There is also the constant conflating of climate policy with climate science in order to make subjective and ideological policy choices seem as if the science dictates those choices. But science informs policy, it does not provide objective answers to policy questions. However, those who disagree with the climate policy choices favored by extremists are labeled with offensive terms like deniers.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute rejects climate policies that assume Americans and humans all over the world must sacrifice their quality of living, be guilted into radical life changes, and give up on improving their standard of living in the name of fighting climate change. Even if the United States no longer existed, there would be little to no meaningful impact on global temperatures. Therefore, the myriad of extreme policies are all costs and no gain.
Using the force of government to impose policies that severely hurt humans today, especially the poor, without any meaningful benefits is not just foolish but indefensible. And when such policies are advanced, the proponents of those policies should always be expected to explain how their policy choices would meaningfully affect global temperatures. When they are unable to provide answers, which will be the case, their policy choices should be quickly dismissed.
The best way to deal with any genuine climate concerns is to remove government obstacles that hinder innovation, reduce wealth, and undermine prosperity and opportunity. Economic liberty benefits Americans generally, and at the same time, it is also the world’s best climate policy. After all, the wealthiest and most prosperous nations are far more likely to develop solutions to such problems than other nations.
Featured Posts
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Trump administration targets implausible emissions scenarios
I submitted comments last week in support of the US Global Change Research Program’s proposal to amend the 2023 Fifth US National…
Blog
Europe’s heat wave tragically demonstrates the need for air conditioning
Western European nations take a very different approach from the United States on many issues — immigration, defense, welfare, energy, health care, and more.
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RCP8.5: Climate establishment officially retires extreme scenario (Part II)
Part I can be found here. Victim of its own success? Perhaps to save face or even boast of being right…
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Op-Eds
Greenpeace Seeks Greener Pastures
Recent reportage in one of Europe’s greenest publications, “The Ecologist”, cites internal admissions by the pressure group Greenpeace that it needs a face-saving exit strategy…
Op-Eds
Global Warming not a Cost-effective Target
There’s a scientific consensus, we’re often told, that global warming is a problem—despite the opinion of qualified experts ranging from the <?xml:namespace prefix…
CEI Planet
CEI Planet: September 2004
Full Document Available in PDF Tech Regulation Done Right, by Braden Cox…
News Release
The Summer of Scientifically Inconvenient Hurricanes
Contact for Interviews: Richard Morrison, 202-331-2273 Washington, D.C., September 30, 2004—Recent hurricane activity in Florida and throughout the southeastern U.S. has prompted much speculation as…
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Why the United States Should Remove Its Signature from the Kyoto Protocol
Full Document Available in PDF On…
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Russia Expected to Announce on Kyoto Protocol
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 Washington, D.C.,…
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Kyotonomics Debunked
Pincas Jawetz’s argument that the United States economy would benefit by following the path of the Kyoto Protocol’s few adherents (Letters, Tuesday) is logically and…
News Release
California CO2 Regulation: Unscientific, Unlawful, Unaffordable, and Unsafe, CEI Warns
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273…
Newsletter
Vol VIII, No 19
Politics Blair Puts Global Warming at Top of International Agenda In a major speech delivered September 14, British Prime Minister Tony…
Op-Eds
Journalistic Balancing Act?
A new study published in the journal Global Environmental Change (see here for a press report) argues that, by adhering to the…
News Release
Sen. McCain Holds Junk Science Climate Hearing
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273…
Op-Eds
Global Jockeying over Global Warming
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's call for America to ratify the Kyoto Protocol this week tacitly acknowledges that Russian ratification, thought by then-Commissioner…
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Eco-Fascism Going Global
Full text available as pdf<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> We can say this for environmental…
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Vol. VIII, No. 18
Politics Media, Environmentalists Pounce on New Administration Report The “annual” report of the U. S. Climate Change Science Program…
Op-Eds
July Was Coldest Month in Four Years
The data show that the global temperature was 0.21°C (about 0.38°F) below the 20-year average for July. This followed on from a June…
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International Atomic Agency Regrets Lack of Progress on Kyoto
The relevant section reads, “From the viewpoint of the IAEA, ‘no progress was made in 2003 on the Kyoto Protocol, which would help…
Newsletter
Vol VIII, No 17
Wallstrom Replaced as EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom of Sweden has been promoted in…
News Release
Climate Alarmist Alert!
Contact for Interviews: Marlo Lewis, 202.669.6693 Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252 <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =…
Op-Eds
Climate Consensus: Scarce resources should be spent where they’ll do the most good.
There's a scientific consensus, we're often told, that global warming is a problem—despite the opinion of qualified experts ranging from the <?xml:namespace prefix =…
Op-Eds
Finding the Truth about Kyoto in a Lie by Bill Clinton
The old joke goes, “How can you tell a politician is lying?” to which the answer is, “His lips are moving.” At this…
News Release
Costly New Climate Rules for California Cars
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Marlo Lewis, 202.669.6693 Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252…
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No-Second-Thoughts “Science”: A Noticeable Difference
Two recent findings, one right next to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., the other as far away as is possible…
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Vol. VIII, No 16
Politics <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Kerry Campaign Issues Energy Plan …
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McCain-Lieberman: A Regulatory Pandora’s Box
Full Document Available in PDF Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) recently compared his push…
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Calculating Kyoto’s Costs
Your Sunday edition cites politicians on both sides of the Atlantic weighing in on the U.S. presidential election by complaining of President Bush's…
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. 15
Politics Attorneys General Sue Five Big Electric Utilities The Attorneys General of California, Connecticut, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and…
News Release
State AGs Attempt to Hijack Climate Policy
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 …
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No 14
Politics Second Senate Vote on Kyoto-Lite Bill is Delayed Again The attempt by Senators Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Az.)…
Op-Eds
Energy-saving Light Bulbs Initially Dim Enthusiasm
Op-Eds
Junk Law: The CO2 Litigation of the State Attorneys General
On October 23, 2003, 12 states, three cities, and 14 advocacy groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for rejecting an…
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. 12
Politics Cost Estimates Keep Rising on Lieberman-McCain Climate Bill A new study by Charles River Associates provides a fuller picture of…
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. 11
The watered-down version of the Climate Stewardship Act that Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and John McCain (R-Az.) offered on the Senate floor last fall…
Op-Eds
The Day After Rupert Murdoch Takes Over America
Fresh off the contrived controversy of Michael Moore accusing Disney of censorship for refusing to distribute his anti-Bush celluloid screed comes another politically charged film.
Op-Eds
Rude Awakening for Hybrid Dreamers
Hybrid-electric cars are the flavor of the moment for environmental campaigners. Activists like Arianna Huffington, Larry David and Leonardo DiCaprio urge us all…
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. 10
Politics McCain Vows Another Vote on Energy Rationing Bill At a May 6 hearing, Senator John McCain (R-Az.) vowed…
Op-Eds
Here Comes Tomorrow
The fatuous new special-effects extravaganza The Day After Tomorrow (which, judging from the plot summaries so far released might just as well have…
News Release
Are Global Warming Disasters Really On the Way?
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 …
Op-Eds
Adolf Lomborg?
Back in 1990, Mike Godwin, then legal counsel for the advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, noted that online discussions on the various…
Newsletter
Vol VIII, No. 9
Politics IPCC Chair Trots Out Hitler Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…
Op-Eds
The City that Never Gets a Break: Anti-Capitalism at the Movies
In the upcoming movie The Day After Tomorrow, German director Roland Emmerich lets the glaciers roll over Manhattan following an abrupt change in climate. It’s…
Op-Eds
Et Tu, Edison?
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the association of shareholder-owned electric power companies, opposes…
Op-Eds
What Commissioner Wallstrom Doesn’t Want You to Hear
Faced with a crumbling façade of unity in the EU over the Kyoto protocol, Margot Wallstrom, EU Commissioner responsible for the environment, spoke to the…
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. 8
Politics Candidate Kerry on Kyoto and Global Warming The campaign web site of Senator John Kerry (D—Mass.) only briefly mentions what…
News Release
Global Warming Web Site Offers News and Information
Contact: Fran Smith, (202) 467-5809, [email protected]<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns…
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The Day After Never
Full Document Available in PDF In the new movie The Day After Tomorrow, German…
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The Skeptical Environmentalist Vindicated
Full Document Available in PDF…
CEI Planet
April/May Issue of CEI’s Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF “The Day After Never,”…
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No 7
Politics Connecticut Bill Aims at Slowing State Economy The Connecticut state legislature is currently considering SB.595, which aims to reduce the…
News Release
Failed Global Warming Policy Returns to Congress
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 …
Op-Eds
Kyoto Contingencies Confound Commissioner
Commissioner Margot Wallstrom insists that the Kyoto Protocol is “the only existing effective international framework for combating global warming.” This questionable argument –…
Staff & Scholars
Sam Kazman
Counsel Emeritus
- Antitrust
- Automobiles and Roads
- Banking and Finance
Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
Ben Lieberman
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Consumer Freedom
- Energy
Jacob Tomasulo
Policy Analyst
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
Kevin D. Williamson
Writer in Residence
- Climate
- Energy and Environment