In recent years, especially under the Biden administration, there has been an unprecedented attack on the supply of reliable and affordable energy, from reducing oil and gas lease sales to the administration’s efforts to shift from reliable electricity sources to renewable energy sources. The partisan Inflation Reduction Act is a central piece of the harmful electrification effort that will undermine the electricity grid. If all of this was not bad enough, there are also governmental efforts to limit Americans from using reliable and affordable energy, such as efforts to severely limit the availability of gas-powered vehicles and bans on natural gas appliances.
Ensuring abundant, reliable, and affordable energy is a must, as is consumer freedom when it comes to energy. The Competitive Enterprise Institute advocates for policies to keep energy abundant, affordable, and competitive. Carbon fuels—coal, natural gas, and oil—provide about 80 percent of U.S. and global energy. They are the world’s dominant energy sources because, in most markets, they beat the alternatives in both cost and performance.
CEI is leading efforts to defend the personal energy choices of Americans. We advocate for policies that will stop government at all levels from banning or restricting what good and services Americans can choose to best meet their needs.
For decades, CEI has opposed regulatory overreach from the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies that put undue costs on energy industries and consumers. These include President Biden’s new power plant rule, the “Blackout Plan,” which would ignore the major questions problems detailed in West Virginia v. EPA, increase consumer electricity prices, and threaten grid reliability. CEI’s research and policy proposals have been instrumental on energy issues.
Featured Posts
Blog
House to consider two bills that would place limits on federal appliance meddling
It is time for Congress to place limits on costly and intrusive federal meddling in home appliances. Two House bills coming up for a vote…
Blog
EPA repeals another costly rule targeting affordable and reliable coal
Though not nearly as far-reaching as the recently announced end to the Endangerment Finding, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) February 20 final rule repealing…
News Release
Trump EPA revokes endangerment finding, big win for the American people: CEI analysis
On Thursday, the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the revocation of the 2009 endangerment finding regarding greenhouse gas emissions from new…
Search Posts
The Gazette
Critics of repealed FCC law overreact
The Gazette discusses the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband privacy rule with Ryan Radia. Ryan Radia, research fellow and regulatory counsel at the Competitive…
Investor's Business Daily
Stephen Moore: Government Makes The Poor Poorer
Investor’s Business Daily discuss how certain enviornmental regulations can hurt the poor with Marlo Lewis. Marlo Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute points…
Blog
The Great Greenhouse Rollback Begins
On Tuesday, March 28, President Trump signed his Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth. The E.O. directs agencies to suspend, revise,…
Blog
Top Three Silliest Reactions to Trump’s Climate Executive Order
#3 Silliest Reaction: Red Scare! According to Nathan Richardson at Resources for the Future, the big problem with Trump’s Executive Order is what it signals…
Blog
White House Proposes Expanded Cuts to EPA Budget
The White House is going to send Congress an EPA budget that is $5.7 billion, or 31% below current funding of $8.1 billion.
Blog
Buckeye Institute Study: Ohio’s Green Energy Mandate Is Bad Economics
If Ohio's renewable energy mandate is fully implemented, the state would suffer 134,100 fewer jobs and a loss of $15.5 billion in GDP by 2026…
Blog
Let Africa Power Its Future with Affordable Energy
Economic development in Africa needs affordable, reliable fossil fuels, not expensive, intermittent renewables, as some Western environmentalists demand.
Blog
White House Proposes 24% Budget Cut for Environmental Protection Agency
Last week that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had sent its initial budget numbers to the Environmental Protection Agency for the agency…
Blog
Proposed EPA Budget Cuts Raise Serious Concerns
Proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency budget suggest a poorly thought out initial effort.
Blog
Science Committee Spotlights Major Flaws in Calculating ‘Social Cost’ of Carbon Dioxide
Estimating the "social cost" of carbon is a highly speculative enterprise that should not be guiding federal policy on energy and the environment.
Blog
Failure to Renounce Paris Climate Deal Would Create Major White House Policy Conflict
On the campaign trail, presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would “cancel” U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement. He now appears to be back-pedaling.
Watchdog.org
Despite impending plant closures, coal’s death could be ‘greatly exaggerated’
Watchdog discusses with Marlo Lewis the current financial struggle of coal plants, and the future the coal industry is facing. Marlo Lewis, a…
Blog
Will Trump EPA Challenge California’s De Facto Authority to Regulate Fuel Economy?
Former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is now Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Pruitt led the coalition of 27 states, more than…
New York Times
E.P.A. Workers Try to Block Pruitt in Show of Defiance
The New York Times discusses Scott Pruitt’s nomination and Civil Service rules at the Environmental Protection Agency with Myron Ebell. The showdown could…
Blog
GOP Beltway Veterans Pitch Trump on Carbon Tax
A group of former Republican White House and cabinet officials advocated a carbon tax in a meeting with Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn, Ivanka Trump,…
Blog
Trump Not Bound by Obama Volkswagen Settlement with EPA
The judicial settlement which was reached between Volkswagen and the U.S. Department of Justice last October infringes on President Trump’s Article II authority.
Blog
Congress Should Nullify Obama’s Unlawful and Wasteful Methane Rule
This week, the U.S. House will consider a Congressional Review Act joint resolution of disapproval to overturn the Bureau of Land Management’s methane capture rule.
Blog
Congress Should Eliminate SEC Rule that Discloses Company Information to Foreign Governments
Congress should pass a joint resolution of disapproval and block the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rule relating to ‘‘Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers.”…
Blog
Congress Should Eliminate Obama’s Stream Protection Rule
Congress should eliminate the Department of Interior’s harmful Stream Protection Rule. …
Blog
White House Should Revisit Volkswagen Settlement with EPA
A coalition of free-market groups ask President Trump to investigate the VW emissions settlement with the EPA.
Blog
Senate Should Disregard Spurious Public Health Charges against EPA Nominee Pruitt
The Senate should disregard accusations that EPA Administrator-designate Scott Pruitt is somehow responsible for asthma rates in his home state of Oklahoma.
Blog
Trump Reverses Obama Rejection of Keystone XL Pipeline
President Trump today signed executive orders aimed at reviving the Keystone XL Pipeline and rescuing the Dakota Access Pipeline from death by regulatory delay.
Blog
Pruitt Cool under Fire at Senate Confirmation Hearing
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Scott Pruitt to be Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Blog
Chamber of Commerce CEO Lays Out 2017 Agenda
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue gave his annual “State of American Business Address” to a packed hall at the Chamber’s H…
Blog
Scrutinizing Sen. Carper’s Questions for EPA Nominee Pruitt
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) is unwilling to hold a confirmation hearing on President-elect Trump’s choice for Environmental Protection Agency administrator until the nominee, Oklahoma Attorney…
Blog
Questions Senators Should Ask Rex Tillerson
Tillerson is probably the only influential person President-elect Trump would ever nominate as Secretary of State who supports both a carbon tax and the Paris…
Blog
Activist Criticism Again Misses Mark on EPA Nominee Pruitt
It’s implausible to argue that Pruitt’s past acceptance of PAC donations are “unprecedented” for someone overseeing the…
Blog
Environmental Litigation Strategies and Defenses for Trump Era
Environmental litigation groups like the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Center for Biological Diversity will pursue three types of lawsuits over the…
Blog
New York Times Misleads on U.S.-China Renewable Energy Trade
The source of demand for Chinese renewable energy exports are countries, like the U.S. and Europe, that have mandated and subsidized green energy.
Blog
Energy & Environmental Policy News: Multimedia Roundup
Observations and analysis on recent energy and environment news by senior fellow William Yeatman.
Blog
EPA Region 6 Throws Bombs to the Bitter End
Among the Environmental Protection Agency's 10 offices, by far the most aggressive during the Obama administration has been Region 6, which operates out of Dallas…
Blog
Trump Administration Will Have Legal Authority to Halt Clean Power Plan
It would not be illegal for President Trump to order the Environmental Protection Agency not to enforce the Clean Power Plan.
Blog
Best of the Blog 2016
Certain topics were especially popular with readers in 2016.
Blog
NRDC Is Wrong: Trump Can Issue Day 1 Executive Order Declaring Clean Power Plan Illegal
The Clean Power Plan in its current form is illegal, and there is no problem with the President issuing an executive order to this effect…
Blog
Two Recommendations for EPA: 1) Revise, Don’t Repeal; 2) Do Your Job
There is a climate policy that’s even worse than EPA regulations written by Natural Resources Defense Council lobbyists: state torts for injunctive or monetary relief…
Blog
Obama Couldn’t Win a Third Term, Because He Would Have To Own His Global Warming Policy
I strongly doubt that President Obama would win a third term, as he claimed yesterday.
Blog
EPA’s Clean Power Plan Lies Undermine Congressional Oversight
Congress’s primary means of investigation are hearings and follow up questions, but these mechanisms are rendered meaningless when the agency lies.
Blog
Congress Must Combat Threats to Affordable Energy
Policy makers should reject policies to tax and regulate away mankind’s access to affordable energy.
Blog
Can Trump (or Congress) Rescind Obama’s Arctic Drilling Ban?
President Obama yesterday designated “the vast majority of U.S. waters in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas as indefinitely off limits to offshore oil and gas…
E&E News
In right’s energy-subsidy clash, shades of Koch vs. Pickens
National Review
Who is ‘Richard Windsor’?
In The Liberal War on on Transparency, published by Threshold Editions last month, I revealed the existence of a series of black, or “alias” email…
Blog
Can Congress Veto EPA’s Fuel Economy Rush Job?
The Environmental Protection Agency’s recent proposal to keep in place the agency’s model year greenhouse gas emission standards for new motor vehicles is the epitome…
Blog
RealClear Radio Hour: Political Disasters in Science and Economics
This week on RealClear Radio Hour, Marc Edwards and Dan Liljenquist recount politically induced disasters from the perversion of science to the pension crisis.
Blog
Trump Picks Scott Pruitt to Head EPA
Yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The nomination is significant in several ways.
Blog
EPA Rushes to Lock in Obama Administration Fuel Economy Standards
The Environmental Protection Agency last Wednesday released its proposed Mid-Term Evaluation (MET) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for model year (MY) 2022-2025 passenger vehicles.
Blog
Drain the Swamp: Sunset the Renewable Fuel Standard
“Draining the swamp” includes abolishing the RFS.
Blog
Federal Biofuel Programs Headed for Failure
Today the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released two reports on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.
Blog
The New Congress Should Repeal All Energy Efficiency Mandates
As part of its new agenda for January, Congress should repeal every energy-efficiency mandate on the books, ranging from Corporate Average Fuel Economy…
Blog
Free Market Opportunities for the Trump Administration
This election has given us one more demonstration that knowledge is dispersed and “trusting the experts” to know the future is foolish. The unexpected success…
Blog
The Real Victim in the Dakota Access Pipeline Controversy Is the Company behind the Project
The real victims in the controversy over the Dakota Access Pipeline is Dakota Access Services, the company behind the 3.7 billion project that would move…
Blog
The “Voluntary” Component of EPA’s Clean Power Plan Makes It Even More Unlawful
Today I filed a comment letter on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule titled “Clean Energy Incentive Program Design Details.” The comment period closes today…
Blog
5 Scariest Halloween Regulations
Regulatory dark matter is a Washington boogeyman. In 2015, there were 39 regulations for every one law passed by Congress. That’s a lot of rules…
Blog
Global Warming Concerns ‘Not a Blank Check’ for Clean Power Plan
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last week released a 320-page transcript of the September 27th oral argument on EPA’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emission standards…
Blog
Clean Power Plan Oral Argument: Will Limited Government Survive the Age of Global Warming?
It’s now 10 days since the D.C. Court of Appeals heard oral argument on EPA’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emission performance standards for existing fossil-fuel power…
Los Angeles Times
Why should only solar and wind get the tax credits? This industry wants in
Los Angeles Times discusses subsidies for the energy storage industry with William Yeatman. “We’re getting to a really tenuous connection,” said William Yeatman, senior…
Blog
Does Climate Change Cause an Additional 140,000 Deaths a Year?
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, environmental researcher Bjorn Lomborg calls on the next president to “get our priorities straight” on climate change. A…
Blog
Free Market Allies Challenge Legality of EPA’s Clean Energy Incentive Program
On behalf of policy analysts from 13 non-profit free-market organizations and seven independent scholars, I have submitted a joint comment letter…
Morning Consult
Do Noble Political Ends Justify Abusive Means?
The Morning Consult reports on the subpoena that CEI recieved from Attorney General Claude Walker. Starting in 2014, approximately 20 Democrat attorneys general,…
Blog
Issues to Watch in Next Week’s Clean Power Plan Oral Argument
Next week the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals hears oral argument on EPA’s so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP), which establishes first-ever carbon dioxide (CO2) emission…
Blog
Clean Power Plan Litigation: A Giant Ball of Uncertainties
Prognosticating judicial outcomes is a foolish endeavor in general, but trying to predict the fate of the Clean Power Plan in Article III courts is…
Washington Free Beacon
NY Attorney General Accused of Skirting Public Records Law
The Washington Free Beacon reports on CEI's lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from refusing to release documents related to the climate change investigations. …
Blog
New Study Finds Ethanol More Carbon Intensive than Gasoline
A University of Michigan study published in the journal Climatic Change challenges a fundamental assumption of the life cycle analyses underpinning the EPA’s Renewable Fuel…
Daily Caller
Britain’s Plan To Save Energy By Paying Businesses To Shut Down Falls Apart
The Daily Caller quotes Myron Ebell on Britain's gid operators' decision to pay for "negative electricity" when there isn't enough power to meet demand. …
U.S. News & World Report
SolarCity Announces Layoffs, Co-Founders Take Massive Salary Cuts
U.S. News & World Report discusses SolarCity's announcment of major layoffs with Myron Ebell. "It looks like its further confirmation, despite massive federal and…
Daily Caller
Wind Industry Furious That Wyoming Is Taxing Wind Turbines
The Daily Caller discusses Wyoming's plan to raise taxes on a wind power project with Myron Ebell. Construction on thePower Company of Wyoming’s…
Blog
Trump Presents Energy Policy Ideas in Detroit
In a policy speech yesterday in Detroit, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump outlined his program of tax, regulatory, and trade policies to jump-start the economy.
Blog
Olympic Ceremony an Example of Cheap Talk on Global Warming
“Doing something” about global warming is hard and requires economic sacrifice.
Blog
Does EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard Increase Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
A new University of Minnesota study finds that the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2) program leads to net increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Blog
EPA’s Missed Deadlines Causing Widespread Dysfunction
Yesterday I published a study that reviews EPA’s performance for more than 1,000 Clean Air Act deadlines. Here’s the big takeaway: the agency missed 84…
E&E News
Foes of climate rule find new weapon in EPA mine case
E&E News reports on CEI's arguments against the legality of the Enviornmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan. A federal court should take into…
Blog
Democrats’ Platform: Surmount Climate Challenge with Good-Paying Jobs, Low-Cost Clean Energy
The Democratic Party officially adopted their 2016 platform at their national convention in Philadelphia on 25th July. The energy and environment section is titled, “Combat…
Blog
Does Global Warming Policy Increase Summer Swelter?
Supporters of EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) claim the program “mitigates” anthropogenic global warming by substituting biofuels for petroleum products in the nation’s motor fuel…
Daily Caller
California Dem: Our Global Warming Plans Devastate The Poor
The Daily Caller speaks with Myron Ebell on California's lieutenant governor's statement that the state's climate policies will hurt the poor. “It’s nice to…
Washington Examiner
Dem AG Backs Down in Exxon Climate Fight
A group of Democratic attorneys general have suffered another blow in their bid to find oil-giant Exxon Mobil guilty of fraud in a highly-politicized climate…
News Release
CEI Response to Wyoming Fracking Ruling
The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s William Yeatman responded today to the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming’s ruling striking down a Bureau of Land…
Blog
House to Vote on Carbon, Oil Taxes
The House is scheduled to vote Friday on two bills opposing efforts to rig U.S. energy markets against fossil fuels.
Blog
GIGO Strikes Again: EPA’s Social Cost of Methane
The Environmental Protection Agency’s final methane emission standards for new, modified, and reconstructed oil and gas sources were published in the Federal Register last Friday.
Blog
Affordable Energy Is Important to Conquering Poverty
When economists and politicians talk about income inequality, they rarely consider the effects of their policies on the poor, as my co-author Ryan Young has…
Blog
Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists: No Illusions about Germany’s “Energy Turnaround”
In a previous post I poked fun at the “Doomsday Clock” of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. For 60 years, the Bulletin has…
Blog
RICO 20 Ringleader’s Implausible Denial of Intent to Silence Skeptics
After a recent victory in a FOIA lawsuit, Horner and CEI v. GMU, a Richmond court allowed the Competitive Enterprise Institute to release records on…
Daily Caller
New Report Shows The Collapse Of Green Energy In Europe
The Daily Caller discusses subsidies of renewable energy projects with Myron Ebell. “Whenever subsidies or mandates are lowered, interrupted, or ended, then investment…
Blog
EPA Tries to Cover Its Tracks in Texas by Sending 17 Years of History Down the Memory Hole
Background: The Regional Haze rule is a Clean Air Act regulation whose purpose is to improve the view at National Parks. Because it is…
Daily Caller
VW Emissions Scandal Being Used To Push Obama’s Electric Vehicle Agenda
The Daily Caller discusses political pressure on Volkswagen with Myron Ebell. “Does Volkswagen have a future if political pressure is going to cost…
Heartland Institute
New Study Shows Renewable Energy May Always Need Government Support
The Heartland Institute discusses renewable energy sources inability to be competitive in the marketplace with Myron Ebell. Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy…
Blog
Power Plant Rule: EPA Defies Stay to Develop Legally Dubious Incentive Program
The EPA yesterday took another step to advance the Obama administration’s flagship domestic climate policy, the so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP). As Politico…
Blog
Wind Energy Industry Suffers Fuel Shortage in 2015
Wind energy can’t compete. Instead, it exists only by the grace of favorable politics. On the supply side, the industry enjoys the federal production tax…
Blog
The Treaty Not to Be Called a Treaty
The recent Paris Climate Agreement is clearly a treaty, but like the fable of the emperor’s new clothes, few people are willing to incur…
Breitbart
Lawfare: Left-Wing U.S. Attorneys General Wage Legal Blitzkrieg on Science, Freedom and truth
Breitbart discusses the subpoena sent to CEI as part of the attorneys general intimidation campaign to silence the climate change debate. Now the Attorney…
Blog
CEI Will Surmount Crimethink Persecution
Feisty, aggressive, unwavering, and sometimes unconventional—all terms I heard prior to joining CEI last week as president. The descriptions were spot-on. But before the first conversations ended,…
Blog
Our Take: The Climate-Related Subpoena
Since CEI was subpoenaed on April 8 for a decade’s worth of work from 20 years ago, many have asked “Why?” and “How?” Here is…
Blog
What Others Are Saying about CEI’s Climate Change Subpoena
Since CEI was subpoenaed by the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands on April 8, 2016, for energy and climate work from 20 years…
Blog
Haiku: “No Energy Left”
Inspired by SunEdison’s near bankruptcy (among other terrible news for the solar power industry) and infused with the spirit of Japanese culture…
Blog
House Energy and Environment Notes
Both chambers of Congress are in recess now, but there were some goings-on in the House last Wednesday that merit mention. The first was EPA…
Blog
Senators Urge EPA to Burst RFS Blend Wall
A bipartisan group of 19 Senators led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is urging EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to get the Renewable…
Daily Caller
MIT: Green Energy Can’t Work Unless You Tax Everything
The Daily Caller reports discusses renewable energy with Myron Ebell and William Yeatman. “Windmills, solar panels, and ethanol could not compete with coal,…
Blog
Is EPA Trying to Centrally Plan the Auto Sector (in Addition to the Electric Sector)?
With the Clean Power Plan, President Obama’s marquee climate policy, the Environmental Protection Agency is trying to run the electricity sector. Of course, the agency…
Blog
News Cycle Contradicts Green Energy Revolution
Last Thursday, The Wall Street Journal’s Jeff Bennet and Christina Rogers reported that auto dealers “are telling auto makers to limit production of passenger cars in…
Blog
A Banner Day for Rule of Law, Constitution, and Common Sense
In an unexpected and unprecedented decision, the Supreme Court last evening granted an application by more than two dozen states to stay implementation of the…
Blog
In Defending Clean Power Plan before the Supreme Court, EPA/DOJ Misrepresent Clean Air Act with Lame Editing Tricks
Lawyers for the EPA and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are trying to pull a fast one on the Supreme Court. Through creative formatting, they…
Blog
Don’t Put Eco-Finance Measures in Energy Bill
Cronyism and boondoggles in an energy bill is nothing new in the U.S. Congress. But this week, senators of both parties are taking the process…
Staff & Scholars
Sam Kazman
Counsel Emeritus
- Antitrust
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Paige Lambermont
Research Fellow
- Capitalism and Free Enterprise
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
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