Op-Eds
Obama Uses Oil Spill to Push Failed Energy Policies
In his speech, President Obama used the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to push his failed energy policies, such as…
Blog
CEI Weekly: The Senate’s Global Warming Circus
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features the vote in the Senate on the Murkowski resolution and…
Blog
Obama Administration Blocks Clean-Up of Oil Spill by Louisiana and Foreign Allies By Imposing Red Tape
The Obama Administration recently used red tape to force Louisiana to stop using 16 barges that were cleaning up the Gulf…
Newsletter
Online Gambling, Orcs on Wall Street and the Chimera of Green Jobs
Congress continues to discuss a plan that would legalize online gambling in all fifty states. The government is on the prowl…
Blog
Friday Regulation Roundup
Arizona spends $1,250,000 to save 250 squirrels, plus more.
Op-Eds
Obama’s Actions Prevent Timely Clean-Up By U.S. Allies
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that … possess some of the world’s most…
Op-Eds
Obama Blocks Louisiana, Foreign Allies from Oil Spill Clean-Up
The Obama Administration recently used red tape to force Louisiana to stop using 16 barges that were cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico…
Newsletter
Financial Reform, Hurricane Season and Bank Fees
Congress continues negotiations on a major financial reform bill. Florida Governor Charlie Christ vetoes a bill that would have allowed Florida insurance companies to build…
Blog
Congress Destroys Free Checking Accounts by Blocking Overdraft Fees for the Irresponsible
Banks can afford to offer free checking accounts with no minimum balance, to responsible people, only because they can charge overdraft fees to irresponsible people. …
Blog
Mordor Looks For More Wealth For Its Orcs
John Gapper has a very good column in the Financial Times today. He issues a timely warning that governments are on the prowl, looking…
Op-Eds
The New King of Detroit
Yesterday, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) named Bob King as its new president. Does this mean a change in direction for one of…
Op-Eds
Bad Idea: Congress Blocks Checking Overdraft Fees
Banks can afford to offer free checking accounts with no minimum balance, to responsible people, only because they can charge overdraft fees to irresponsible…
Cable Fax
FCC Releases Title II Broadband NOI for Comment
News Release
Center-Right Groups Protest Durbin ‘Interchange Fee’ Amendment Pushing Through Price Controls and Benefitting Big Retailers
Washington, D.C., June 17, 2010 – A coalition of 15 free-market and conservative groups are calling on Congress to reject credit and debit card…
News Release
FCC’s Destructive Inquiry Demands Congressional Action
Reactions by Competitive Enterprise Institute telecom policy analysts Ryan Radia and Wayne Crews on the Federal Communications Commission's Notice of Inquiry on broadband regulatory classification.
Letters
No Place for Corporate Welfare in Financial Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF As leaders of groups representing millions of Americans that comprise a Center-Right Coalition, we oppose price controls in…
Cablefax
FCC Releases Title II Broadband NOI for Comment
Cablefax discusses Ryan Radia and Wayne Crews's comments on the FCC Title II Broadband NOI. Reaction to this vote was immediate. Competitive Enterprise Institute…
Blog
America’s Failed Domestic Ethanol Policy
I had a piece in yesterday’s Washington Times critiquing U.S. ethanol policy. My main points: Price subsidies are generally bad–they encourage overconsumption and distort…
Blog
Obama Uses Oil Spill to Push Failed Energy Policies
In his speech last night, President Obama used the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to push his failed energy policies, such…
Blog
Choosing individual liberty is no gamble.
On June 1st the Oregonian published an opinion piece by the editorial staff, titled “Legalization would be a gamble, too” The basis for the…
Blog
Cell Phone Cancer Scare Refuses to Die
Some people are scared that cell phones cause brain tumors. There are enough of these bedwetters that San Francisco just passed a new law requiring…
Letters
Coalition Letter Against Durbin Interchange Fee Price Control Amendment to Financial Reform Bill
Full Document Available in PDF As leaders of groups representing millions of Americans that comprise a Center-Right Coalition, we oppose price controls in…
Study
A Drought of Reason and Investigation
An Examination and Critique of the Center for Immigration Studies’ “A Drought of Summer Jobs”…
Cablefax
Chris Horner on Obama Energy Policy
CEI's Senior Fellow Chris Horner explains the problems with President Obama's energy policies.
Blog
Financial “Reform” Bill Engages in Racial Engineering, While Ignoring Corrupt Mortgage Giants
Congress and the Obama administration refused to do anything about the corrupt government-sponsored mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, even though administration…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 142: Ladies’ Night
Ladies’ night bar specials are illegal in Minnesota. They are unfair gender discrimination, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.
Blog
Dewey v. Volkswagen, Water Ingress Settlement objection
The Dewey v. Volkswagen settlement where attorneys are asking for over $23 million for recovering an $8 million reimbursement fund for a small subset…
Blog
FL property insurance: turning a blind eye is not reform
While deregulation is always a good thing, we shouldn’t be fooled into believing that the recent news that Florida’s office of insurance regulation has…
Newsletter
EPA Disapproval, Oil Spill Politics and Ethanol Technology
Last week, the Senate rejected Lisa Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval against the EPA. President Obama has refused offers from several European countries to help clean…
Blog
EPA Overreach
I have an article in the Washington Times today about the EPA’s new status as a rogue agency. It begins: The Senate undermined its…
Cablefax
The Senate’s Global-Warming Circus
The Senate undermined its constitutional role last week with a vote that allows the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean…
Comment
Upcoming Supreme Court Decisions in Sarbanes-Oxley Case
Full Document Available in PDF The Supreme Court is expected to hand down its decision soon in a major case involving…
Blog
My article: “Purveying Pig Flu Panic at the Post”
“Panic is what we want,” Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum wrote last May of swine flu. “Panic is good,” she said, also labeling the disease…
Blog
Obama Blocked Clean Up of BP Oil Spill by Friendly Countries; International Assistance Blocked by Regulations Obama Had The Authority To Waive
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of the…
Blog
Brava, Sen. Murkowski
Last Thursday, by a vote of 53-47, the Senate rejected S.J.Res.26, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval to overturn EPA’s endangerment rule. Although Sen.
Blog
Obama Wants Taxpayers to Cough Up $50 Billion To Bail Out Public-Employee Unions
President Obama now wants Congress to spend $50 billion to keep state governments from laying off government employees. In essence, this is a bailout…
Newsletter
Nuclear Power, AmeriCorps Fraud, and Climate Change ‘Denial’
The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future has drawn public ire for their decisions regarding nuclear power. President Obama is…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 141: Mandatory Fire Sprinklers
Politicians love it when housing prices go up. That's why Cumberland, Maryland is mulling requiring all new homes to install fire sprinkler systems. Cost: $3,000-$9,000…
Cablefax
Most Green Jobs Went to Foreign Firms (Letter to the Editor)
It is incredible that the federal government spent billions of dollars on so-called "green jobs" without having any definition of what a green…
Cablefax
Corporate Catfight Over Payment-Card Fees
Cablefax
Cap-And-Trade Prospects Dimmer Than Ever
Sen. Lisa Murkowski scored a political victory last week even though she fell short by four votes of achieving a legislative victory.
Human Events
Movie Star Misses Mark on Mining
Movie stars with advocacy agendas are a menace to society. Their charisma, looks, and access to a mass audience make them natural persuaders, but…
Human Events
Ending the Ethanol Experiment
Human Events
The Obama Window
Oh, dear. Politico reports that the president will make another push for his central planning repackaged as a “green economy” in a national address…
Human Events
Obama Refuses to Waive Law to Allow Foreign Help With Oil Spill
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of…
Blog
CEI Weekly: Senate Defends EPA Power Grab
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features the vote in the Senate on the Murkowski resolution that…
Blog
Obama Fires Inspector General Who Uncovered Fraud, and Honors Defrauder Instead
Earlier, President Obama fired the inspector general for the AmeriCorps program after he uncovered fraud by Obama crony Kevin Johnson. (Johnson did not…
Newsletter
EPA Politics, Federal Courts and Chemical Safety
The Senate fails to pass Lisa Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval against the EPA. The Senate Judiciary Committee approves Obama’s nomination…
Blog
“‘Denialism’ has no place in scientific debate,” my letter in Nature Medicine
The key sentence in the letter is this, “‘Denialist’ is an ad hominem argument, the meaning of which is defined entirely by the user,…
Human Events
Action Needed Now to Stop EPA Power Grab
I wrote this morning in the American Spectator about how tight the vote is on Senator Murkowski’s bid to stop the…
Blog
AIG Bailout Had “Poisonous” Effect, Bailout Oversight Panel Says
“American International Group Inc.’s bailout had a ‘poisonous’ effect on the U.S. financial system because it demonstrated the government would protect Wall Street firms from…
Blog
Judiciary Committee Votes to Promote Judge Who Made Excuses for Roadside Strangler, Claiming His “Sexual Sadism” Was a “Mitigating Factor”
On a party-line vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee has approved President Obama’s promotion of a federal judge who tried to block the execution…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 140: Plastic
“Plastics are the future,” a pushy relative told a young Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. Was he giving career advice -- or a warning?…
Blog
No, It’s Not About Oil; Besides, Oil Is Good!
It is a measure of the weakness of the case against Sen. Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval (S.J.Res.26) that opponents keep trying to change the subject.
Blog
Senator Kerry – Wrong on Iran
Senator Kerry just said during the debate on SJRes 26, the “Murkowski resolution” to disapprove EPA’s rule relating to greenhouse gas regulation that the USA…
Blog
No, Sen. Durbin, Choice Not Between Real Science and Political Science
Sen. Durbin claims S.J.Res.26 presents the Senate a choice between “real science” and “political science.” Not by a country mile. See my previous posts on…
Blog
More Demagoguery from Sen. Boxer
Sen. Boxer now compares Sen. Murkowski’s resolution to an attempt to repeal the Surgeon General’s famous report in 1964 linking cigarette smoking to cancer. She…
Blog
CEI in the News for June 10, 2010
Blog
Sen. Boxer’s Demagoguery Knows No Bounds
Sen. Boxer (D-Calif.) is now speaking against the Murkowski resolution (S.J.Res.26). Her demagoguery knows no bounds. She asks us to imagine a hundred Senators, who are not…
Newsletter
Murkowski v. EPA, Big Labor and Debit Card Fees
The Senate will vote today on Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gasses under the Clean Air Act. Arkansas…
Blog
Auto Dealers Demolish White House/Auto Alliance Rationale for Opposing Murkowski Resolution
Today, the Senate will debate and vote on S.J.Res.26, Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval to overturn the legal force and effect of EPA’s…
Blog
Coupon settlement in DC approved in Envision EMI case
“Some 15,000 students paid between $2,380 and $2,729 to attend” 2009 inauguration conferences organized by Envision EMI, which class action attorneys claimed, quite plausibly,…
News Release
FreedomAction.org: Senate Democrats Vote to ‘Turn Out the Lights on America’
Washington, D.C., June, 10, 2010 – The Senate today defeated by a vote of 47 to 53 the Murkowski Resolution of Disapproval that would stop…
Human Events
BP is Asking for its Punishment – Literally
Tim Carney has a column at the Washington Examiner detailing BP’s lobbying influence, which begs the following history lesson and first-hand account for voters,…
Human Events
Let Michigan Insurance Consumers Tailor Auto Coverage
Imagine you live in a town where anyone who dines out is required to buy a $200 bottle of champagne with their meal. That…
Human Events
Halter’s Loss a Major Blow for Big Labor
Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter’s failure to win his state’s Democratic nomination was a crushing defeat for organized labor, which went all-out…
Human Events
Say no to New Green Deal (Letter to the Editor)
Holger Krahmer was right to criticize green jobs as a scam ("Green New Deal is a raw deal for the U.S.," Commentary, Monday). "Green…
Human Events
America’s Nuclear Future Must Involve the Public
Things have not looked so good for nuclear power since the dawn of the Atomic Age. The public is more accepting of the potential…
Letters
DISCLOSE Act Coalition Letter
Full Document Available in PDF We write on behalf of the millions of taxpayers and concerned citizens represented by our respective…
Blog
BP Supported Obama Stimulus Package, Global Warming Bill, and Corporate Welfare; BP Bankrolled Obama Campaign
Columnist Tim Carney notes that BP, responsible for the massive oil spill, is “a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s…
Blog
Halter’s Loss a Major Blow for Big Labor
Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter’s failure to win his state’s Democratic nomination is a crushing defeat for organized labor, which went all-out in…
Newsletter
EPA’s Global Warming Plans, Debit Card Fees and Alcohol Energy Drinks
The Senate will vote this week on Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to block the EPA’s proposed global warming regulations. California State Senator Jenny Oropeza has introduced…
Human Events
The “Say Anything” Power Grab
So. The White House sent EPA chief Lisa Jackson over to HuffPo to slam (smear?) the Murkowski resolution set to be voted on in…
Human Events
BP’s Disturbingly Close Ties to Obama Administration
Columnist Tim Carney notes that BP, responsible for the massive oil spill, is “a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s…
Blog
LibertyWeek 96: Donut Day Disobedience
Blog
Explaining Free Trade in Under Three Minutes
Watch Tom Palmer explain free trade in under three minutes.
Blog
Statement of Marlo Lewis on S.J.Res.26, Sen. Murkowski’s resolution to overturn EPA’s endangerment finding
On Thursday (June 10, 2010), the Senate will vote on Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval (S.J.Res.26) to overturn the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s…
Newsletter
Ethanol, Amtrak and Auto Insurance
New global warming legislation contains subsidies for ethanol production. Amtrak, which loses money annually, is now embroiled in legal troubles. State governments take an increasingly…
Human Events
Let Michigan Insurance Consumers Tailor Coverage
Imagine you live in a town where anyone who dines out is required to buy a $200 bottle of champagne with their meal. That…
Human Events
Senate to Vote on Obama’s Power Grab
On Thursday, the Senate will vote on S.J.Res.26, a resolution to block EPA from usurping powers never delegated to it by Congress. Failure means…
News Release
American Economy at Stake in Senate Global Warming Vote
Washington, D.C., June 8, 2010 – On Thursday, the U.S. Senate will vote on a resolution to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from ‘enacting’…
American Spectator
Our Hero Barbara Boxer
We've spent a lot of time and, well, energy warning against costly carbon controls, yet we must admit the fruits of our earnest labors…
Blog
Global-Warming Bill Contains Ethanol Subsidies, Which Cause Famine, Hunger, Food Riots, and Political Unrest
People across the world “are being battered by surging food prices that are dragging more people into poverty, fueling political tensions and forcing some to…
Newsletter
BP, the Supreme Court on Corporate Accounting and Eliot Spitzer on CNN
Many are pointing to the BP oil spill as proof of the failure of free market capitalism. The Supreme Court is expected to soon hand…
Blog
Cy pres bill in Ohio House
I’ve previously written about the problem of cy pres, charitable donations used to expand the apparent value of class action settlements that often serve…
American Spectator
Cuff ‘Em
Overturning EPA’s endangerment finding is a constitutional imperative. Unless stopped, EPA will be in a position to determine the stringency of…
American Spectator
Tapping the Well of Freedom
When the Deepwater Horizon first started gushing oil, many considered the incident an example of private enterprise having no regard for the environment. However,…
American Spectator
Peekaboo! I See You…Acting Unconstitutionally
During the next two weeks, the Supreme Court will rule on a case that, if decided correctly, will bring relief to small businesses all…
American Spectator
Accounting Regulatory Failures
American Spectator
Fat Cats Feed on Durbin’s Fee Change
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin never tires of making a show of going after "fat cats," but a recent measure of his could better…
Blog
Obama Uses BP Oil Spill to Push Corporate-Welfare-Filled Global Warming Bill That BP Once Lobbied For
Talk about chutzpah. President Obama, the biggest recipient of campaign cash from BP, is using BP’s oil spill to push for a global…
Blog
Government-Funded Journalism is More Dangerous Than Corporate-Funded Journalism
The following is part of a conversation I had with a journalist friend (who shall remain unnamed) on the future of the journalism industry, and…
Blog
CEI Weekly: How Deregulation Can Curb Terrorism
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features Iain Murray's article in the American Spectator arguing for reform…
Blog
Media Give Disgraced Politician Eliot Spitzer a Soapbox to Lecture the Public
Eliot Spitzer, who was forced out as Governor of New York after paying prostitutes tens of thousands of dollars and then violating federal finance laws…
Blog
Friday Regulation Roundup
$300,000 of stimulus money to pay for floating toilets, plus more.
Blog
Today’s the Day
Today is National Donut Day. Ordinarily, this would be just another cute calendar event. But nowadays we’re bombarded by government proposals…
American Spectator
UVA’s Defense of Michael Mann: Back Off, He’s a Scientist!
The University of Virginia has filed a petition to set aside civil investigative demands (CIDs) issued to it by the Commonwealth’s attorney general,…
Bastiat Institute
Internet Gambling Regs in Effect…Now
Bastiat Institute
Time to set Amtrak free
For almost 40 years, Amtrak has been a burden on American taxpayers. It has a record of inefficiency, incompetence and overspending. Now we can…
News Release
Institute Calls for Civil Disobedience on National Donut Day
Washington, D.C., June 4, 2010—The Competitive Enterprise Institute today urged Americans to turn National Donut Day into a day of protest against growing government…