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 Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have increased consumer electricity prices without having any discernible effects on climate change. CEI’s research and policy proposals were instrumental in President Trump’s repeal of the CPP.
Featured Posts
Blog
Fewer Memorial Day gimmicks, more oil production will bring down gasoline prices
The Biden administration treats high gasoline prices as a public relations problem rather than a real hardship for millions of Americans, hence the gimmicky announcement…
Blog
Biden’s oil and gas production problem
The Biden administration has an oil and gas production problem—and it’s not what you might think. The problem is that production is higher than ever,…
Blog
In spite of burdensome regulation, Georgia opens new nuclear reactor
Georgia’s new nuclear reactor is a long time coming. Plant Vogtle Unit 4 began producing commercial power on April 29th. This follows the opening of …
Search Posts
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. …
Staff & Scholars
Sam Kazman
Counsel Emeritus
- Antitrust
- Automobiles and Roads
- Banking and Finance
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
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
Founder; Chairman Emeritus
- Automobiles and Roads
- Aviation
- Business and Government