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
![Spam alert! A devastating outlook on the SEC’s final climate disclosure rule](https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/GettyImages-513676272-578x324-c-default.jpg)
Blog
Spam alert! A devastating outlook on the SEC’s final climate disclosure rule
I have a paper out today, exploring the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) landmark finalized climate disclosure rule and the many challenges it…
![Three cheers for House efforts to defund climate-related foreign aid](https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1423404077-578x324-c-default.jpg)
Blog
Three cheers for House efforts to defund climate-related foreign aid
House Republicans should be applauded for introducing an FY 2025 State Department appropriations bill that blocks climate change-related foreign aid. Specifically, the bill wouldn’t…
![When emergency declarations become the emergency](https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/GettyImages-1164751366-578x324-c-default.jpg)
Blog
When emergency declarations become the emergency
Crises and economic shocks have a history of abuse. Few are aware that there are 31 declared and ongoing national emergencies, with some active…
Search Posts
Blog
NHTSA’s Consistent Understanding that California’s Tailpipe GHG Standards Are Unlawful
October 27 is the deadline for submitting final legal briefs to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Union of Concerned Scientists v. National Highway…
Blog
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Calls for Carbon Pricing
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on October 15 proposed a policy statement to (1) “clarify its jurisdiction” over Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) and…
Blog
Supreme Court Nominee Barrett in Senate Testimony Alarms Climate Alarmists
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett was asked repeatedly about her views on climate change at her Senate confirmation hearing this week. Unsurprisingly, her unwillingness…
Blog
Warming Nights, Longer Growing Seasons, and a Greener Planet
Dozens of recent news stories note newly published research showing that night temperatures are rising faster than daytime readings. Despite this “asymmetric” warming, there…
Blog
A Brief Note on Airplane, Clouds, and Global Warming
We recently linked to a new paper by D.S. Lee of Manchester Metropolitan University (U.K.), along with 20 coauthors, on global aviation and climate…
Blog
Students Need More Air Conditioning, Not More Climate Policy
There’s a long and growing list of problems activists blame on climate change, including students’ reduced ability to learn due to hotter classroom temperatures. However,…
Blog
In Debate, Biden Confirms That He Is for and Against the Green New Deal
Climate science and energy policy made a surprise appearance during the first presidential debate on September 29 in Cleveland. Moderator Chris Wallace had not included climate…
Blog
House Oversight Subcommittee Holds Climate Policy Hearing
On September 24, 2020, the House Oversight Subcommittee on Environment held a hearing titled “Climate Change Part IV: Moving Towards a…
Blog
Federally Commissioned Climate Report Defies Reality
Earlier this month, The New York Times reported at length about an ominous report on climate change that was commissioned by the Commodities…
The Washington Examiner
Climate Change Cronyism: Big Businesses Tailor Policy to Benefit Themselves at Your Cost
An association of CEOs of large, U.S.-based corporations has joined the global warming bandwagon, releasing a new policy document, “Addressing Climate…
Blog
Appointment of Climate Realist David Legates at NOAA Sparks Protest by Representatives Grijalva and Huffman
Two Democratic leaders of the House Natural Resources Committee are demanding that the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explain why it hired a “climate…
Blog
Senate Reaches Bipartisan Deal to Raise Air Conditioner Costs
Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee just agreed to a measure that would raise the cost of air conditioning…
Blog
Conservative Carbon Tax: Bad Politics, Bad Policy
A recent article in National Review suggests conservative politicians would be smart to advocate a carbon tax, enabling them to show they care about the…
Blog
California’s Rolling Blackouts Cast Further Doubt on Electric Vehicles’ Future
However, California’s rolling blackouts underscore the difficulties that a massive scaling up of electric vehicles would entail. The problem is that EVs don’t really reduce…
Blog
The Year of the Weeniecane May Be Ending
Every prediction for this year’s Atlantic hurricane season—and there are many of them—has been forecasting above normal activity, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s…
Blog
EPA Proposes First Ever CO2 Standards for Commercial Aircraft
The EPA today proposed first-ever greenhouse gas emission standards for certain new commercial airplanes, including all large passenger jets. The proposed standards, which phase in…
Blog
EPA Proposes First-Ever Aircraft Greenhouse Gas Limits
Today, the EPA proposed the first-ever limits on greenhouse gas emissions from commercial aircraft engines. Although it is unusual for the Trump administration to push…
Blog
House Select Committee Climate Report A Pre-COVID-19 Time Capsule
On June 30, the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released its report. There is little original in the report. Most of its sweeping…
The New American
Democrats’ New “Environmental Justice” Plan Mixes Climate With BLM
The New American quotes CEI’s director of the Center for Energy and Environment, Myron Ebell: Republicans pushed back at the document for its similarities…
Washington Examiner
House GOP Under Pressure From Allies to Support Planks of Democratic Climate Plan
The Washington Examiner quotes CEI’s Myron Ebell, the director of the CEI’s Center for Energy and the Environment, regarding the recent Democrat climate plan: Other…
Blog
Air Conditioning Can Help Fight COVID-19—If Federal Policy Allows It To
COVID-19 persists into the time of year when most Americans rely on air conditioning, so many are asking whether cranking up the cold air helps…
Blog
Axios Spins IEA CO2 Report
Axios Generate on June 26 concludes its first article with a “bonus chart” from the International Energy Agency’s recent report, Global CO2 emissions in 2019.
Blog
COP-26: U.N Climate Conference Delayed until November 2021
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change announced on May 29 that its 26th Conference of the Parties, originally scheduled for November 9-19, 2020, has been rescheduled for November…
Blog
Are “Earth-Friendly” New Refrigerants Toxic?
Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate to restrict hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the refrigerants currently used in most air conditioning and refrigeration systems.
Blog
Will the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report Rely on Increasingly Overheated Models?
In a letter published in Nature, Jiang Zhu and Christopher Poulsen of the University of Michigan and Bette Otto-Bliesner of the National Center for Atmospheric Research caution that…
Blog
EPA Sends Proposed Aircraft GHG Rule to White House for Review
On May 1, the EPA sent its first-ever proposed rule on aircraft greenhouse gas emissions to OMB for review. Promulgated pursuant to the Clean Air…
Blog
New Study Finds Much More Global Greening than Previously Estimated
A new study paper on global greening by a team of Australian scientists demonstrates that previous estimates of carbon dioxide-induced global greening since 1900 are too…
Blog
SAFE Rule Examined Part 1 Climate Change and the Great Lockdown
It’s been almost a month since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the Final Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient…
Blog
Fred Singer, RIP
S. Fred Singer, distinguished scientist and leading climate skeptic, died on April 6 in Rockville, Maryland, at age 95. He had a long and varied…
Blog
Hurry, See “Planet of the Humans,” Before It’s Banned
Planet of the Humans, the new documentary film from director Jeff Gibbs and executive producer Michael Moore, contains a stunning evisceration of so-called green energy and the people profiting from it.
Blog
Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division Publishes Accomplishments Report
The Department of Justice’s Energy and Natural Resources Division published a report on Earth Day detailing its accomplishments to enforce the nation’s environmental, public lands, and…
Blog
New CEI Study Endangers EPA’s Endangerment Finding
Just in time for the 50th Earth Day, CEI is publishing an Issue Analysis called “The Scientific Case for Vacating EPA’s Carbon Dioxide Endangerment Finding.”…
Blog
Businesses Critical of Costly Climate Bill Finally Get to Weigh In
The American Manufacturing and Innovation (AIM) Act would limit the production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), the class of chemicals used as refrigerants in most air conditioning…
Blog
Pipeline-Starved New York City Avoids Natural Gas Shortages this Winter, but May Face Problems in the Future
New York City made it through another winter without any serious natural gas shortages, but it may not be so lucky next year. National Grid…
Blog
GOP Climate Bill Does Carbon Capture and Storage Actually Reduce Emissions
The American Enterprise Institute this week published A Critique of the House Republican Climate Policy Proposals by AEI economist Benjamin Zycher. Zycher finds that the…
Blog
Ninth Circuit Should Uphold Panel’s Decision to Dismiss Kids’ Climate Suit
The Department of Justice urged the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to stand by its decision to dismiss the so-called Kids Climate Suit on the…
Blog
The Next Alleged Environmental Threat: Coal Falling off Trains
Proponents of climate change are repurposing older statutes into climate policy tools, even though they were never intended for that purpose. The environmentalists’ goal is…
Blog
Fly the (Greenhouse) Friendly Skies, If You Can Still Afford to under the House COVID-19 Bill
Airports haven’t been this empty since after 9/11, so it is not surprising that airlines would be recipients of tens of billions of assistance in…
Blog
Will Coronavirus Fuel or Derail Climate Agenda?
Fear and angst are contagious. With the coronavirus still spreading and the U.S. and global economies in danger of freefall, people may become more receptive…
The Washington Examiner
Plastic Bag Bans Aren’t Helping us Fight Against Coronavirus
Before the novel coronavirus pandemic hit, warnings about potential public health consequences of banning single-use plastics in the name of environmental protection fell on deaf…
Blog
Federal District Court Upholds Constitutionality of California-Quebec Climate Pact
On February 12, Federal District Judge William B. Shubb rejected the Trump administration’s constitutional challenge to California’s greenhouse gas emission trading pact with Québec. Judge…
Blog
Refrigerants Debate Moves to House
American consumers dodged a bullet when the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act failed to become part of the larger Senate energy package, which has stalled on…
Blog
New York Times’ Shoddy Reporting on Agency Skeptic
The New York Times recently ran an article titled “A Trump Insider Embeds Climate Denial in Scientific Research.” The fact-checkers and editors dropped the ball on this…
Blog
Washington’s Latest Attack on Air Conditioning
Think air conditioning isn’t expensive enough? Then you’ll love a proposed amendment to the Senate energy bill that restricts the refrigerants used in millions of…
Blog
Appeals Court Rules Heathrow Expansion Unlawful, Citing Paris Climate Treaty
The UK Court of Appeals on February 27th declared unlawful the Department of Transport’s approval of Heathrow Airport’s expansion plans, because the government “had…
News Release
Study: Green New Deal Could Cost Households in 11 States at Least $70K — Just in the First Year after Passage
American households in eleven key states could expect more than $70,000 in higher costs if the Green New Deal is implemented, according to a new…
Study
What the Green New Deal Could Cost a Typical Household
In early 2019, a handful of progressive Democrats galvanized their party around a set of proposals that, even if only partially implemented, would radically restructure…
Blog
House Republican Leaders Introduce Pointless, Costly, But Virtue-Signaling Climate Legislation
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and several senior Republicans announced they were going to introduce four bills to address climate change. On the bright side, none…
Blog
Study Finds Strong Acceleration in Ocean Circulation
As part of its “Climate in Crisis” series, NBC News on February 11 reported the results of a new study on “the undersea conveyor belts…
News Release
Climate Bills Supported by Some House Republicans are Bad Policy
A group of House Republicans today released a package of bills that would provide government incentives for a program to plant trees and carbon sequestration…
Staff & Scholars
![](https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/IMG_8717-scaled-500x500-c-default.jpg)
Sam Kazman
Counsel Emeritus
- Antitrust
- Automobiles and Roads
- Banking and Finance
![](https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/IMG_8422-scaled-500x500-c-default.jpg)
Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
![](https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/IMG_8700-scaled-500x500-c-default.jpg)
Ben Lieberman
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Consumer Freedom
- Energy
![](https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Smith_Fred-Final-scaled-500x500-c-default.jpg)
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
Founder; Chairman Emeritus
- Automobiles and Roads
- Aviation
- Business and Government
![](https://cei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/kevin-3-500x500-c-default.png)
Kevin D. Williamson
Writer in Residence
- Climate
- Energy and Environment