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
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…
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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…
Blog
Biden administration wants to make bad clothes washers even worse
The Biden administration started the year by targeting gas stoves and has followed it up with a flood of additional appliance regulations.
Comment
Comments of CEI and Michael Mannino on Dept. of Energy’s Conservation Standards for Residential Clothes Washers
I. SUMMARY The proposed rule would tighten the energy and water efficiency standards for residential clothes washers, despite the fact that the standards currently…
Wall Street Journal
Biden Cracks Down on Gas Stoves—and Much More
Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. fired a shot heard ’round America in January when he informed the public of his agency’s plans for…
Blog
Screw up the dishwashers, save the planet?
The Department of Energy (DOE) proposed more stringent energy and water efficiency standards for dishwashers Friday, despite the fact that the regulations currently…
