety of this area of the
electromagnetic spectrum precede the CTIA and were long known in the
science community. Wheeler, as director of CTIA, oversaw a $25
million research debacle that ended in more -- not less --
controversy, with virtually no research produced. The project was
widely considered in the press to have been a "manufactured doubt"
program, intended to contaminate the database with negative
studies, prevent clearer understanding and therefore better
regulation. Today increasing research from all over the world
indicates possible cancer risks among many other physiological
problems from mobile-phone use, accompanying infrastructure, and
myriad consumer wireless products. In 2012, the World Health
Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
classified radiofrequency radiation as a 2B possible carcinogen
along with lead, formaldehyde, mercury and DDT. Many European
countries and professional organizations now recommend the
precautionary principle regarding these ubiquitous exposures,
especially for children. Wheeler's entire professional career rests
on the assumption that the exposures at current levels are safe,
despite mounting evidence to the contrary. The current FCC standards
are based on a high-intensity, short-term tissue heating model that
does not reflect today's long-term, low-level, chronic
non-tissue-heating exposures found to be every bit as biologically
active. In addition to the FCC's narrow, ineffective focus, today's
standards do not take cumulative exposures from myriad wireless
sources functioning at the same time, such as in the average home or
workplace. Plus the FCC categorically excludes whole swaths of
technology from review if those products meet certain exposure
thresholds. The entire model is completely inadequate to protect the
public health. Industry is pushing to make the standards more
lenient. In 2012, the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
released a report after spending a year researching the health
aspects of cell phone usage that stated the radiation limit needed
to be reevaluated. At the time of the report, the FCC had the SAR
(specific absorption rate) set at 1.6W/kg (the amount of energy
absorbed by a unit of tissue). The FCC reevaluated the radiation
limit after the GAO report was published, and recently published its
own response. FCC states that the SAR limit will stay the same.
However, the outer part of the ear has been reclassified as an
"extremity,"*//*a designation that legally allows it to absorb more
radiation under current specifications. This is going in the wrong
direction.// In 1999, a cheery-picking Wheeler said "responsible
scientific studies hadn't found a connection." He will likely
maintain that stance and the public health could be in serious
jeopardy, given the popularity of wireless products. Wheeler would
have the ability to not only relax the standards further and grant
more categorical exclusions to the very industries he has promoted,
funded, and made a fortune from, he would also control any future
recommendations for cell phone exposures, especially among children
who are known to be more susceptible to such damage. These factors
alone should disqualify Wheeler for the chairmanship. While at the
CTIA, Wheeler lobbied hard to make sure Congress would set no limits
on cell phone use of any kind. He's not about to stop now.
*5.* *Wheeler would erode local cell tower siting rights and
endanger public health. *When Wheeler was at CTIA, he was among the
industry architects who wrote Section 704 of the Telecommunications
Act of 1996 that prohibited state and municipalities from siting
towers based on the environmental effects of radiofrequency
radiation -- a health and safety jurisdiction long exercised at the
local level. He asked FCC to preempt all local rights in cell tower
siting; make illegal temporary moratoriums on tower construction
while communities created effective zoning regulations; make it
illegal for communities to require that cell providers prove they
are in compliance with FCC exposure standards; make it illegal to
even mention health or environmental concerns at public hearings --
against First Amendment rights to free speech -- and he pushed back
communities seeking legal redress in federal courts. Wheeler's
appointment would be a blow to what little power is left regarding
state and local rights in their time-honored legal zoning
responsibilities to protect public health, safety, and welfare.
Wheeler would give the telecoms the right to site infrastructure
anywhere, anytime, without local or state review. His appointment
could open new areas of litigation. Unsafe infrastructure siting
potentially endangers public health and property values and
constitutes an illegal taking against the Tenth Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution.
*6.* *Wheeler would abandon landline networks. *This is a critical
time for FCC decisions that will affect wired v. wireless networks
and all information/entertainment/voice delivery choice for
consumers. Despite Congress's desire for more diversity in
communications services, Wheeler in 2011 advocated for total
deregulation and to let AT&T buy the smaller wireless competitor
T-Mobile USA Inc. Both the FCC and the U.S. Justice Department
opposed the merger and AT&T abandoned the plan. It is well known
that AT&T wants to abandon its entire landline network in favor of
an all-wireless network -- this at a time when safety issues are on
the table regarding wireless exposures. FCC granted them permission
to do that and AT&T is currently trying to enact that plan in
numerous states now, despite the fact that 1-in-5 Americans rely on
landline networks for voice, DSL Internet, and 911 emergency
provisions. Landline networks, proven time and again, are far more
reliable and secure than wireless networks. Wheeler's appointment
would accelerate, and greatly favor the wireless industry over the
harder, safer landline system. The U.S. should be favoring
fiberoptic networks like countries throughout Europe and Asia for
primary connectivity at all levels.
*7. * *Wheeler would increase media consolidation. *Further media
consolidation could erode press diversity. As president of the CTIA,
Wheeler in 2001 pushed to eliminate limits on how many airwaves a
company can hold in a given city. The FCC is currently considering
whether to revise the limits again. Wheeler's confirmation could
further damage media diversity and reduce the number of independent
voices intended by Congress.
*8.* *Wheeler would decrease consumer choice. *Wheeler has a
decades-long track record of favoring wireless over wired networks.
He will bring that bias to the critical balance in today's
entertainment/communications market between cabled networks and
wireless companies. He will decrease, rather than increase, consumer
choice -- Congress's clear intent --- and push for deregulation at
all levels, using the federal cudgel over state decision-makers. All
wired networks will likely suffer under his bias.
*9*. *Wheeler would oversee huge spectrum auctions.* If appointed,
Wheeler would oversee 120 megahertz of spectrum auctions of airwaves
to be voluntarily relinquished (at a price) by television stations
after those stations went to digital formats. These are the public's
airwaves. Originally, that frequency spectrum was promised to local
emergency first responders. But it will now be auctioned to the
major telecoms for 4-G high-speed wireless Internet service and
mobile broadband. This will bring an increased layer of
radiofrequency radiation to the environment/public at a time when
safety concerns are paramount and the FCC is reviewing its
standards. Wheeler would oversee almost one quarter of the airwaves
that Obama set as a national goal and a huge swath of spectrum would
be in the hands of a consummate industry insider who has fought
against the public interest at every step.
*10.* *Wheeler is known for cronyism*. On his blog in 2011, he
called AT&T's Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi, one of
the smartest, shrewdest policy mavens in the capital and added that
merger deliberations could create a new era of wireless policy
according to Cicconi's ideas. Wheeler will bring this bias and years
of insider relationships to the FCC -- against the public's best
interests.
*11.* *Wheeler's appointment would further lower the bar on the
'revolving door.'* Reed Hundt, the former FCC Chairman during the
Clinton Administration, serves on Wheeler's Core Capital Partners
board of advisers -- the man whom Wheeler once repeatedly petitioned
for more lax standards and regulations when Wheeler headed the CTIA.
Now both men stand to profit from Wheeler taking the helm at the FCC
and relaxing regulations further.
*12. **Wheeler's conflicts perfectly match FCC's authority**. *At a
time when the FCC has pushed for increased wireless broadband in
rural areas, and Congress has awarded tax payer dollars as
incentives to large communications companies to serve those areas,
Wheeler would be in the position not only to affect the nation's
infrastructure and radiation exposure standards but to direct all
regulatory power to financially benefit friends and former clients.
FCC regulates broadcasters, cable companies and telephone-service
providers -- all of which intersect with Wheeler's background.
Voters should urge the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and
Transportation to reject Tom Wheeler. If Wheeler's nomination gets out
of committee, voters should petition their Senators to vote against this
cynical power-grab by a longtime industry insider and find a more
suitable candidate. President Obama needs to get the message that our
regulatory agencies are off-limits to conflicted industry insiders once
and for all. Wheeler has long had his camel's nose under the tent at the
FCC by being on an important FCC's advisory panel. But it's one thing to
ask industry insiders what their opinions/preferences are. It's another
to hand the whole kittenkaboddle over to them.
Mignon Clyburn, senior Democrat on the FCC commission, will serve as
acting chairwoman until a permanent chair is appointed. Thirty-seven
U.S. Senators in a letter
<http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/SenateFCCLetter.pdf>urged
President Obama to nominate FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel as
chair. She would be the first woman to head that agency. Rosenworcel
has nearly two decades of experience in telecommunications and media
policy in both the public and private sector and received wide
bipartisan support during her confirmation to the FCC last year. She
carries none of the overt conflicts or insider cronyism that Wheeler
does and unlike Wheeler, has a solid background in communications law.
She is acceptable to industry and public interest advocates alike and
would likely be confirmed. Those 37 senators should be urged to stick to
their guns and to enlist their colleagues to support her. The first step
is to reject Tom Wheeler. We can --- and should --- do better than this.
/*B. Blake Levitt* is an award-winning medical/science journalist,
former New York Times contributor; author, Electromagnetic Fields, A
Consumer's Guide to the Issues and How to Protect Ourselves
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595476074/counterpunchmaga>;
and editor, Cell Towers Wireless Convenience? Or Environmental Hazard?
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/188482062X/counterpunchmaga>
(www.blakelevitt.com)/
/*Wheeler's nomination must first pass the U.S. Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science and Transportation, chaired by Senator Jay Rockefeller
(D) West Virginia, before going to the full Senate for a vote./
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