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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Congress can end California’s EV mandates
This week, the House is expected to vote on three important Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions of disapproval that would repeal California waivers granted…

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Earth Day is broken—only private conservation can fix it
With this week’s 2025 Earth Day came the usual media and progressive lawmaker fanfare lauding government programs and regulatory solutions to environmental concerns. But…

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Tossing gold bars off the Titanic is just the tip of the IRA iceberg
The Biden Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rushed to dole out billions of taxpayer dollars before President Donald Trump took office. A former Biden EPA official…
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The Environmental Source
NOTE: A new edition of The Environmental Source has been published. The new version of this essential reference book on environmental policy is available in…
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Ultraviolet-B Radiation Fears Overblown
By relying too heavily on a few vocal alarmists, the article “Living under depleted skies” (World, Dec. 20) gave a very misleading impression…
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Science Fiction: Michael Crichton Takes a Novel Approach to Global Warming Alarmism
Michael Crichton's new blockbuster novel, State of Fear, begins with sex, violence, and oceanography. It's that sort of book all the way through,…
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TCS COP 10 Coverage: Inuit All Along
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — On Monday representatives from Iceland held a prime-time event announcing a study…
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TCS COP 10 Coverage: Who’s The Greatest?
BUENOS AIRES — British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Science Advisor Sir David King regularly calls climate change “the greatest threat facing mankind” and…
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TCS COP 10 Coverage: Premature Congratulation
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Buenos Aires — “Post-2012”! is the mantra of thousands of bureaucrats and pressure group advocates meeting…
News Release
CEI Experts to Monitor U.N. Global Warming
Washington, D.C., December 13, 2004—International global warming activists will have CEI sound-science team Myron Ebell, Director of International Environmental Policy, and Ivan Osorio, CEI Editorial…
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A Chilling Tale
We know that nature can kill. What most people don't know is that stupid ideas about nature can kill, too.<?xml:namespace prefix = o…
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Cooler Heads
Politics COP-10 Opens in Buenos Aires with Attacks on US Intransigence As the tenth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention…
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Humans May Double the Risk of Heat Waves
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Margaret Thatcher: A Free Market Environmentalist
Full document available in pdf format <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Tracy Mehan’s account of Margaret…
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Cooler Heads
Politics Putin Signs Kyoto Ratification, Submits Documents to UN Russian President Vladimir Putin finally signed the Kyoto ratification act into law…
News Release
Motion to Censure Myron Ebell
On November 4, CEI Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy Myron Ebell sparked a major controversy in the United Kingdom when, in a BBC…
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Science Loses Some Friends: Francis Crick, Thomas Gold, and Philip Abelson
Full Document Available in PDF The scientific world lost three important figures in recent…
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Climate Report Counters Alarmist Hearings
Contact for Interviews: Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> <?xml:namespace…
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Air Board’s Greenhouse Rule: Raw Deal for Dealers
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> On September 24, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />California’s Air…
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Cooling Blair’s Climate Crusade
Tony Blair is, in a way, as polarizing a figure in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />United Kingdom as President…
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Russia Takes “Final” Step, Again, But Not Really
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> For the third time in a month and fifth time in just…
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The One Percent Solution
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Many of the scientific papers that have contributed to global warming alarmism over…
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No to Kyoto Treaty
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />USA TODAY's editorial fails to make an economic case for U.S. ratification of the Kyoto Protocol (“Global…
Newsletter
Vol VIII, No 21
Politics Howard Victory Keeps Australia Out of Kyoto Protocol Australian Prime Minister…
Op-Eds
Missing in Action
In a <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />US election campaign that has seen the presidential candidates attack each other with great…
Op-Eds
Ebell Responds to Editorial “The Choice on the Environment”
Thursday, October 21, 2004; Page A28 <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The Sept. 27 editorial “The Choice on the Environment”…
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Flights of Fancy
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The current British hysteria over global warming, which has seen party leaders…
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Hockey Stick Reduced to Sawdust
Von Storch et al (ScienceExpress, Sept. 30) first looked at the likelihood of being able to get an accurate climate signal from historical…
News Release
EPA Official Predicts Federal Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 …
Newsletter
Cooler Heads, Vol VIII, No 20
Politics “Forced” Russian Decision Puts Kyoto Protocol on Verge of Ratification Acting contrary to the advice of the country’s top scientific…
Op-Eds
Carbon dioxide is your friend
Jeffrey Sparshott’s otherwise excellent article “Putin Cabinet approves signing of Kyoto protocol” (Business, Friday) unwittingly promotes the alarmist view that carbon dioxide emissions…
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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…
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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…
News Release
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…
Newsletter
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…
Op-Eds
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…
Newsletter
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 –…
CEI Planet
January-February Edition of CEI Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF “The European Constitution Falls Apart,”…
Op-Eds
Our Science Can Beat Up Your Science: Playing Politics with Data.
A new front in the war over “sound science” opened on February 29, with the publication of a Washington Post op-ed by former American…
Op-Eds
The Fog of Warming: Dated Scripts on the Hill.
On Wednesday and for the fourth time in the past two years, John McCain's Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation staged a platform…
Newsletter
Cooler Heads Vol VIII, No 5
Politics Alarmists Allege Pentagon Worried by Global Cooling Although the story broke in Fortune magazine on Jan. 26, it was not…
Op-Eds
The Unthinking in Pursuit of the Unthinkable: Disingenuous global-warming nonsense
When a “scandalous” story breaks in the United States, makes no waves, resurfaces a few weeks later in the left-wing British press, and only then…
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. 4
Politics British Government Continues Attacks on U.S. on Climate Change Following up his attacks on President Bush’s position on climate change…
Op-Eds
Warming Warning off Message in America
The Chief Scientific Adviser to the British Government, Sir David King, was in Washington DC this week trying to persuade America to act on global…
Newsletter
Vol. VIII, No. 3
Politics Illarionov Explains Russian Position on Kyoto Protocol in Washington Andrei Illarionov, chief economic adviser to Russian President Vladimir…
Op-Eds
“Direct Action” The Tactics of Radical Activism: Part 1, How Environmental Groups Use Violent Tactics to Advance their
Full article available as a pdf. <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />July 8, 2000 –Kwajalein Atoll,…
Op-Eds
Extreme Measures
James Hansen, one of the fathers of global warming theory, commented in the online journal Natural Science in September last year, “Emphasis on…
Op-Eds
Higher Energy Tax is the Answer
Sir, Your editorial “Cutting carbon” (January 20) misstates the efficacy of carbon cap-and-trade schemes as “the most cost-effective way of reducing pollution.”<?xml:namespace prefix…
Op-Eds
Time to Move on
No doubt trying to distract attention from the recent Bush-Hitler ad controversy and its sponsorship of an event where B-list celebrities used the F-word to…
Op-Eds
A Clear Mistake
The Clear Skies Initiative, President Bush's big environmental bill targeting power plant emissions, appears to be stalled in Congress. In an effort to…
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December Edition of the Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition:…
Op-Eds
Virtually Extinct
It seems that virtually every news organ in the English language has carried the story of new scientific claims published in Nature magazine that…
Newsletter
Vol VIII, No. 1
Politics News of Kyoto’s Death Spreads The realization that the Kyoto Protocol is as good as dead seems to…
Newsletter
Vol VII, No 25
Politics Little Happens at Gloomy COP-9 The ninth conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-9),…
Op-Eds
An Improved Climate
Every year, environmental alarmists claim we have taken another step on the road to ruin. This year, they claim 2003 was the third-hottest…
Op-Eds
The Green Inquisitor
Op-Eds
New Rules May Give Diesel Vehicles a Needed Boost
The vast majority of Americans are satisfied with cars and sport-utility vehicles powered by gasoline. In contrast to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns…
Op-Eds
The International Green Agenda
Environmental groups were stunned when the cash-strapped Turner Founda-tion—which gave about $28 million to green causes in 2002—announced recently that it would temporarily suspend all…
Newsletter
Vol. VII, No. 24
Politics Energy Department’s Proposal Omits Transferable Credits On November 26, the Department of Energy unveiled its long-awaited proposals to “enhance” the Voluntary Reporting…
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