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Worker Freedom Extends to Missouri
Today, Missouri became the 28th state to enact right-to-work legislation, which prohibits forced payment of union dues as a condition of employment.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
With the new administration’s regulatory freeze now in full effect, there were just 8 proposed new regulations published last week. This was the lowest figure…
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The Super Bowl: Not Just for Football Fans
The Super Bowl is perennially one of the most-watched TV events around the world, so it’s no surprise that millions of people find reasons to…
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False Claim about Nominee Gorsuch Highlights Need for Rigorous Fact-Checking
People will believe silly things when it fits their ideological preconceptions, as in the case this week of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
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Pence Shows Interest in Scott Walker-Style Collective Bargaining Reform
Recent conversations between Vice President Pence and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker signal interest in collective bargaining reform for federal employees.
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Encouraging Job Report Suggests Deregulation Will Get America Back to Work
New employment numbers suggest that employers are starting to respond to the promise of substantial deregulation by the new administration.
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Susette Kelo Eminent Domain Battle Hits Big Screen in ‘Little Pink House’
The film Little Pink House, a dramatization of Connecticut homeowner Susette Kelo’s fight against eminent domain abuse, had its world premiere last night at the…
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Trump Not Bound by Obama Volkswagen Settlement with EPA
The judicial settlement which was reached between Volkswagen and the U.S. Department of Justice last October infringes on President Trump’s Article II authority.
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Smart Move for White House to Push Back on Fiduciary Rule, Dodd-Frank
President Trump’s forthcoming executive actions—expected to halt the Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule and call for review of Dodd-Frank regulations—will greatly benefit middle-class investors, entrepreneurs,…
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Nestlé, Other Businesses Flee California
Poor economic policy is negatively impacting job prospects in the Golden State.
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Assessing Prospects for Bipartisan Consensus on Regulatory Reform
The federal government doesn’t merely spend $4 trillion a year, it directs the private sector to spend and otherwise re-purposes enormous resources.
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Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. Employees Set Record Straight on Working for Andy Puzder
This week employees of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. described their experiences working for CKE Restaurants, where Secretary of Labor-designate Andrew Puzder is CEO.
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Congress Should Nullify Obama’s Unlawful and Wasteful Methane Rule
This week, the U.S. House will consider a Congressional Review Act joint resolution of disapproval to overturn the Bureau of Land Management’s methane capture rule.
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Public Interest Groups Urge Update of Email Privacy Protections
This week, CEI joined dozens of public interest groups, trade associations, and companies in sending a letter to Congress in support of the…
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Congress Puts Dept. of Labor’s Blacklisting Rule in Crosshairs
Congress is taking a first step in rolling back parts of the Obama administration’s costly red-tape put out by the Department of Labor.
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Congress Should Eliminate SEC Rule that Discloses Company Information to Foreign Governments
Congress should pass a joint resolution of disapproval and block the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rule relating to ‘‘Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers.”…
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Congress Should Eliminate Obama’s Stream Protection Rule
Congress should eliminate the Department of Interior’s harmful Stream Protection Rule. …
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Scrap Proposition 65, California’s Unscientific Chemical Safety Law
California lawmakers should oppose the effort to list glyphosate as a carcinogen under the state's chemical safety and risk law, originally adopted by voters as…
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White House Should Revisit Volkswagen Settlement with EPA
A coalition of free-market groups ask President Trump to investigate the VW emissions settlement with the EPA.
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Trump ‘2-for-1’ Executive Order Could Save Lives
Many federal regulations harm health and safety, so President Trump’s executive order requiring “agencies to revoke two regulations for every new rule they want to issue”…
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Senate Should Disregard Spurious Public Health Charges against EPA Nominee Pruitt
The Senate should disregard accusations that EPA Administrator-designate Scott Pruitt is somehow responsible for asthma rates in his home state of Oklahoma.
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‘One In, Two Out’: Trump’s Executive Order on New Regulations
President Trump's latest executive order on regulatory reform could be an important step in the right direction for reining in government red tape.
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Free-Market Groups Urge Senate to Confirm Labor Nominee Puzder
A coalition of 17 free-market groups is urging the Senate to confirm Andrew Puzder as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
For the next few weeks, the Federal Register will likely have fewer pages and regulations than usual.
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Update on Pruitt Recusal Kerfuffle
During the January 18 Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee hearing on Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s nomination to be Environmental Protection Agency…
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CEI Salt Study Leaves a Bad Taste in Anti-Salt Advocates’ Mouths
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Harry Potter and the City Council Chambers
The MacIver Institute documents the temptation of local governments to spend taxpayer money on “economic development” projects and tourist events.
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Blockchain Business Council to Help Secure Property Rights for World’s Poor
The launch of the Global Blockchain Business Council at the 2017 World Economic Forum is good news for the world’s venture capitalists and poor alike.
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Union Membership Hits Rock Bottom
Union membership is on the decline, in part, because many labor unions have become reliant on government to ease union organizing rather than providing value…
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Climate Scientist Judith Curry Files Legal Brief Supporting CEI’s Free Speech Rights
Climate scientist Judith Curry today filed an amicus brief with the D.C. Court of Appeals supporting the petitions for full-court review of a three-judge panel’s…
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Senate Democrats Cite Bogus Jobs Figures on ‘Infrastructure’ Plan
Senate Democrats unveiled a $1 trillion infrastructure blueprint, claiming the eventual legislation would create 15 million jobs over 10 years. The plan stretches the meaning…
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Burns Night Cheers
Tonight, friends at home and abroad gather both for Burns Night and the International I, Whiskey Watch Party to salute the individuals— freedom fighters, innovators,…
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Minimum Prices Have Consumer Benefits: Contact Lens Case Study
Allowing competing manufacturers to decide for themselves how to influence how their products are sold at retail is the best way to promote innovation and,…
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Trump Reverses Obama Rejection of Keystone XL Pipeline
President Trump today signed executive orders aimed at reviving the Keystone XL Pipeline and rescuing the Dakota Access Pipeline from death by regulatory delay.
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Time to Shake up Salt-Only Approach to Hypertension
What you’ve heard about salt and hypertension may not be right. If we truly hope to conquer this disease, we must pay attention to all…
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Pruitt Cool under Fire at Senate Confirmation Hearing
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Scott Pruitt to be Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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Trump Moves on Trade: TPP and NAFTA
The decisions to end the failed TPP experiment and perhaps pull the plug on NAFTA may not be the disaster for free trade they seem…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The final pre-inauguration Federal Register was 1,464 pages long. A normal day’s edition is roughly 300 pages. Since there is a lag time of a…
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Federal Officials Should Reopen Investigations of Union Activist ‘Worker Centers’
It is certainly time to reinvestigate the issue of “worker centers,” which operate outside of the traditional boundaries of labor law.
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Obama Highway Administration Released Troubling Vehicle Communications Guidance
Last Thursday, the outgoing Obama Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) released its long-awaited guidance document on the deployment of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications.
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Learn Liberty Asks: Are Millennials Actually Lazy?
Jared Meyer, discusses his book "Disinherited: How Washington Is Betraying America’s Young" with Learn Liberty’s Evan Swarztrauber.
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Struggling Fishermen Sue over Cost of Harvest Monitoring
It can be difficult to make one’s living off of the land – or the sea – these days. Federal and state regulations on natural resource…
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DeVos Hearing Generates Misleading Attacks on Civil Liberties Group FIRE
Betsy DeVos, who was recently nominated to be the next Secretary of Education, has been attacked because she and her husband reportedly made donations to a civil-liberties…
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Where Have All the Startups Gone? New Research from eBay and EIG
Recently eBay’s public policy team here in Washington, D.C. presented a fascinating program on economic growth and new business start-ups.
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Wasteful Spending, Minimum Wage Hike Fuel California Budget Deficit
California’s projected budget deficit is rising, but that could have been avoided by curtailing wasteful spending.
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Wyoming Considers Disastrous Sales Tax Proposal
The U.S. Supreme Court made clear in the case of Quill v. North Dakota (1992) that Congress, not the individual states, has the authority to regulate…
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Obama’s Labor Legacy: Overreach and Overregulation
In the past eight years, the Department of Labor has consistently pushed the boundaries of its authority. The agency’s overreach greatly restricted how people work,…
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Vox Begs the Question on Climate Change ‘Lukewarmers’
The key insight of the "lukewarmer" position on climate change is that policy has costs and that these costs can harm human beings just as…
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Overturning FDA’s Vape Ban Could Save Millions of Lives
If confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Price could help save millions of American lives by stopping the Food and Drug Administration’s…
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Tom Price Should Focus on Reversing ‘Mission Creep’ at HHS
If confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Rep. Tom Price should reverse decades of mission creep and refocus federal health agencies on their…
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Transportation Inspector General: FAA Not Prepared for Major Airspace Disruptions
The Federal Aviation Administration’s airspace modernization efforts, known as NextGen, are woefully lacking.
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‘Corporate Campaign’ Deployed against Labor Secretary Nominee Puzder
Democrats, labor unions, and their allies have deployed a coordinated attack against President-elect Donald Trump’s Secretary of Labor nominee, Andrew Puzder.
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Advice for EPA, Part 3: How to Restore Cooperative Federalism
The Environmental Protection Agency can achieve bipartisan environmental improvement by restoring harmony between itself and state governments. …
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‘I, Whiskey’ Honored at Southern Shorts Film Festival
At the Southern Shorts Awards in Roswell, Georgia last weekend, I, Whiskey: The Human Spirit made its big screen debut as one of the top…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
In a mere nine working days, the 2017 Federal Register has nearly reached 5,000 pages; the midnight hour approaches.
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Coalition Defends Reform of Credit Union Lending Rules
A dozen conservative and free-market groups have signed onto a coalition letter to preserve deregulation of credit union lending.
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Union Front Groups Deploy Dishonest Tactics against Nominee Puzder
Pro-union activist groups are pulling out all the stops to derail the nomination of Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, to head the Department of…
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Misleading New Republic Hit on EPA Nominee Scott Pruitt Demonstrates Ignorance of Subject Matter
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Key Omission Undercuts Attempted New York Times Exposé of EPA Nominee Scott Pruitt
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Can Trump, Congress Undo EPA’s Midnight Fuel Economy Regulation?
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Reaction to Reported EPA Fuel Efficiency Rule, Part 1: The Politics of the Matter
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“I, Whiskey” on the Festival Circuit
This weekend the producers of the CEI film "I, Whiskey: The Human Spirit" will be in Roswell, Georgia for the Southern Shorts Film Festival and Awards Presentation…
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New York Times Highlights Minimum Wage Tradeoffs
Minimum wage increases have obvious winners, which is why they are so popular. Their tradeoffs are less obvious.
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Free Market Coalition Supports Scott Pruitt for EPA Administrator
Today more than 20 organizations, in a public letter to members of the Senate, urged confirmation of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as the next…
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Iain Murray Addresses Political Fragmentation in the EU
This afternoon our friends at the Heritage Foundation hosted a fascinating discussion of European politics with CEI Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray.
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Crash Course in Gambling Law for Would-be Attorney General Sessions
Federal law does not ban all online gambling, despite what U.S. Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions has suggested.
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Chamber of Commerce CEO Lays Out 2017 Agenda
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue gave his annual “State of American Business Address” to a packed hall at the Chamber’s H…
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Endangered Species Bee Listing Could Harm Bees, Butterflies, other Pollinators
In the interest of both pollinators and landowners, the incoming Trump Administration needs to advocate and pass serious reforms to the Endangered Species Act.
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Scrutinizing Sen. Carper’s Questions for EPA Nominee Pruitt
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) is unwilling to hold a confirmation hearing on President-elect Trump’s choice for Environmental Protection Agency administrator until the nominee, Oklahoma Attorney…
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A Federal Gift Clause Could Help ‘Drain the Swamp’
If President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are serious about coming through on the campaign promise to “drain the swamp,” it would serve them…
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Questions Senators Should Ask Rex Tillerson
Tillerson is probably the only influential person President-elect Trump would ever nominate as Secretary of State who supports both a carbon tax and the Paris…
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Activist Criticism Again Misses Mark on EPA Nominee Pruitt
It’s implausible to argue that Pruitt’s past acceptance of PAC donations are “unprecedented” for someone overseeing the…
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Regulatory Accountability Act Poised to Bring Dramatic Improvement to Government Rulemaking
If signed into law by the next president, the Regulatory Accountability Act will have a dramatically positive effect on jobs, productivity, innovation, and overall economic…
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13,953 Human Lifetimes Spent Annually on Federal Paperwork (2017 Edition)
The burden of federal government paperwork now takes up 9.778 billion hours a year.
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Environmental Litigation Strategies and Defenses for Trump Era
Environmental litigation groups like the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Center for Biological Diversity will pursue three types of lawsuits over the…
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New York Times Misleads on U.S.-China Renewable Energy Trade
The source of demand for Chinese renewable energy exports are countries, like the U.S. and Europe, that have mandated and subsidized green energy.
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations
The midnight regulatory rush continues, with more than 2,100 Federal Register pages, despite a four-day work week, along with 51 proposed regulations and 52 final…
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Energy & Environmental Policy News: Multimedia Roundup
Observations and analysis on recent energy and environment news by senior fellow William Yeatman.
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Join the ‘I, Whiskey’ International Watch Party
After a successful Virtual Watch Party campaign focused on fans in the United States, we’ve now launched an International Watch Party for our friends around…
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Regulatory Reform in 2017: How Much Do Existing Regulations Cost?
The Regulatory Responsibility for our Economy Act (RREA), sponsored by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), would help fix basic transparency problems with federal regulations.
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Second Round of Advice for EPA: People Are Policy
The incoming Administration should fill lower ranking political appointees at the EPA with officials across a broad spectrum of state environmental programs and legal officers.
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Utah Keeping Amazon Sales Tax Deal Secret
The Utah State Tax Commission refuses to make public the details of the deal reached with Amazon due to what’s been reported as a “confidentiality…
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Learn Liberty’s Lessons from Star Wars
Learn what Star Wars can teach us about limited government and moral responsibility.
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Regulatory Reform in 2017: REINS and the Regulatory Accountability Act
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House Moves on Regulatory Reform, More Votes Coming
Yesterday afternoon the House of Representatives passed the Midnight Rule Relief Act, which would allow Congress to repeal multiple executive branch rules with a single…
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New Congress Needs to Modernize Tech Policy
With respect to tech and telecom, lawmakers should avoid imposing new mandates and prohibitions in response to new technologies that might seem threatening, absent exceptional…
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Clayton Must Work for Both Small and Large Investors at SEC
Jay Clayton, and anyone who goes on to serve on the Commission, must advance the interests of both Main Street investors and entrepreneurs trying to…
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EPA Region 6 Throws Bombs to the Bitter End
Among the Environmental Protection Agency's 10 offices, by far the most aggressive during the Obama administration has been Region 6, which operates out of Dallas…
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Environmental Defense Fund Attack Ad Full of Lies about EPA Nominee Scott Pruitt
The Environmental Defense Fund’s mendacious attack ad on Scott Pruitt demonstrates much that is wrong with the green movement.
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Is It ‘Mission Accomplished’ for the EPA?
Does it make any sense to spend ever greater sums of money for ever fewer environmental benefits? That’s the very fair question that’s been asked…
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This Week in Ridiculous Regulations: 2016 Wrap-Up
The 2016 Federal Register’s record-setting page count ends at 97,110 pages—more than 15,000 pages above the previous record, set in 2010. The difference is more…
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What Paul Ehrlich’s “Eco-Catastrophe!” Tells Us about Climate Change Alarmism
In “Eco-Catastrophe,” the bad guys are “obtuse agriculturists and economists” whose false bill of goods (the green revolution) plunges the globe into anarchy. In real…
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RealClear Radio Hour: The War on Science and the Economy
Check out RealClear Radio Hour’s last episode with free market stalwarts John Tierney and Peter Wallison.
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Trump Administration Will Have Legal Authority to Halt Clean Power Plan
It would not be illegal for President Trump to order the Environmental Protection Agency not to enforce the Clean Power Plan.
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Best of the Blog 2016
Certain topics were especially popular with readers in 2016.
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NRDC Is Wrong: Trump Can Issue Day 1 Executive Order Declaring Clean Power Plan Illegal
The Clean Power Plan in its current form is illegal, and there is no problem with the President issuing an executive order to this effect…
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New Opportunities for a Free Market Veteran
After 23 years Greg Conko, who most recently served as CEI’s Executive Director, has decamped for the other side of the Potomac.
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Libertarianism.org Video Contest Winners
2016 Libertarianism.org Video Contest Winners…
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The 2017 Unconstitutionality Index: 18 Federal Rules for Every Law Congress Passes
Federal agencies in 2016 issued 18 rules and regulations for every law Congress passed.
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Two Recommendations for EPA: 1) Revise, Don’t Repeal; 2) Do Your Job
There is a climate policy that’s even worse than EPA regulations written by Natural Resources Defense Council lobbyists: state torts for injunctive or monetary relief…