Decades of regulatory barriers, including restrictive zoning, burdensome permits, and other forms of red tape, have made housing less accessible for millions of Americans. Reducing these obstacles would give people more choices and strengthen communities. A freer housing market empowers individuals and supports the ability to build stabler and more fulfilling lives.
Featured Posts
National Review
The Affordability Crisis Hits Air-Conditioning
Do you think groceries, gasoline, medications, utility bills, and other necessities are too expensive? Consider yourself very lucky if you don’t have to buy…
New America
The ROAD to Housing: Easing the Housing Supply
The biggest housing bill in decades was passed into law in July. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act is a bipartisan, omnibus legislation…
Blog
Pre-approved plans can speed up housing without compromising health and safety
Housing affordability has renewed interest in removing unnecessary barriers to homebuilding. While much of the discussion has centered on land use and zoning regulations…
Search Posts
National Review
The Affordability Crisis Hits Air-Conditioning
Do you think groceries, gasoline, medications, utility bills, and other necessities are too expensive? Consider yourself very lucky if you don’t have to buy…
New America
The ROAD to Housing: Easing the Housing Supply
The biggest housing bill in decades was passed into law in July. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act is a bipartisan, omnibus legislation…
Blog
Pre-approved plans can speed up housing without compromising health and safety
Housing affordability has renewed interest in removing unnecessary barriers to homebuilding. While much of the discussion has centered on land use and zoning regulations…
Washington Examiner
It took 410 days to build the Empire State Building. Today, the EPA wouldn’t even pass the blueprint
When Congress gets back from its August recess, bipartisan permitting reform talks are expected to continue. There’s no reason…
Comment
CEI Comments on DOE’s Proposed Appliance Standards Process Rule
I. Introduction The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a policy and analysis organization committed to advancing the principles of free markets and limited…
Blog
Third-party reviewers expand permitting capacity without expanding government
Housing permitting reform has become one of the few housing policies to attract support across the political spectrum. States as politically diverse as…
Study
Permitting Reform for a Freer and More Prosperous Nation
Contents Special Advisors The Importance of Permitting Reform Part 1: 11 Principles for Permitting Reform Part 2: Statute-by-Statute Analysis for Permitting…
Blog
The ROAD to Housing Act’s Moving to Work expansion still misses the bigger housing issue
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is Congress’s most sweeping housing legislation in years. As I previously covered, the legislation deserves…
Blog
Time’s up: Why housing permits need a shot clock
Governments routinely impose deadlines on businesses and individuals. Miss a tax filing deadline or fail to renew a license on time, and you face…
Blog
How permitting is a hidden tax on housing
Imagine being a housing developer so entangled in permits, legal challenges, and environmental reviews that it takes five decades to have a housing project…
Blog
Mamdani’s road to housing hell is paved with rent freezes
As housing affordability becomes increasingly elusive, there are few things more politically alluring than telling voters their rent will not increase. It was a…
Blog
The deregulatory de novo pony in the housing bill
Ronald Reagan once told a story about an optimistic boy placed in a room filled with “quite a quantity of what they clean…
Blog
A road to housing: Two green lights and a few wrong turns
Following Senate passage by an overwhelming bipartisan vote and amid efforts to expedite House consideration, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act…
Blog
Affordable manufactured housing versus unaffordable climate regulations
The Biden administration had a field day piling on one costly climate-related regulation after another, not knowing – or caring – that affordability would…
Blog
HUD and CFPB help housing by restoring free speech
Thanks to the commendable actions of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), April has been…
The Mortgage Note
Federal Court Rejects Costly Green Housing Policy
The Biden administration’s obsession with climate change has contributed to the housing affordability challenges Americans face today, and there are many harmful green…
Blog
FAR too restrictive: Time to repeal floor area ratio limits
In cities across the world, fights over housing affordability come down to a simple question: how much can be built on a single lot?…
Blog
End minimum parking requirements and let the housing market drive
It may sound counterintuitive, but some significant housing policy is tucked away in the parking sections of local zoning codes. A minimum parking requirement…
Blog
The Senate housing bill’s road to socialism
In the last week of February, I expressed hope that members of Congress would “embrace free-market proposals to advance opportunities in the housing…
National Review
House Passes Bill Pushing Back on Federal Appliance Meddling
They’re the regulations that literally hit home, and rarely in a good way. The Department of Energy sets energy efficiency standards for…
Blog
Minimum lot sizes, maximum costs
When Americans think about the housing affordability debate, they tend to picture cranes, lumber prices, or mortgage interest rates. It is certainly important to…
Blog
Politicians should push deregulatory initiatives – not investor limits – to boost housing affordability
Both President Trump and Democrats in Congress seem to blame the high costs of housing on certain groups of real estate investors and to…
Blog
House to consider two bills that would place limits on federal appliance meddling
It is time for Congress to place limits on costly and intrusive federal meddling in home appliances. Two House bills coming up for a…
Blog
Cut the steel, cut the cost: Why Congress is right to scrap the chassis mandate
If buying a home in the US feels more expensive, that is not merely your imagination. A Harvard University study found that national single-family…
News Release
Housing bill aids affordability through deregulation
Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by 390-9 the bipartisan Housing for the 21st Century Act. CEI scholars highlight the bill’s…
Blog
Greener housing is costlier housing
There are many policy ideas for addressing rising housing costs, ranging from good ones like tax code changes that bring more homes onto…
Fox News
Trump successfully turns off crazy Biden era regulations on your home appliances
President Donald Trump has sharply diverged from his predecessor on nearly every issue, perhaps most of all concerning federal home appliance regulations. The Biden…
News Release
Trump ban on institutional investors will harm housing affordability
President Trump today called for a government ban on “large institutional investors” purchasing single-family homes. While the ban may be aimed at making…
Blog
CEI study says it’s time to unplug federal appliance regulations
Stoves, air conditioners, ceiling fans, water heaters, light fixtures, refrigerators, washing machines, furnaces, dishwashers, and more – nearly everything that plugs in or fires…
News Release
Report: Government regulations on household appliances increase costs, worsen performance
A new Competitive Enterprise Institute report explains how needless government regulations have made everyday household appliances cost more and perform worse. “Appliance regulations…
Study
Free the Appliances!
Introduction The Department of Energy’s (DOE) appliance efficiency standards program has been in place for decades, subjecting nearly every major home appliance to multiple…
Blog
A bad court decision on furnace regulations strengthens the case for a legislative fix
On November 4, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit handed down a decision that is bad news for millions…
Blog
The war on gas stoves is not over – but the Trump administration is fighting back
The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced that it is rescinding federal grants for changes to state and local building codes that would discourage…
Blog
EPA proposed rule cools down costly air conditioner regulation
The Biden administration inflicted many bad appliance regulations on homeowners, but the costliest of them all was an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule…
WSJ Opinion
How to Beat the High Cost of Cooling
President Trump doesn’t hide his dislike of federal appliance regulations, from water-stingy shower heads that he says make it difficult “to take care of…
Comment
In Defense of Consumer Choice: CEI Supports DOE’s Withdrawal of Overreaching Regulation on Miscellaneous Refrigeration Products
Department of Energy: Energy Conservation Program: Proposed Withdrawal of Determination of Miscellaneous Refrigeration Products as a Covered Consumer Product Notice of Proposed Withdrawal…
Fox News
Trump’s Energy Department is taking back our home appliances from berserk bureaucrats
In quite possibly the sharpest regulatory U-turn thus far in 2025, the Trump Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing to roll back home appliance…
News Release
DOE adopts CEI view on appliance water and energy limits
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released new rules on appliance energy and water limits Friday that agreed with the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (…
The New York Times
Make Dishwashers Great Again?
The New York Times cited CEI’s expert on the appliance industry “Federal limits on water and energy use have made appliances slower…
News Release
Trump executive order restores consumer choice for home appliances
In 2018, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) petitioned the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to adopt regulations allowing dishwashers that complete a full…
Blog
Trump is right to target showerheads, but he’ll need Congress to finish the job
President Trump is taking another pro-consumer step, this time on showerheads. His April 9th executive order, Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads, reinstates…
News Release
Senate votes to repeal Biden rule against water heaters
Today the U.S. Senate voted on a joint resolution to repeal a Biden-era Energy Department rule imposing unwarranted energy efficiency restrictions on consumer…
Blog
Senate should support S.J.Res.4 repealing Biden’s anti-consumer water heater regulation
The Biden administration gave us far too many anti-consumer appliance regulations, and some of the worst were ones supported by manufacturers angling to create…
Fox News
Biden’s leftover regulations will decide your next light bulb unless Trump stops them
Americans have shown a real dislike for the wave of federal regulations targeting home appliances. Even more infuriating is the fact that…
News Release
Congress passes resolution repealing Biden energy rule against freezers, walk-in coolers: CEI statement
Congress successfully passed a resolution repealing a Biden Energy Department rule that would have imposed needless restrictions on walk-in coolers and freezers. CEI energy…
Blog
Trump cancels Biden’s heat pump crisis
It isn’t easy figuring out the single most ridiculous Biden administration climate policy, but its declaration that electric heat pumps are critical to…
City Journal
Home Appliance Regulations Are Out of Control
President Trump hates federal home appliance regulations as much as President Biden loved them. And now Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has taken the…
Blog
Congressional Review Act can cancel three bad appliance regs
The Congressional Review Act (CRA) is the easiest way for Congress to block some of the bad regulations enacted under the Biden administration. A…
Blog
Trump sketches out a battle plan on housing affordability
Housing affordability has become a front burner issue, and President Trump spared no time setting out his plan targeting the government regulations and red…
Op-Eds
Affordable Housing – How Donald Trump Could Accomplish More Than Jimmy Carter
The passing of Jimmy Carter sparked much praise for his post-presidency good deeds, particularly his decades of volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity building…
Blog
Gas stoves are great
The recent approval of a ballot initiative in Washington state to protect natural gas access for consumers has me ruminating on the gas stove issue.
Blog
Another last-minute Biden appliance regulation – this time tankless water heaters
At this point, it is easier to name the major home appliances that have not been hit with bad regulations from the Biden administration…
Fox News
Six household appliances that have taken heat from Biden’s crackdown on regulations
Fox News cited CEI’s expert on product quality “What these mandates – what these standards do is enforce a level of efficiency…
Blog
CEI submits comments on latest Biden administration dishwasher proposal
The Biden administration’s efforts targeting gas stoves received a lot of attention in 2023 and sparked an angry public backlash, but many other…
Comment
Department of Energy, Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Dishwashers. Comments of the Competitive Enterprise Institute
Comments of the Competitive Enterprise Institute I. SUMMARY The Notification of Proposed Confirmation of Withdrawal and Request for Comment (proposal) seeks…
Fox News
Biden-Harris still hate your gas stove, you won’t believe how much
The Biden-Harris administration insists that gas stoves are not being targeted. Don’t believe a word of it. This kitchen controversy…
Comment
CEI Comments on Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Refrigerators, Freezers, and Refrigerator-Freezers
Department of Energy, Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Refrigerators, Freezers, and Refrigerator-Freezers; Notification of Data Availability and Request for Comment…
Fox News
5 insane Biden-Harris appliance regulations heading your way
It took an angry public reaction against proposed federal restrictions on gas stoves to get the Biden-Harris administration regulators to reconsider. But…
Human Progress
Appliances Contribute to Human Progress—but Regulations Threaten Their Affordability
Summary: Home appliances have drastically improved human life, from preventing heat-related deaths with air conditioning to making household tasks more efficient with washing machines…
Blog
Regulatory relief, not subsidies, can make housing more affordable
Housing affordability has become a major issue – and for good reason given skyrocketing home prices and high mortgage rates coming at a time…
Blog
Junk science behind federal appliance regs about to get junkier
The Biden-Harris administration has embarked on a wave of anti-consumer home appliance regulations over the last several years. Each was justified in part by…
The Daily Caller
Higher-Income Americans Have Been Cashing In On Green Home Subsidies Under Biden
The Daily Caller cites CEI’s expert on the Inflation Reduction Act “It is clear that the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act…
DC Journal
Rent Control Idea Undermines Affordable Housing in the Long Run
The Biden administration has called for imposing federal limits on rent increases. This is a profoundly misguided policy from an economic perspective, and since it…
News Release
Biden Rent Control Idea is Bad Housing Policy
President Biden today issued a call to impose federal limits on rent increases nationwide. That idea would have many drawbacks, not just for…
Blog
Rent control doesn’t work. Increase housing supply instead.
President Biden will soon announce a proposed 5 percent cap on rent increases. Rent control is one of the most ridiculed economic policies…
The Washington Examiner
Inflation has spread to your air conditioner, and federal regulations are the cause
Fourth of July kicks off the hottest two-month stretch of the year in the United States, and for much of the nation,…
Blog
21 cents worth of stupid in the Department of Energy’s latest stove proposal
The good news is that the Biden Department of Energy’s (DOE) latest proposed efficiency regulation for residential stoves is considerably less damaging to…
Comment
CEI Comment on Department of Energy Proposed Stove Efficiency Regulation
Docket Number EERE-2014-ST-STD-000589 FR 11,548 and 89 FR 11,434 I. Summary The Department of Energy (DOE) is permitted to set energy efficiency standards…
Blog
Freddie Mac second mortgage funding could foment financial crisis
The 2008 mortgage meltdown and financial crisis never fails to be invoked whenever there is any pushback to excessive financial regulation. Progressives regularly bring…
News Release
Senate poised to vote on resolution that would end Department of Energy’s radical furnace rule
Today, the Senate is set to vote on a resolution that would overturn the Department of Energy’s radical furnace rule, preventing price increases and…
Wall Street Journal
Biden Is Coming for Your Air Conditioner
Your next new home air conditioner could set you back $12,000 or more, with federal regulators contributing to the rising cost of staying cool.
Blog
House bill fights appliance regulatory overreach
The American people face a wave of new federal appliance regulations, and all of them are bad. But this week, the House of Representatives…
Blog
Department of Energy is coming after our light bulbs – again
We have already said goodbye to the incandescent light bulb, thanks to federal regulations. Will its replacement be next? Department of Energy (DOE)…
Blog
The Biden administration once again puts its climate agenda above home affordability
The Biden administration talks a good game about making housing more affordable, but in truth it is actively boosting costs through expensive climate…
Blog
Two cheers for the gas stove protections in FY 2024 spending bill
There is a provision in the recently-passed appropriations bill prohibiting any federal funds from being used by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)…
Fox News
Why gas stove owners should still be worried
In response to a strong public backlash, the Biden administration Department of Energy (DOE) has decided to backtrack on its proposed new energy efficiency regulation of…
Blog
Congress takes on anti-consumer furnace regulation
CEI suggested five bad appliance regulations Congress should reject with the Congressional Review Act last November. Now, Congress has taken up the first…
Blog
Federal courts to the rescue on bad appliance regulations?
The US Supreme Court recently heard a case that could impact how much deference judges give to regulatory agencies. To be certain, any…
News Release
Biden Energy Department Unveils New Rules Against Residential Cooking Appliances
Today the U.S. Energy Department unveiled its final rule mandating energy efficiency standards for residential cooking appliances such as gas stoves.
Fox News
Biden anti-consumer crusade targets 4 more types of appliances
2023 was an unusually bad year for appliance regulations, and future years won’t be much better unless Congress finds a way to…
Blog
Wall Street Journal reports consumer frustrations with over-regulated appliances
2023 is turning into the year of bad appliance regulations. Since January, CEI has submitted comments critical of proposed Department of Energy (DOE)…
Blog
Biden admin appliance regulations are bad for small businesses and homeowners
Department of Energy (DOE) bureaucrats are making 2023 a bad year for homeowners with an avalanche of proposed and final appliance regulations impacting stoves,…
Blog
5 bad appliance regulations Congress should reject with the Congressional Review Act
This is the third article in CEI’s Special Briefing Series: Defending the Personal Energy Choices of Americans. It isn’t just gas stoves. The Biden…
Blog
New EPA air conditioner regulation certain to get homeowners heated up
Another Friday news dump, another bad Biden administration appliance regulation slipped in ahead of the weekend. Last Friday it was one targeting air conditioners…
Blog
House Republicans try defunding the home appliance regulators
This year began with a powerful consumer backlash to the suggestion from a Biden administration official that gas stoves may be banned, followed…
Blog
Biden administration finalizes costly and unnecessary furnace regulations
There’s a lot of consumer anger over pending federal regulations targeting stoves, but Biden administration bureaucrats are also going after dishwashers, refrigerators,…
Blog
Now the Biden administration is targeting your next water heater
As discussed in recent CEI testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the Biden administration Department of Energy (DOE) has proposed an…
Comment
Comments on the Department of Energy’s Proposed Energy Conservation Standards for Residential Water Heaters
I. INTRODUCTION The undersigned free market and consumer organizations have a longstanding interest in bringing to light the deleterious consequences of federal regulations,…
Blog
The Regulatory Assault on Gas Stoves – And Consumer Freedom
This is the debut article in CEI’s Special Briefing Series: Defending the Personal Energy Choices of Americans. Gas stoves provide…
Testimony
CEI’s Ben Lieberman testifies before Energy and Commerce Committee on DOE efficiency standards for home appliances
Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security U.S. House of Representatives 2123…
Blog
How the Inflation Reduction Act takes aim at gas stoves
The American people have reacted very negatively to potential federal regulations targeting natural gas stoves in favor of electric versions. But beyond regulations,…
Fox News
Biden turns the lights out on yet another one of your home’s essentials
Don’t expect to see incandescent light bulbs for sale anymore. They are now an illegal product thanks to a Biden administration regulation,…
Fox News
Biden’s new crackdown on another appliance will be worse than gas stoves
We have seen a big consumer backlash in 2023 over Biden administration bureaucrats targeting gas stoves, but that could pale in comparison…
Blog
CEI leads coalition opposing crazy regulatory crackdown on dishwashers
The American public remains angry over federal meddling in gas stoves – for good reason, given that not one but two Biden administration regulatory…
Human Progress
Three Cheers for Refrigeration—and Four, Once Everyone Has It
It is difficult to overstate the benefits of refrigeration. Even more than its technological sibling air conditioning, refrigeration has dramatically improved public health and…
Blog
Local zoning boards are not democracy
At the Competitive Enterprise Institute, we have often discussed the need to reform zoning, permitting, and building regulations, so I was…
News Release
U.S. House passes legislation to preserve consumer choice in kitchen appliances
The U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 1615 today, a bill that would protect Americans ability to choose the type of stove they want…
Blog
War over gas stoves heats up with two House votes today
President Biden’s administration has declared war on gas stoves, but today the House of Representatives is fighting back Two Biden administration agencies, the…
Blog
5 myths about Joe Biden’s crackdown on gas stoves
The Biden administration’s craziest idea yet? The assault on gas stoves. Second craziest? The lame attempts to deny it. Now that two…
Blog
Why is the debt ceiling deal helping to ban gas stoves?
When Biden-appointed Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) commissioner Richard Trumka, Jr. announced last January that his agency was investigating gas stoves and…