Oregon is considering a law requiring climbers to wear electronic locator beacons above 10,000 feet on Mt. Hood. From CNN:

Charley Shimanski of the Mountain Rescue Association, which represents 100 search-and-rescue groups in the U.S. and Canada, said he worries that relying on electronic beacons could give climbers a false sense of security.

"They might think, `I've got this gizmo that tells everybody where I am, so I can take greater risks,'" Shimanski said in a phone interview from Evergreen, Colorado.

Now where have I heard this before? From JR Clark and Dwight Lee:

In many situations public policies, crafted to save lives and/or reduce losses, end up exacerbating rather than solving the problems. Government attempts to rescue climbers on Mt. McKinley illustrate our point. The highest peak in North America, Mt. McKinley has long been considered a demanding test of mountaineering skill and bravery. Since the first expedition attempted to reach Mt. McKinley's summit in 1903, the mountain has claimed the lives of sixty-one climbers (as of 1990). From our perspective, the most interesting fact about these fatalities is that thirty-four of them (56 percent of the total) occurred from 1980 to 1989, a decade that followed by several years the beginning of serious rescue efforts. The early climbers had an important safety advantage (incentive) over present-day mountaineers: they were completely on their own. There were no rescue groups to call on, no government agencies watching over the mountain, no helicopters or planes capable of flying injured climbers off the mountain. To survive a McKinley expedition, the earliest climbers knew they had to rely strictly on their own skills and good judgment. And they succeeded extremely well. From 1903 to 1913, forty-seven men attempted to reach the top of North America. None died and by all accounts none was seriously hurt.

By the 1980s, climbers had apparently begun to incorporate the rescue programs into their decision calculus, and both the number of climbers and the long-run death toll climbed significantly above their pre-rescue program levels. In all the years prior to 1970 a total of 35 rescues were performed. However, during the 1976 climbing season alone, there were 33 rescues. About one out of every eighteen people who attempted to climb the mountain had to be rescued. Jim Hale, a professional mountain guide operating on the mountain, observed, "You could really see a big attitude change in 1976. Back in the 1960s and even in the early 1970s, there was more of an understanding that people were on their own. They didn't rely on others for help. But in 1976, word got out that the National Park Service would pay for rescues. The prevailing attitude seemed to be "Don't worry. If we get in trouble, the Park Service will rescue us."