Since our founding in 1984, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has sought to reform and reduce environmental regulation of land, shrink the federal estate, and unlock federal lands for private ownership.
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Empire State of Mind
Executive Summary New York State’s environmental permitting procedures represent a mixed bag. On the one hand, the Uniform Procedures Act (UPA), signed into law in…
USDA
USDA COULD BE IMPACTED BY PROJECT 2025
USDA cites Daren Bakst on Project 2025: The chapter, written by former Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow, Environmental Policy and Regulation, Center for Energy, Climate…
Investigate Midwest
Farm programs, USDA would shrink under Project 2025 goals for ag
Investigate Midwest cites Daren Bakst on Project 2025: So, what about the author? Daren Bakst wrote the agriculture chapter in Project 2025. He is now…
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Blog
Celebrate World Conservation Day with Real Solutions
Today is World Nature Conservation Day, which brings to mind last Wednesday’s episode of The Diane Rehm Show in which guest host Frank Sesno presented…
Huffington Post
Don’t Give up on the Monarch Butterfly!
Last winter, monarch butterfly numbers soared, increasing by more than one-third in their overwintering habitat. Yet we are well into July, and while my…
Blog
Opportunities for the Environmental Entrepreneur
I had the honor to chair a panel and speak at the 10th ICREI conference in France on environmental issues last week. This year’s conference…
Blog
Unions and Environmentalists Oppose Plan to Address California’s Rising Housing Costs
Everyone’s for affordable housing—except, it seems, some unions and environmentalists. On May 18, a coalition of unions and environmental advocacy groups—including the State Building &…
Blog
Burning Ivory Is Not the Solution
A few days ago, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta set fire to giant pile after giant pile of elephant ivory confiscated from poachers. Some 105…
Palmetto Business Daily
Land use expert warns of property rights infringement by “unelected bureaucrats” on the Charleston BAR
The Palmetto Business Daily discusses property rights infringement by the Charleston Board of Architectural Review with Marc Scribner. “The unelected bureaucrats on the…
Blog
Regulation Poses Biggest Threat to Monarch Butterflies
Like many nature lovers and gardeners, last year I launched a milkweed garden for monarch butterflies, starting from seed. After a long summer of manually picking pesky…
Blog
War on Logging Claims another Casualty
Sierra Pacific Industries is permanently closing its Arcata, California, sawmill, a third-generation family-owned forest products company and one of largest landowners…
Blog
How Markets Benefit Honeybees and Mankind
After more than a decade of panicked reports about honeybees disappearing and potentially going extinct because of a phenomenon called “colony collapse disorder,” The…
Blog
How to Improve the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill
The Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill for FY 2016 passed by the House Appropriations Committee spends too much, but does move some funding from…
Blog
A Voluntary Approach to Helping the Honeybee
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute published my paper on the honeybee health issue and pesticide use. We have had several media outlets ask, why…
Forbes
Enhancing The Private Role For ‘Public Goods’
John Kenneth Galbraith once observed that in America our gardens are beautiful, while our public parks are in a state of disaster. While Galbraith saw…
News Release
Lame Duck Land Grab Wedged Into Defense Authorization Bill
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 – Last night, House and Senate lawmakers added a federal lands package to the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 2410, H. R. 4435)…
Blog
Green Exploitation of the Monarch Butterfly
Butterflies offer powerful imagery for environmental groups looking to advance their agendas. After all, who doesn’t want to save these beautiful creatures? Surely green activists…
Blog
Honeybee Population in Decline—Or Not?
If you read the news about honeybee survival, it’s all very confusing. Some sources sound the alarm by pointing out that the number of honeybee…
Blog
House Brings Transparency to Endangered Species Act, Still Needs to Protect Property Rights
Today the House passed H.R. 4315, the 21st Century Endangered Species Transparency Act. Unfortunately, it likely has no chance of passing in the Senate and word is…
The Hill
“Tampering” With Nature To Save Honeybees
Environmental groups are calling for an immediate suspension of an entire class of pesticides in order to save ailing honeybee populations—and they won’t wait for…
Forbes
Lumber Union Protectionists Incited SWAT Raid On My Factory, Says Gibson Guitar CEO
“Henry. A SWAT team from Homeland Security just raided our factory!” “What? This must be a joke.” “No this is really serious. We got guys…
Blog
CEI Sues National Park Service and Interior Department under FOIA over Government Shutdown Documents
Last night, CEI filed suit against the United States Department of the Interior and the National Park Service for failing to produce documents in…
Blog
Supreme Court Overwhelmingly Votes to Uphold Rights of Private Property Owners
The Supreme Court has decided an important property rights case in favor of the private property owners and against the claim of the federal government…
Blog
Good News to Share Over the Holidays: The World Is Getting Better
In the middle of this holiday season my colleague Stephanie Rugolo over at the Cato’s new project, HumanProgress.org, is spreading cheer by getting…
Forbes
Cuts can be made, but politicians have to want to make them
The program costs $9 billion annually and really should be eliminated since crop insurance is commercially available. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, even a…
National Review
Grilling the Park Service Bullies
The Park Service closed the City Tavern in Philadelphia, a meeting place for those who signed the Declaration of Independence, even though the tavern, at…
Blog
Are California Droughts Natural or Man Made?
A ongoing battle in court and public opinion rages in California over the environmental status of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta (both rivers meet, and…
Blog
Some Genuine Vindictiveness in Park Closings
The Washington Times story on the attempted forced shut down of the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina may provide some…
Blog
How to Have Enough Water for Everybody
Last week I testified in the Water and Power Subcommittee in the House of Representatives (hearing linked…
News Release
Land Use Policies of Interior Nominee Are a Concern
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 7, 2013 – Yesterday, President Obama nominated Sally Jewell, CEO of REI, the outdoor and camping gear retailer, to be Secretary…
Blog
Virginia’s Uranium Mining Moratorium Should Be Buried, But What About Property Rights?
The earth below the United States contains 5 percent of the world’s known recoverable uranium deposits. More than a quarter of U.S. uranium is…
News Release
CEI Calls on EPA to Turn Over Bristol Bay Documents to Congress
Washington, D.C., January 10, 2013 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute today called on the Environmental Protection Agency to stop stonewalling repeated requests over many months…
Blog
LOST Washing Up To Our Shores Once Again
The United National Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. Simultaneously, there has been a push for…
Blog
If Demography Is Destiny, We’re Screwed (So To Speak)
"Things will get better." Such sentiments frequently fall from the lips of ever-loving economic optimists who -- while noting the current distressed condition of things…
Blog
Decoding The Malthusian Fallacy
The writings of Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) inspired Victorian historian Thomas Carlyle to condemn economics as "the dismal science." Witnessing the deplorable crowding,…
National Review
Red state farmers, conservatives clash over farm bill
From Tom Lutely’s article in The Billings Gazette: Conservative groups like Americans for Prosperity, Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform and the Competitive…
Products
Farm Bill Will Not Solve Drought
Dear Speaker Boehner, We write…
Study
Assessing the Empirical Basis of the “Biodiversity Crisis”
Full Document Available in PDF EXECUTIVE SUMMARY For several years now, the World Wildlife Fund and other wildlife interest groups have been…
Blog
Remembering Elinor Ostrom
Among the individuals with whom I wish I could have greater opportunities to exchange ideas is Elinor Ostrom. She passed away today, and now I…
Blog
Give a Man a Fish
Those with an interest in conserving our oceans’ fish stocks and those with an interest in promoting private property should both be interested in my…
Study
Give a Man a Fish
Attempts to prevent overfishing by promulgating regulations (which are often at odds with subsidies) have proved both ineffective and impossible to enforce. Ending subsidies and…
Washington Times
Team Obama’s War on Bald Eagles
From Deroy Murdock's column in The Washington Times: “Lethal take” is Washington-speak for “federally approved eagle slaughter.” Precise eagle-kill numbers are tough to…
Blog
The Remote Sensing Problem
Over at the Washington Post, in discussing the coming crisis in weathersats, the editorial board can't resist taking an ignorant dig…
Blog
When Commodities Analysts Should Stick To Commodities
Some analysts at Barclays attempt to understand the business case for Planetary Resources, and massively fail: Their…
Washington Times
Sugar Program Isn’t Sweet for Consumers or the Economy
Don’t look now, but here comes the farm bill, one of those catch-all legislative behemoths littered with wasteful programs and supported by entrenched special interests.
Washington Examiner
A Free-Market Solution for Fisheries
When humans first shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture thousands of years ago, the establishment of private property rights yielded enormous benefits to natural…
Blog
How to Fix U.S. Water Policy? Less Government, More Market Pricing
Late last week I received an invitation to testify in the Water and Power Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Natural…
Blog
Further Space Property Rights Responses
Since my previous post on media reaction to CEI's press briefing on Thursday, Popular Science has provided a…
Legal Brief
Brief in Coalition for Responsible Regulation et al v. Environmental Protection Agency
Full Document Available in PDF Introduction The suite of rules challenged in these coordinated cases involves what is assuredly the most burdensome,…
Washington Examiner
Moisturizing the EPA
Property rights advocates had reason to be optimistic this week, as the Supreme Court heard arguments in Sackett v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. At stake…
Pittsburgh Live
Restoring Due Process
Pittsburgh Live
EPA’s Latest Power Grab
Chris Horner explains the EPA's latest power grab involving private property rights in Idaho…
Comment
CEI Submits Comments to EPA Regarding the Agency’s Regional Haze Power Grab
Full Document Available in PDF The “Good Neighbor Provision” of the Clean Air Act requires that each State Implementation Plan…
CBN
David vs. Goliath: Idaho Couple Takes On the EPA
Blog
Regulation of the Day 199: How to Catch a Tuna
Authorities confiscated an otherwise legally caught bluefin tuna because it was caught with a net. The government intends to sell the fish and keep the…
Blog
House Republicans’ Shortsighted Proposal to Fund Roads through More Drilling
Recently, Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed opening up more federal land and offshore areas to natural resource extraction. Such…
News Release
CEI and Freedom Action Propose $300 Billion in New Revenues to Break Super Committee Impasse
Washington, DC, November 16, 2011 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute and Freedom Action on Tuesday proposed to Congress’s Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that…
Blog
Seven Billion People
Sometime today, the UN estimates that world population will hit 7 billion people. Some people are worried about how those 7 billion mouths will be…
Blog
White House Involved in FDA Approval of Genetically Engineered Salmon?
A couple of days ago, Talking Points Memo's Jim Kozubek reported that the Food and Drug Administration had finally decided to…
News Release
CEI Urges Supreme Court to Let Property Owners Promptly Contest EPA Claims of Wetlands Jurisdiction
Washington, D.C., September 30, 2011— The Competitive Enterprise Institute today filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow property owners to promptly…
Blog
Green Zealots Target Maryland Students
The Maryland State Board of Education passed a new curriculum requirement on June 21, 2011. Instead of gaining competence in math or science, students…
One News Now
Beware the Environmental Left-Wing Agenda
Products
Next @ CNN with Robert J. Smith
NEXT@CNN Aired August 16, 2003 – 15:00 ET President Bush says volunteerism is the ticket to saving America’s national parks. But critics aren’t so…
One News Now
Group Assists Fight Against Extreme Environmentalism
One News Now
Another Season of Anti-Whaling Propaganda on Animal Planet
News Release
CEI Launches ‘Resourceful Earth’ to Fight Political Barriers to Natural Resource Production
Washington, DC, June 17, 2011 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment this week launched Resourceful Earth, a new project that will…
One News Now
Catastrophic Wildfires? Thank the Greenies and Forest Service
Blog
An Alaskan Mining Project: One Example of How Environmental Regulations are Strangling the U.S. Economy
Rick Manning of Americans for Limited Government notes here that one of the reasons the American economy is stuck in neutral is that investors…
Blog
Greenland Flourishes Due to Global Warming and Climate Change
Alarmists have been decrying the effects of global warming on Greenland for years, even though Greenland was greenest during the Medieval Warm Period, and Greenland’s Vikings,…
One News Now
Myron Ebell on the Endangered Species Act
Myron Ebell, Director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment, debates the merits and unintended consequences of the Endangered Species Act. Myron explains that despite…
Blog
Prince Charles Says, “Let Them Eat Organic”
HRH the Prince of Wales delivered the keynote address at The Washington Post's "Future of Food" conference yesterday at Georgetown University.
Blog
It’s Nothing Death, Poverty, and Ignorance Can’t Fix
The New York Times “Room for Debate” frets today about overpopulation (h/t Don Boudreaux). Julian Simon and liberty have long since come…
One News Now
What’s the catch with NOAA’s catch-shares program?
A year ago, Daniel Bubb worked as a fisherman in Gloucester, Mass., operating a fishing business with more than 60 employees. Government intervention has a…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Tree-Bombing Planes
As our frenemies over at Treehugger wrote last October about how Lockheed Martin had come up with an ingenious idea for its 2,500…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Turning Plastic Waste Back into Oil
This “human achievement of the day” is a true example of why we at CEI and many others around the world choose to celebrate the…
One News Now
Warning Labels On New York Times Columns
The New York Times was once known as the “newspaper of record.” Now, its reputation is for bias and inaccuracy. And not only about politics.
One News Now
Funding high-speed rail projects ‘a shameful act’
Blog
CEI Podcast for February 3, 2011: The EPA vs. West Virginia
Energy Policy Analyst William Yeatman looks over the EPA's recent decision to deny a mining permit in Logan County, West Virginia.
Blog
On Mountaintop Mining Veto, EPA Is Guilty of Environmental Hyperbole
On January 13, the Environmental Protection Agency vetoed the issuance of a Clean Water Act permit by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the…
One News Now
Are Biofuel Policies Fueling a Global Food Crisis?
Multi-Housing News Online
Not All Public-Private Partnerships Are Created Equal
In recent years, policymakers have taken to promoting public-private partnerships (PPPs) as somewhat of a silver bullet to various problems. They typically tout them…
Study
Reform Wetlands Policies
Liberate to Stimulate Index…
Study
Restore the Constitutional Right to Property
Liberate to Stimulate Index The right to property is an essential part of a free society, and widespread private property ownership is…
Study
Embrace Private Conservation of Land and Natural Resources
Liberate to Stimulate Index Private stewardship and markets play a critical role in land and natural resource conservation. Much of America’s land…
Study
Protect Endangered Species
Liberate to Stimulate Index The Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 is bad for wildlife, because it is bad for people. It…
Study
Clarify the Role of Invasive Species
Liberate to Stimulate Index In the past, policies addressing problem plants and animals followed a rational path: They focused on controlling organisms…
Study
Develop New Approaches to Preserve Ocean Resources
Liberate to Stimulate Index The world’s fisheries face severe decline. Because many of the world’s ocean resources are not “owned,” they tend…
Study
Recognize the Elitist Nature of Anti-Sprawl Measures
Liberate to Stimulate Index For the greater part of the last century, many people have sought the American Dream by raising their…
News Release
EPA Ratchets Up Campaign to Destroy Jobs
Washington, D.C., January 14, 2011 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute today sharply criticized the Environmental Protection Agency for its decision to revoke a Clean Water…
Study
Reform U.S. Agriculture Programs
Full Document Available in PDF With America facing a lengthy and possible deep recession and…
News Release
Obama Offshore Oil Moratorium Breaks Promise, Hurts Economy, Kills Jobs
Washington, D.C., December 1, 2010 — Today, the Obama Administration pulled an about-face on its earlier plan to allow more domestic offshore oil drilling. The…
Blog
A New Course for Wild Tigers
A New York Times editorial highlights a struggle faced by the wild tiger, noting its population is down to approximately 3,200 from a high…
Study
Pesticides and Agriculture
Full Document Available in PDF In 1989, environmental activists claimed that a chemical called Alar…
Study
Measuring the Scope of Federal Land Ownership
Full Document Available in PDF During much of American history, landuse regulation was…
Study
Agricultural Biotechnology Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF For conventionally bred plants, regulators rely on plant breeders to…
Study
Agricultural Biotechnology Overview
Full Document Available in PDF Every year, millions of people worldwide die from starvation and…
Blog
Voters Rejected Enviro-Alarmism About Gulf Oil Spill
My colleague Ben Lieberman’s thoughtful op-ed in The Washington Times focuses on voters’ rejection of environmental alarmism about the Gulf oil spill. It appears…
Multi-Housing News Online
‘Natural’ Foods Activist Gets It Wrong
Blog
Fiscal Commission Should Support Increased Energy Production, Not Increased Energy Taxes
Among the many suggestions in the Fiscal Commission’s draft report is a 15 cents-per-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax. No doubt, this…
Blog
Massive Property Tax Increases Coming for Homeowners in Northern Virginia
Homeowners in Northern Virginia may face massive, record-setting property tax increases of 20 percent or more in the upcoming year. One reason is the EPA’s…
LaCrosse Tribune
GOP Shift in House Not Likely to Affect Farmers
Blog
Rare Earths — Not So Rare?
What do yttrium, ytterbium, erbium and terbium have in common? They are rare earth elements first found in the Swedish town of Ytterby between 1828…
Blog
Global Food Crisis Forecast; Aggravated by Biofuels and Global Warming Legislation
A global food crisis is “forecast as prices reach record highs.” “Rising food prices and shortages could cause instability in many countries as the…
Staff & Scholars
Daren Bakst
Director of the Center for Energy and Environment and Senior Fellow
- Energy and Environment
- Lands and Wildlife
- Property Rights
Angela Logomasini
Adjunct Fellow
- Chemical Risk
- Consumer Freedom
- Energy and Environment
Patricia Patnode
Research Fellow
- Consumer Freedom
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
Founder; Chairman Emeritus
- Automobiles and Roads
- Aviation
- Business and Government