Legal Brief
CEI v. EPA – Complaint Re: Secret Accounts
Full Document in Available in PDF Plaintiff COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE (“CEI”) for its complaint against Defendant UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (“EPA”or…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
71 new regulations, from prune insurance to Colombian tariffs.
News Release
CEI Sues for EPA Administrator’s Secret Email Account, Related Records
The Competitive Enterprise Institute sued the Environmental Protection Agency, challenging its refusal to disclose information discussing the creation and use of “secondary” email accounts created…
News Release
Report on Spanish Banks Underestimates Cost of Potential Bailout
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1, 2012 — A report last week said Spain’s banks could require as much as 53.74 billion euro in bailout funds,…
Op-Eds
No Real Differences Between Presidential Candidates on Immigration
“On Immigration, Obama and Romney Agree on Virtually Nothing,” declares a recent ABC News headline. The story strings together quotes from President Obama and Republican…
The American Spectator
Happy Durbin Day
On Oct. 1, 2011, one year ago today, Dodd-Frank's Durbin Amendment price controls went into effect, causing consumers to lose free checking and be soaked…
The American Spectator
A Conservative Case for Obamacare?
From Thomas P. Miller’s column in National Review: The response of roughly half of the Senate Republicans was to co-sponsor an alternative bill…
Citation
Government Transparency
Fox News
Solar power company banks on loan, but skeptics question government investment in industry
From Dan Springer's article on Fox News: But William Yeatman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute says the Energy Department's green loan program created…
Breitbart
SoloPower: Another Solyndra in Waiting?
From John Sexton's article on Breitbart: William Yeatman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute says of SoloPower, "It looks like it will fail for…
Newsletter
CEI Weekly: Is There a Future for Generic Biotech Crops?
Newsletter
CEI Today: Chemical non-risk, the war on gov’t transparency, and Google Fiber controversy
Blog
Fifty Years Later: Rachel Carson Is Still Wrong
Back in 1996, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Jonathan Tolman authored an article entitled "Rachel Was Wrong,” in which he explained why biologist Rachel…
Blog
Big Labor’s Midwest Offensive
Yesterday in the St. Paul, Minnesota, Pioneer Press, my colleague Russ Pohl and I detail the current militant tactics used by Midwest public-sector unions that…
Blog
Free Checking Nearly Extinct Thanks To Dodd-Frank; Will Credit Card Rewards Follow?
One year ago on October 1, Dodd-Frank's Durbin Amendment price controls went into effect, causing consumers to lose free checking and be soaked with other…
Blog
Unions Outgunning Opposition In Michigan
Organized labor is driving hard to enshrine collective bargaining right in Michigan State constitution. If Proposal 2 passes this November, they will have done…
Blog
TRUST Act Is An Important Stand Against Federal Immigration Policy
In a CNN column today, Jose Antonio Vargas calls California’s TRUST Act “the most important piece of legislation for immigrant communities this year.” Vargas…
Blog
Massive Payoff To City For Dropping Challenge To Tool Used To Impose Racial Quotas In Lending
The Obama administration declined to pursue a fraud claim worth up to $180 million against a city to get it to drop its pending…
Blog
Collective bargaining and government: A toxic brew
By Trey Kovacs and Russ Pohl, Pioneer Press What happens when special interests gain control of the public purse? Some recent events provide a…
Blog
Today’s Links: September 28, 2012
Blog
Big Labor’s Midwest Offensive
Openmarket.org Yesterday in the St. Paul, Minnesota, Pioneer Press, my colleague Russ Pohl and I detail the current militant tactics used by Midwest public-sector unions…
Breitbart
Bill to Halt Unfair Deportations
From Jose Antonio Vargas’ article for CNN: Undocumented people and their allies — their relatives and friends, their neighbors and co-workers — have…
News Max
Author Horner: Liberals Waging War on Transparency
From Henry J. Reske and Kathleen Walter's post on Newsmax: As far as liberals are concerned, transparency in government is a great idea…
News Max
Study blasts federal economic development initiatives
From Brian Pederson’s article in Lehigh Valley Business: A new study blasts the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) and calls for its abolishment,…
Washington Examiner
New book claims officials use private emails to skirt FOIA laws; most departments fail Bloomberg transparency test
From Mark Tapscott's column in The Washington Examiner: Christopher C. Horner is a happy warrior attorney and senior fellow at the conservative Competitive…
PJ Media
Heckler’s Veto: NYC Prohibits Controversial Subway Ads in Wake of Islamist’s Vandalism
UPDATE: Hans Bader: Scapegoating Free Speech.
Blog
Scapegoating Free Speech
In the aftermath of a terrorist attack in Libya that killed our ambassador and three other Americans, the Obama administration was quick to scapegoat a…
Blog
Old Hat
Is the Chevy Volt really new technology? General Motors justifies its profit losses on the automobile by claiming it’s a long-term investment in a brand…
Blog
Google Fiber Project: A Product Of The Free Market Or Government Interference?
Google will soon launch Google Fiber service to select residents in Kansas City. Fred Campbell, Director of CEI’s Communications Liberty and Innovation Project, lauded…
Blog
Study Finds Diisononyl Phthalate Safe For Toys
While news sources, greens, and U.S. lawmakers hype the risks about children’s exposure to the chemicals found in a host of plastic…
Blog
Saving The Game: Botched Calls And Legitimacy In The NFL
As a Seattle Seahawks fan living in Washington, D.C., I was excited for my team’s nationally televised Monday night game against the Green Bay Packers.
Blog
Today’s Links: September 27, 2012
PJ Media
The Federal Department of More Spending and Higher Local Taxes
“We believe in the free enterprise system,” President Obama said at a recent campaign stop. “But we also believe we’ve got obligations to one another.”…
Capital Press
Open Ideals Bounce Back
From a Capital Press editorial: The problem of using different email systems is "epidemic" in the Obama administration, according to Chris Horner, a…
Capital Press
Market demand knocks down regulatory barriers in Kansas City fiber deployment
In response to my analysis of Google Fiber, Timothy B. Lee at Ars Technica says the Google Fiber deployment is “hardly an example of the…
Capital Press
Collective bargaining and government: A toxic brew
What happens when special interests gain control of the public purse? Some recent events provide a clue. At the start of this school year, in…
Capital Press
Three States Sue Over Dodd-Frank Constitutionality
From Elizabeth Ecker’s article in Reverse Mortgage Daily: Several states joined a lawsuit last week that challenges the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank Wall…
Hot Air
PBS NewsHour Omits Obama’s Support for Blasphemy Law
From Hot Air: Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute also wrote on September 13 that: the…administration was earlier criticized by…
Forbes
What Do The War On Cancer And Climate Modeling Have In Common?
The reverential treatment accorded to climate modelers by the media, policymakers, and the public is one of the great mysteries of modern life. But it…
Newsletter
CEI Today: States join Dodd-Frank lawsuit, the greens fret over cloud computing, and a court rules on TSA airport scanners
Blog
Today’s Links: September 26, 2012
Blog
In Rejecting EPIC’s Petition On TSA’s Strip-Search Machines, Court Effectively Orders Rulemaking Timetable
This afternoon, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s (EPIC) petition for writ of mandamus, which called on the court…
Newsletter
CEI Today: State pension woes, a union jobs program, and state gift clauses
Blog
Driverless Cars Legalized In California
Just after 1pm PDT, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law SB 1298, which explicitly legalizes the use and testing of driverless cars in the…
Blog
Work ‘til You Drop: Is This The Next European “Welfare?”
As Europe’s population ages, its widespread entitlement commitments will generate huge burdens on governments’ budgets. The economic consequences are easy to foresee: just think of…
Blog
Today’s Links: September 25, 2012
Study
Is There a Future for Generic Biotech Crops?
Farmers are eagerly awaiting the expiration of the patents on popular biotech traits over the coming few years. Unfortunately, a quirk in the way biotech…
News Release
Future of Generic Biotech Crops in Doubt
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 25, 2012 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute released a new study today finding that regulatory policy could inhibit the development…
CEI Planet
CEI Planet: July – August 2012
CEI Planet
CEI Planet: May – June 2012
Blog
Today’s Links: September 24, 2012
Blog
State Pension Bailout Threat
The state pension underfunding crisis has grown so severe that it has prompted most U.S. states to cut benefits, according to calculations by The…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Unions corrupt teachers, Paul Krugman’s Obsolescence, and the Founding Fathers on immigration
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
82 new regulations, from Indian casinos to bailouts for fruit tree owners.
Daily Caller
Field of cash: If you offer, they will take
It has become a familiar ritual. Wealthy professional sports team owners ask state and local governments to subsidize their venues, threatening to skip town if…
Daily Caller
Oklahoma AG, Others Take Aim at Dodd-Frank Act
From L. L. Woodard’s article in Yahoo News: The National Bank of Big Spring (Texas) originated the lawsuit in June 2012, when it…
Blog
State Capitalism Or Corporatism? Italy’s Carmaker Conundrum
Italy’s iconic car manufacturer, Fiat, announced Saturday its plans to keep its production base in Italy after months of threatening to leave for more…
Blog
Chicago strike shows unions corrupt teachers, harm students
The Washington Examiner Americans like teachers. We like to think of public school teachers as kindly, idealistic men and women nurturing rows of attentive,…
Daily Caller
Chicago strike shows unions corrupt teachers, harm students
Americans like teachers. We like to think of public school teachers as kindly, idealistic men and women nurturing rows of attentive, wide-eyed youths with the…
Blog
Junk Science Is Worse For Your Health Than Egg Yolks
We all know that eggs contain a lot of fat and cholesterol. While that does not make them “bad,” most of us realize that if…
Blog
Regulation Roundup
Seatbelts for dogs, surveillance cameras for surveillance cameras, plus more.
Blog
Teacher Unions Celebrate Another Victory For The “Greater” Good
While teacher unions are succeeding in bankrupting Chicago, the teacher unions of Wisconsin are trying to bankrupt the entire state in the name of getting…
Blog
PATTERSON AND BROWN: Unions stack the deck against job creation
By Matt Patterson and Chrissy Brown, The Washington Times If you build it, jobs will come. That’s what Marylanders are being promised in the…
Blog
The European Central Bank’s Losing Game Of Chicken
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi is losing a game of chicken with the Euro Area’s distressed peripheral countries. Earlier this month, Draghi announced…
Daily Caller
Unions stack the deck against job creation
If you build it, jobs will come. That’s what Marylanders are being promised in the push to build a new casino, the state’s sixth, in…
Daily Caller
State Attorneys General Challenge Title II of Dodd-Frank
From Ammon Simon’s post in National Review‘s Bench Memos: I’ve previously written about the constitutional challenge to Dodd-Frank. A group of plaintiffs, including…
Legal Brief
Dodd-Frank Challenge – Amended Complaint
Full Document Available in PDF…
Blog
CEI Podcast For September 20, 2012: The Economic Development Administration
Blog
Wall Street Journal: Obama Administration Undermined Welfare Reform’s Work Requirements
"The Administration has made welfare's work requirements far weaker," explains The Wall Street Journal in a detailed editorial today: an HHS regulatory "information…
Blog
Beware Of Unaudited Benefit Analyses
Regulatory agencies have an eternal incentive to expand their missions and grow their budgets. One consequence of this is that their cost-benefit analyses cannot be…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Judiciary hearing on regulation, copyright concerns in technology, and climate change as a national security problem?
Forbes
Rick Ungar Is Wrong: Obama Is the Biggest Spender in World History
Washington Examiner
$1.8 trillion shock: Obama regs cost 20-times estimate
From Paul Bedard's column in The Washington Examiner: Current federal regulations plus those coming under Obamacare will cost American taxpayers and businesses $1.8…
Citation
Mining For Votes
From Patrick Howley’s article in The Washington Free Beacon: The Utility MACT costs taxpayers $11 billion per year, according to EPA estimates. Insiders…
National Review
The Crusade against ‘Bullying’
From George Leef's post in National Review: In a College Insurrection piece, attorney Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute writes about the…
National Review
America’s Founders Supported Immigration
As Americans celebrated the 225th anniversary of the Constitution’s signing this Monday, thousands of new citizens at naturalization ceremonies across the country celebrated being Americans…
News Release
Three States Join Constitutional Challenge to Dodd-Frank
Washington, D.C., September 20, 2012 – The states of Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Michigan today joined a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank Wall…
Forbes
Promoting Libertarianism, John Ramsey Plays The Long Game
Ron Paul’s presidential campaign was unique in the history of the libertarian movement, attracting more serious attention than those of any of his libertarian predecessors. Campaigning as…
Blog
Can We Please Have A Grownup Discussion About Distracted Driving?
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released a new study on distracted driving [PDF]. According to the agency, 9 percent of total…
Blog
Economic Freedom Of The World
Non-economists tend to be much more skeptical about economic freedom than economists are. This in itself is a powerful case for free markets. But empirical…
Blog
Today’s Links: September 19, 2012
Investor's Business Daily
Federal Agencies Should Stop Using Cost-Benefit Analyses
Every year, the Internal Revenue Service releases data on how much tax revenue it takes in. It never argues that the nation's tax burden is…
News Release
Regulation Nation?
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 19, 2012 – Thursday morning, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing: “Regulation Nation: The Obama Administration’s Regulatory Expansion vs.
News Release
Announcing: Communications Expert Joins CEI Staff
Blog
Today’s Links: September 18, 2012
Blog
As Union Popularity Fades, A Fight For Power Threatens Michigan
The major focus on issues involving public sector unions right now is the current teachers’ strike in Chicago. Now that the strike is in…
Newsletter
CEI Today: Wisconsin voters, EPA celebrates Che Guevara, and gas prices impacted by ethanol mandate
Study
The Case for Abolishing the Economic Development Administration
EDA investments do little more than shift resources from one area of the country or the economy to another. EDA’s funding should be immediately revoked,…
News Release
New Study Makes Case Against Economic Development Administration
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 18, 2012 — It is the mission of the Economic Development Administration (EDA) “to lead the federal economic development agenda by promoting…
Reason
Not for Teacher: Criminalizing Free Speech in North Carolina
Blog
Striking: Right Or Privilege?
As the Chicago teachers’ strike is entering its second week, Mayor Emanuel has pledged to seek an injunction with the court to force instructors back…
Blog
The Sad, Early History Of Railroad Regulation: From Subsidies To Nationalization
CEI has long made it its mission to highlight to downsides and dangers of economic regulation. One classic example is the experience with America's railroads…
Blog
Wisconsin Judge to Voters: “Drop Dead”
Openmarket.org Who needs elections when you have judges? In Wisconsin, the voters have decided to reform their state’s collective bargaining laws. They did so…
Blog
CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation
76 new regulations, from DEA property seizures to place-of-origin requirements for wine.
Newsletter
CEI Today: Bloomberg’s soda ban, Chicago teachers strike, and a dubious global warming poll
Blog
EPA Celebrates Mass Murderer Che Guevara For Hispanic Heritage Month
Blog
Wisconsin Judge To Voters: “Drop Dead”
Who needs elections when you have judges? In Wisconsin, the voters have decided to reform their state's collective bargaining laws. They did so by, 1)…
Blog
Rules Are For The Little People, Not Cabinet Secretaries
Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health & Human Services, violated the Hatch Act by engaging in partisan politics at a "taxpayer-funded public event." But…
Blog
Today’s Links: September 17, 2012
Blog
The Teachers’ Union Strikes Back
American Thinker A short time ago, in a city not so very far away, an insidious organization hijacked an entire school system, putting the…