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
Blog
What’s coming in 2026 for energy and environmental policy
There are many important energy and environmental developments in the works, both in the executive branch and in Congress. The following are two different lists.
Blog
Subcommittee to markup commonsense Clean Air Act bills
Tomorrow, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Environment Subcommittee is scheduled to hold a markup of several Clean Air Act-related bills.NAAQS refers to the…
Blog
Politics over pensions: An ESG report card for proxy voting
Unleashing Prosperity (UP) recently released a timely report, “Putting Politics Over Pensions: The 2025 Unleash Prosperity Report Card on Investment Fund Managers and Proxy…
Studies
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…
End IRA Subsidies Now
Introduction “The first lesson of economics is scarcity,” wrote economist Thomas Sowell. By contrast, “The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson…
Pumping the Brakes on Reform
This report examines Michigan’s recent permitting reforms, highlighting how some productive efforts to enhance accountability and efficiency have largely stalled. While the state took steps…
Blog
Politico’s failed critique of DOE’s climate science report – who’s misleading on hurricanes?
In September, Politico published an article titled “How a major DOE report hides the whole truth about climate change.” In October, I rebutted that…
What permitting reform should and shouldn’t include
Congress is working on bipartisan permitting reform. This is a good sign, but any such efforts need to ensure they deliver genuine permitting reform that…
Trade can aid wildlife recovery, latest global confab should admit
Yesterday was the first day of the 20th meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP20) to The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of…
News
New Interior Department plan to increase offshore lease sales will help lower prices, increase supply – CEI experts
Yesterday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued a Secretary Order that would replace the Biden administration’s 2024–2029 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas…
New EPA and Corps proposed WOTUS rule is a step in the right direction
Today the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released their proposed revisions to the definition of “waters of the United States.”…
Frack to the Future with North Dakota’s permitting success
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a new report highlighting North Dakota’s user-friendly environmental permitting laws. “North Dakota has always been rich with…
Op-Eds
Watts Up With That
Part 2 Hiding the Endangerment Finding’s Systemic Biases – Politico’s Failed Attack on DOE’s Climate Science Report
Part 1 can be found here. Marlo Lewis, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy, Competitive Enterprise Institute Part 2: Allegations and responses The Politico reporters…
Watts Up With That
Hiding the Endangerment Finding’s Systemic Biases – Politico’s Failed Attack on DOE’s Climate Science Report Part 1
Part 2 can be found here. Marlo Lewis, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Energy and Environmental Policy, Competitive Enterprise Institute Politico recently published an article…
National Review
U.N.’s Global Carbon Tax Should Be a Wake-Up Call to Fight International Climate Extremism
The United States should be an international leader in the fight against energy poverty and for energy freedom. Because, as of now, many countries are using…
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