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Overcoming Regulatory Barriers to Serving the Underserved
How many people are pushed to the fringes of the banking system by Dodd-Frank regulations? How will the CFPB's new regulations prevent the underserved from…
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Fighting for Our Right to Party at WhiskeyFest
Don’t be afraid of sticking up for your favorite things – there’s always someone looking for the weakest target to tax, regulate, and restrict. If…
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Pension Liabilities Bite in the Present, Too
Politicians should close underfunded public employee pension funds to new enrollees and offer new hires other options, such as defined contribution or hybrid plans.
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Joint Employer Deception from Democrats
Democrats in Congress need to be honest about their opposition to restoring a commonsense joint employer definition.
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House Members Repeat False Claims about Passenger Facility Charges
The current Senate Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill is a step forward on modernizing airport financing and governance in the U.S.
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Financial Transactions Tax Not the Answer for Africa
French President Emmanuel Macron is advocating for a Europe-wide tax on financial transactions to fund more foreign aid for Africa.
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Congress Should Roll Back New Payday Loan Rule
The hysteria in Washington around the release of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s final short-term, small-dollar loan rule has been immense.
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EPA Proposes Clean Power Plan Repeal Rule
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt will soon release the agency’s proposed rule to repeal the Clean Power Plan.
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Past-Due Nomination of EPA’s Number Two Official Is Welcome News
President Donald J. Trump nominated Andrew R. Wheeler to be deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency on October 5th. Wheeler has worked since…
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New Study on Self-Dealing at the IPCC
According to a new study published this week in the journal Scientometrics, an in-depth analysis of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s AR5 report…
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CEI Calls on EPA to Reconsider More-Stringent Fuel Economy Standards
On Thursday, October 5, the Competitive Enterprise Institute submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding its Final Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) of greenhouse…
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New Research, Same Story: Government Housing Policy Doesn’t Work
The Urban Institute today published an updated report, titled Nine Charts about Wealth Inequality in America. As part of the project, the authors highlight…
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Small Business Needs Relief from Federal ‘Joint Employer’ Scheme
Today, the Save Local Business Act was approved by the House Education and Workforce Committee, a great step forward from clearing up the confusion caused…
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Limiting Federal Control over State Policy: Christie v. N.C.A.A.
Our friend Damon Root over at Reason has a round-up of three important cases that will be decided in the Supreme Court’s upcoming term. One…
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Executive Order Disbands National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations
President Trump has signed an executive order disbanding the National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations.
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A Good START for Automated Vehicle Technology that Should Extend to Trucking
Last week, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) introduced the American Vision for Safer Transportation Through Advancement of Revolutionary…
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Cut Red Tape and Save Lives by Regulating Tobacco Alternatives Based on Risk
At the beginning of the year, President Trump issued an Executive Order aimed at cutting red tape. The order directs federal agencies to set…
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Public Health Community, Heal Thyself
We owe a debt of gratitude to the public health movement. Without its research and advocacy, we would not have learned to stop the spread…
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Bank Regulatory Relief in Time for White House ‘Deregulation Day’
Happy Deregulation Day! Today, the Trump administration is celebrating the benefits of an America liberated from red tape. As I mentioned in a blog…
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End Federal Pressure for Racial Quotas in Special Education
No child should be barred based on her race from a public education program needed to address her learning disabilities or educational deficits. But the…
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Red Tape Rollback: Trump Least-Regulatory President Since Reagan
The Trump mode has been to regulate bureaucrats rather than the public. New, large-scale regulation has largely stopped in 2017, and where it hasn’t, new…
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President Trump Outlines ‘American Model’ Tax Code
On Friday, September 29, President Trump outlined his tax reform package in a speech to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) in Washington, D.C.
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Celebrate National Coffee Day
In the modern American workplace, many people see coffee as essential to productivity and for socializing around the coffee machine, which makes it unsurprising that…
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Bank Regulator Report: ‘Arbitration Rule’ on Credit Cards Will Raise Costs on Consumers
A new report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency refutes the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s argument that its Arbitration Rule will have…
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What White House ‘Deregulation Day’ Can Do for Finance and Banking
On Monday the Trump Administration is launching the first ever Deregulation Day, highlighting the benefits of an America liberated from bureaucracy.
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Taxes, Welfare, and Economic Inequality
At a time when comprehensive tax reform is dominating news headlines, concerns about income inequality and the distributional effects of future tax changes are again…
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Senate Introduces Regulatory Relief for Regional Banks
Removing burdensome restrictions on regional and community banks will ensure financial stability while helping local communities prosper.
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Nine Years on from the Financial Crisis and We’re No Safer
The real cause of the 2007-08 financial crisis was overwhelmingly the product of government intervention.
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Bailout Mentality Persists in International Banking Despite Reform Attempts
Europe, in an effort to ensure that the next banking crisis would not end in a taxpayer bailout, created bail-in rules and started performing stress…
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No Reason for Denying Puerto Rico a Jones Act Waiver
The Trump administration should immediately grant a Jones Act waiver to Puerto Rico and Congress should fully repeal the maritime cabotage prohibition.
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Fat-Cat Attorneys’ Bogus Arguments on Arbitration Rule
Fat cat class-action attorneys and their apologists are getting desperate.
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Coupon Settlements: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
Coupon awards are notoriously bad for consumers in class action settlements. So bad that Congress targeted such relief, among other class action abuses, in the…
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Shining a Light on Bureaucratic ‘Dark Matter’
Federal agencies produce guidance documents, proclamations, memoranda, bulletins, circulars, letters—all with the force of the law but with no oversight from Congress.
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Crafting a Sensible Overtime Rule
It is important that the Trump administration avoid the pitfalls the Obama Department of Labor fell into on overtime regulation.
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Sen. Reed’s Harmful and Foolish Opposition to Arbitration in Consumer Finance Disputes
Sen. Reed and his allies are using hard cases to put the interests of trial lawyers above the interests of a free people.
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Education Department Withdraws “Dear Colleague” Letter Restricting Student and Faculty Rights
The Education Department recently withdrew two famous examples of regulatory “dark matter” issued during the Obama administration.
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Sen. Graham’s Perplexing Pivot to a Carbon Tax
Lindsey Graham's enthusiasm for a carbon tax may be less popular than he imagines.
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White House Officials Raise New Hopes that U.S. Will Stay in Paris Climate Treaty
The Wall Street Journal set off a kerfuffle early Saturday evening, September 16, when it sent out an email news alert headlined, “Trump Administration…
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CEI Comments: Volcker Rule Has Failed to Make Financial System More Stable
CEI submitted comments on the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) proposed revision to the Volcker Rule, a federal regulation that bans…
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Might Australian Financial Regulators Finally Embrace Greater Competition?
Over the past few weeks, I have been rather critical of the state of financial regulation in Australia. A banking scandal earlier this month revealed…
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Human Freedom Is Key to African Prosperity
Earlier this week at a presentation to the Cato Institute, authors Greg Mills, Jeffrey Herbst, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Dickie Davis, discussed their new book…
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Google Employees Hear Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
Everyone, especially Silicon Valley's tech elite, needs to understand the human value of fossil fuels.
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The Never-Ending Title IX Investigation
Los Angeles lawyer Ken White notes that a professor is being “investigated for writing about being investigated for writing about being investigated.” This Title…
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One Solution to the CFPB’s Problems: Pass the Financial CHOICE Act
My new paper, The Case against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Unconstitutionally Structured and Harmful to Consumers, which is out today, makes the case…
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Debit Cards Fee Limits Have Big Impact on Payday Loans and Overdraft Charges
Seven years on from the inception of the Durbin Amendment, it has pushed nearly a million consumers out of formal financial services by raising the…
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Poll: Americans Don’t Trust Big Bank Regulators
Bank regulators should foster an environment of financial competition, where institutions compete on the merits of their products and bear their own risks, instead of…
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Will Government Union Gravy Train Come to an End?
No worker should be forced to financially support an organization against his or her will. For too long, government employee unions have possessed the power…
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Ending the Myth of ‘Too Much’ Bank Competition
It’s time to let the idea that too much competition is bad for financial stability finally die.
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Is Global Warming Causing More Hurricanes?
Are this year’s round of hurricanes evidence that we’re entering an age of climate catastrophe? Recent commentary and analysis from CEI experts suggests not.
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Former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman: Partisan of EPA Overreach
Gov. Whitman supported Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 and was in favor of the Obama administration's so-called Clean Power Plan.
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Renewable Energy Update: Rolling Blackouts Down Under
Australia’s green energy policies are under siege and California has been stymied in its grid power grab.
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House Passes Riders to Block Social Cost of Carbon and EPA Methane Rule
The House of Representatives this week finished voting on amendments to the Interior-EPA appropriations bill.
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Civil Rights Experts Issue Report on Unjustified Federal Meddling in Education
The Obama administration attempted to micromanage educational institutions by imposing new rules that never went through the legally-prescribed rulemaking process.
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CEI Offers Recommendations to Improve Senate’s AV START Act
The draft legislation is another welcome early step from the federal government on self-driving vehicles.
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Beacon Center Nominated for Templeton Freedom Award
Congrats to the hard-working folks of the Beacon Center of Tennessee for their “Tackle the Hall Tax” advocacy campaign…
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Ohio Drug Price Initiative Gives Taxpayer Money to Unnecessary Lawyers
Lawyers and allied interest groups have long enriched themselves at taxpayers’ expense. But usually, it has been by bringing lawsuits, not defending them.
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Missouri’s $5 Billion State Pension Underfunding Shows Results of Faulty Accounting
Government pension managers should calculate the state contribution using a more realistic rate-of-return estimate.
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Washington Post Profile on CEI Climate Work Misses Half the Story
The Post’s story was weeks in the making, and although it gets some things right, the story continually injects presumptions and bias, resulting in an…
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Conservatives & Libertarians to GOP: Time to Evolve on Marijuana Policy
A bill introduced by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) will prevent the Department of Justice from using taxpayer dollars to prosecute medical marijuana…
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Clinton’s ‘What Happened’ Latest Evidence that Climate Mitigation Policy Is Political Poison
Climate change policy is opposed by healthy bipartisan majorities.
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NHTSA Releases Improved Federal Automated Driving System Guidance
The Department of Transportation is putting its money where its mouth is in preventing overregulation of automated driving systems.
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Media Hype ‘Extreme’ Weather Events
Every week, the mainstream news media have some new weather phenomenon to entertain their viewers.
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Congress Moves on Financial Reform Bills
Nearly a decade on from the 2007-08 financial crisis, it is clear that the federal regulatory regime is not working.
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Net Neutrality Rules Threaten Internet Free Speech
The supposed good intentions of net neutrality advocates don’t justify the real world harm of those regulations. …
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Germany Expected to Miss Carbon Dioxide Reduction Goals
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has pledged to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2020.
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House Moves on Interior-EPA Appropriations Bill with Policy Amendments
The House of Representatives this week considered an appropriations bill that combines eight separate spending bills for FY 2018.
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Fuzzy Math behind Xcel’s New ‘Colorado Energy Plan’
The Colorado utility is claiming that unnecessarily retiring cheap power and then replacing it with new expensive power would somehow save ratepayers money.
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Senate Appropriations Committee Disappoints Again on Climate Funding
The Senate Appropriations Committee this week voted 16 to 14 to restore funding for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN…
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Study Challenges Warming Link to Syrian Civil War
There is no clear and reliable evidence that anthropogenic climate change was a factor in Syria’s pre-civil war drought…
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American Conservative Union Statement Wrong on Air Traffic Control Reform
Spinning off air traffic control responsibilities into a nongovernmental nonprofit will save taxpayers more than $10 billion per year.
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The Equifax Breach and Regulation
In the Equifax breach, regulation is a likely contributor to the problem. It is probably not a good solution.
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Ten Years of Analysis and Advocacy for Affordable Energy
Here’s to ten more years of expanding production and supplies of affordable energy for all.
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Why Should Millennials Want to Shrink Government Bureaucracy?
Free markets and limited government are for every generation.
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Does Global Warming Increase Motor Vehicle Fatalities?
A new study by retired Yale University epidemiologist Leon Robertson blames global warming for a 7 percent increase in U.S. road deaths in 2015 compared…
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CEI Film ‘I, Whiskey: The Human Spirit’ on Tour
"I, Whiskey" is back on the road this fall with three festivals in California.
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Education Secretary Takes Aim at Federal College Discipline Rules
The Education Department may withdraw legal guidance regarding sexual assault and harassment on colleges campuses.
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Fuel Economy Regulations Threaten Vehicle Safety
In 1992 a federal appeals court found that CAFE undercuts vehicle safety, by causing cars to be made smaller and light in order to meet…
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Rideshare Drivers’ Future at Stake in Seattle
Recent events represent an existential threat to ridesharing in Seattle, and put drivers, passengers, and communities at risk of serious harm.
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CEI Leads Coalition Urging Senators to Preserve Railroad Deregulation
The Senate Commerce Committee leadership should respect the indisputable gains of deregulation.
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Common Sense Trumps Absurd Bottled Water Ban
Cheers to the Trump Administration for taking this common sense stand on bottled water in national parks.
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5 Ways ‘Consumer Protection’ Hurts Consumers
Financial regulation does not have to be a zero-sum trade-off between consumers and businesses.
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SELF DRIVE Act to Face House Floor Vote
Congress needs to move forward on self-driving cars.
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Climate Alarmists Exploit Hurricane Harvey to Score Political Points
Global warming alarmists exploit every weather disaster, and so it is no surprise that they are out in full force for Hurricane Harvey.
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Economic Growth Rose to 3 Percent in Second Quarter of 2017
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3 percent in the second quarter. That was significantly higher than the 2.7 percent expected.
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Fix Payday Loans with More Competition
Last week, I wrote about the devastating impact that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) new regulation on short-term, small-dollar loans could have upon…
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Why Africa Needs Economic Freedom
That is the topic I presented earlier this week as part of the panel discussion, Perspectives on African Development, at the Department of State’s…
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Who Benefits from FCC’s “No-Blocking” Rule?
The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) 2015 Open Internet Order included a “no-blocking” rule that prohibits Internet service providers (ISPs) from charging content providers a fee…
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White House Suspends EEO-1 Form that Cost Businesses $400 Million to Gather Wage Data
On August 29, the White House suspended a burdensome reporting requirement for employers that would have cost them $400 million while yielding information…
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Texas Court Strikes Down Costly Obama Overtime Rule
Today, the Eastern Texas District Court struck down the Obama administration’s misguided overtime rule. This is a crucial victory for the rule of law and…
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Subsidy Forces Florida Taxpayers to Pay for Union Work
Most hardworking Americans would be shocked to learn that public employees at all levels of government—federal, state, and local—conduct union business that is totally unrelated…
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Happy 25th to the State Policy Network
The State Policy Network is an impressive organization that helps improve the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations and nonprofit leaders at the state level across the…
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Why Economic Freedom Is the Best Weapon against Poverty
This blog post is adapted from a speech delivered to the Foreign Service Institute at the United States Department of State on August 29, 2017.
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Conservative Air Traffic Control Reform Opponents Continue Campaign of Falsehoods
Recently, I noted how corporate jet lobby National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) had attempted to trot out “Hero of the Hudson” Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger…
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Applying Big Data Techniques, New Study Finds Most Recent Warming Could Be Natural
Recent research indicates that the earth's atmosphere is less sensitive to increases in carbon dioxide than previously assumed.
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New Film ‘Food Evolution’ Confronts Confusion on GMO Crops
Genetic modification of food crops is a valuable scientific process that has already helped feed countless millions of people around the world and provided breathtaking humanitarian…
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Smart Move to Repeal Department of Interior ‘Valuation Rule’ on Minerals
The repeal ensures that coal leasing and sales can continue while the agency develops and adopts a new rule informed by public comment.
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President’s Summer Policy Update
When it comes to the institutions of capitalism, the advance of human welfare, and liberty, we are here because we love the work.
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NYT Pesticide Exposé Only Exposes Foolish Reporting
EPA decision not to ban chlorpyrifos was based on sound science.
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Congress Expands Investigation into Inappropriate Federal Employee Political Activity
U.S. Postal Service employees and union engaged in a “systematic violation” of the Hatch Act, a law placing limits on political activity performed by federal…
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Federal Payday Loan Rule Would Devastate Vulnerable Consumers
It is clear then that the CFPB has no legitimate basis for regulating most payday loans out of existence.