The Competitive Enterprise Institute advocates for free market reforms that ensure abundant and affordable energy and better protect our environment. CEI has been instrumental in fighting decades of climate alarmism and anti-energy policies that constrict energy supplies, raise prices, and stoke unjustified pessimism about human adaptive capabilities.
Conclusions of CEI’s research and analysis include: Abundant, affordable energy is a blessing underpinning the unprecedented improvements of the past two centuries in life expectancy, health, standards of living, food and nutrition, and industrial production. The climate catastrophe narrative is based on global climate models that inflate greenhouse gas emission scenarios and have been falsified by the past four decades of temperature data. The real costs of proposed solutions to the alleged crisis hugely exceed their hypothetical benefits.
Coalitions led by CEI were instrumental in defeating ratification of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, defeating enactment of the 2009 Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, and convincing President Trump to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate treaty.
Energy and Environment Issue Areas
Featured Posts
NOTUS
EPA Eases Limits on ‘Super Pollutants,’ Claiming It Will Lower Food Prices
The Trump administration is loosening restrictions on “super pollutant” chemicals that are highly potent greenhouse gases, claiming that allowing their increased use will drive down…
Blog
Enemy of affordability: The radical climate agenda
For decades, some lawmakers and other proponents of radical climate policies have given little consideration to the adverse effects on consumers and the poor. Often,…
Blog
House subcommittee to hold hearing on forest management bills
On Thursday, May 21, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold a hearing on several bills, many of which would make…
Studies
The ESA Amendments Act of 2025 Will Help Species
In 1973, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was enacted into law. Since that time, more than half a century ago, the law has been unsuccessful…
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 rounds…
Laboratories of Bureaucracy
Introduction The United States faces significant challenges in modernizing its infrastructure and meeting evolving energy needs. One of the obstacles is the complex and time-consuming…
Blog
A federal gas tax holiday won’t do much to ease the pain at the pump
The best policy ideas for making gasoline more affordable – faster permitting for domestic drilling and pipeline construction alongside fewer regulations targeting refineries or dictating…
Fly the (climate) friendly skies? Delta is having second thoughts
Delta Air Lines has quietly backed away from its pledge to use 10 percent sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) by 2030, citing the lack…
House expected to consider common sense Clean Air Act permitting bills
Any serious federal permitting reform effort must address the massive obstacles created by the Clean Air Act (CAA).This week, the House is expected to address…
News
The ESA Amendments Act Includes Important Reforms Aimed at Conserving Species and Protecting Property Rights – CEI Paper
There are simple, common-sense reforms to help ensure that the Endangered Species Act (ESA), enacted in 1973, does a better job of conserving species according to a new report from…
Pacific Legal Foundation
Energy producers join lawsuit supporting repeal of EPA’s 2009 greenhouse gas rule
Washington, DC; March 19, 2026: A group of energy producers filed a motion today to join a lawsuit to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to repeal its 2009 Greenhouse Gas…
Environmental problems deserve free market solutions: Our Words
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to publish CEI President Kent Lassman’s lecture entitled The Environment, the Law, Markets, and the Path…
Op-Eds
Real Clear Energy
Quibbling Over Carbon Metrics: Senator Cramer’s Ill-Advised, Unauthorized Carbon Tax Trojan Horse
The U.S. may stumble into a carbon taxed future due to a provision furtively inserted into the House committee report accompanying the energy and water…
The Daily Signal
A Sneaky Effort to Undermine the Fight Against Carbon Taxes
President Donald Trump has shown bold leadership by rejecting the radical global climate agenda. But now some lawmakers, including a handful of Republicans, have set…
Human Progress
Olive Oil Prices Are Falling—So Should Olive Oil Climate Hysteria
Summary: Olive oil prices spiked in 2023 amid heat and drought in Spain, prompting widespread claims that climate change was driving the industry into crisis.
Staff & Scholars
Daren Bakst
Director of the Center for Energy and Environment and Senior Fellow
- Energy and Environment
- Lands and Wildlife
- Property Rights
Ben Lieberman
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Consumer Freedom
- Energy
Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
Myron Ebell
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
Paige Lambermont
Research Fellow
- Capitalism and Free Enterprise
- Energy
- Energy and Environment