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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FTC lawsuit against John Deere will break more than it fixes: CEI analysis
The Federal Trade Commission today filed a lawsuit accusing John Deere, the tractor company, of forcing farmers to use authorized dealers for equipment repairs. CEI…
Blog
Wildfires and the precautionary principle: Why being ‘safe’ isn’t always safer
As wildfires rage across Los Angeles and devastate communities, the issue of wildfire management has never been more important. At the heart of this issue…
Blog
What’s contributing to the current California wildfires
In the last few weeks, Southern California has experienced many wildfires including the destructive Palisades and Eaton fires. While we don’t know…
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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…
Citation
‘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…
Blog
Malthusian Indoctrination of Children Funded with Your Tax Dollars
Many people are familiar with Annie Leonard, creator of “The Story of Stuff,” a factually inaccurate viral video being shown in classrooms throughout America. In…
Blog
Salute to Capitalism — And the Miners’ Rescue
“Capitalism saved the miners” is the provocative title of Daniel Henninger’s article in today’s Wall Street Journal. And he makes his case quite clearly. …
Blog
Moratorium Lifted, But Drilling Still Blocked
With much fanfare, the Obama administration has lifted its moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. But don’t expect much actual drilling any…
Blog
Obama Administration Slowed Response to BP Oil Spill By Keeping Public In the Dark
The Obama administration initially downplayed the seriousness of the Gulf oil spill, “slowing response efforts and keeping the American people in the dark…
LaCrosse Tribune
Secret BLM Meetings Cause Uproar in Wyoming
Blog
CEI Podcast – September 23, 2010: The Frankenfish Myth
CEI Senior Fellow Greg Conko, author of The Frankenfood Myth, talks about the promise and imagined peril of genetically modified salmon.
Blog
GOP “Pledge to America” Includes Constructive Reg Reform
The House Republican “Pledge to America” unveiled today has been criticized by RedState’s Erick Erickson and other center-right pundits for a lack of specifics.
Blog
Kiss Your Ash Goodbye — Regulating Coal Combustion Byproducts As Hazardous Is An Unnecessary Job Killer
The Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant is currently garnering most of the attention from the agency’s critics, but…
Blog
Unemployment Jumps to 9.6%, 54,000 More Jobs Lost
Unemployment went back up to 9.6%, as the nation shed 54,000 jobs in August. Yet Obama calls this “Recovery Summer.” This is…
Blog
Record Federal Spending Increase Due to Wasteful Spending Like the Failed Stimulus Package
Federal domestic spending increased by a record 16 percent this year, thanks to wasteful spending by the Obama administration, such as its “huge economic…
Blog
Government Spends Billions Bailing Out Foreign Firms and Countries, and Replacing American Jobs With Foreign Green Jobs
Our government spent as much money bailing out foreign firms as some countries spent on stabilizing their entire financial system. Much of the money…
Blog
Government-Sanctioned Lying and Reparations Increase National Debt: The Pigford Class Action
There are only 36,697 black farmers in the entire country, but in a class-action lawsuit, more than 86,000 African-Americans claimed to have suffered…
Blog
CSR and Oil Companies: The Truth Dawns?
The environmental left is in some disarray following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. After all, BP had trumpeted for years the idea that it was…
Blog
The Environment is a Luxury Good
One of the central insights of Free-Market Environmentalism is that people treat the environment as a luxury good. They are willing to pay for it…
News Release
Senate Plan to Prevent Oil Spill Should Eliminate Government Cap on Liability
Washington, D.C., July 30, 2010—The Senate is preparing to vote next week on a bill aimed at preventing future BP-style oil spills—a plan that could…
Study
Who Should Pay for the Gulf Oil Spill?
Liability and Incentive Issues Raised by the Deepwater Horizon Incident…
Newsletter
Financial Regulation, the Gulf Oil Spill, and Privacy on Facebook
Congress passes the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill. The New York Times chronicles the economic fallout from the BP oil spill. Pundits argue that Facebook is…
Blog
EPA, Not Jones Act, Blocked Dutch Skimmers
It was apparently the EPA, not the Jones Act, that blocked Dutch skimmers from cleaning up the oil spill in Louisiana in late April:…
Blog
Readers Contest Factcheck.Org’s “Oil Spill, Foreign Help, and the Jones Act”
FactCheck.org argued that the Jones Act, which ordinarily bans both foreign ships and foreign crews from working in U.S. waters, did not interfere with foreign…
Blog
Blowout Prevention Act Would Blowout Domestic Oil Production
Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment held a hearing on H.R. 5626, the Blowout Prevention Act of 2010. Although…
Blog
Blowout Prevention Act — or Oil Production Prevention Act?
That’s the question I address today on the free-market energy blog, MasterResource.Org. This morning, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment is holding…
Newsletter
Climate Skeptics, The Case Against Cap and Trade and Oil Spill Red Tape
The National Academy of Sciences recently published a report attacking the credentials of climate change skeptics. The Gulf oil spill has…
Blog
New Federal Interference With Oil-Spill Clean-Up: Feds Stop Louisiana From Dredging Needed to Create Protective Sand Berms
A TV station in New Orleans reports that “the federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand…
Blog
Judge rules Obama deepwater drilling ban “arbitrary and capricious”
Yesterday, Judge Martin Feldman of the Eastern Louisiana District Court lifted the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on all oil and gas drilling in the…
Blog
Judge Blocks Gulf Drilling Ban, Citing Deception by Obama Administration; Obama Continues to Delay Gulf Clean-Up
A federal judge has just blocked the Obama administration from imposing a blanket ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
News Release
Supreme Court Overturns Judge’s Ruling in Major Win for Biotech Crop Breeders
Washington, D.C., June 21, 2010 — The Supreme Court today over-turned a lower federal judge’s ruling that farmers could not plant a biotech alfalfa variety…
LaCrosse Tribune
Obama Uses Oil Spill to Push Failed Energy Policies
In his speech, President Obama used the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to push his failed energy policies, such as…
Blog
Obama Administration Blocks Clean-Up of Oil Spill by Louisiana and Foreign Allies By Imposing Red Tape
The Obama Administration recently used red tape to force Louisiana to stop using 16 barges that were cleaning up the Gulf…
LaCrosse Tribune
Obama’s Actions Prevent Timely Clean-Up By U.S. Allies
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that … possess some of the world’s most…
LaCrosse Tribune
Obama Blocks Louisiana, Foreign Allies from Oil Spill Clean-Up
The Obama Administration recently used red tape to force Louisiana to stop using 16 barges that were cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico…
Blog
Obama Uses Oil Spill to Push Failed Energy Policies
In his speech last night, President Obama used the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to push his failed energy policies, such…
Blog
Obama Blocked Clean Up of BP Oil Spill by Friendly Countries; International Assistance Blocked by Regulations Obama Had The Authority To Waive
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of the…
LaCrosse Tribune
Most Green Jobs Went to Foreign Firms (Letter to the Editor)
It is incredible that the federal government spent billions of dollars on so-called "green jobs" without having any definition of what a green…
LaCrosse Tribune
Obama Refuses to Waive Law to Allow Foreign Help With Oil Spill
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of…
LaCrosse Tribune
Action Needed Now to Stop EPA Power Grab
I wrote this morning in the American Spectator about how tight the vote is on Senator Murkowski’s bid to stop the…
Blog
BP Supported Obama Stimulus Package, Global Warming Bill, and Corporate Welfare; BP Bankrolled Obama Campaign
Columnist Tim Carney notes that BP, responsible for the massive oil spill, is “a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s…
LaCrosse Tribune
BP’s Disturbingly Close Ties to Obama Administration
Columnist Tim Carney notes that BP, responsible for the massive oil spill, is “a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s…
Blog
Global-Warming Bill Contains Ethanol Subsidies, Which Cause Famine, Hunger, Food Riots, and Political Unrest
People across the world “are being battered by surging food prices that are dragging more people into poverty, fueling political tensions and forcing some to…
Newsletter
BP, the Supreme Court on Corporate Accounting and Eliot Spitzer on CNN
Many are pointing to the BP oil spill as proof of the failure of free market capitalism. The Supreme Court is expected to soon hand…
Blog
Obama Uses BP Oil Spill to Push Corporate-Welfare-Filled Global Warming Bill That BP Once Lobbied For
Talk about chutzpah. President Obama, the biggest recipient of campaign cash from BP, is using BP’s oil spill to push for a global…
LaCrosse Tribune
Australian Resource Tax Will Dampen Innovation (Letter to the Editor)
Sir, Your editorial, “Taxmen vs miners: Australia’s resource super profit tax is a good idea” (May 31), argues that “natural resource profits are…
Blog
BP: A “Serial Environmental Criminal” With Close Ties To The Obama Administration
BP, which is responsible for the terrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has a safety record infinitely worse than other oil companies, which…
Blog
CEI Weekly: CEI Sues NASA to Uncover Key Global Warming Docs
CEI weekly is a compilation of articles and blogs from CEI's staff. This week features CEI's federal lawsuit against NASA to force them to comply…
Blog
Myths About Green Energy: The Truth Is, It’s Corporate Welfare That Destroys American Jobs
In The Washington Post, Robert Bryce debunks five myths about green energy: it won’t create jobs, won’t help the environment, and won’t make America…
Blog
Stimulus Package Increases Trade Deficit: Replaces U.S. Jobs with Foreign “Green Jobs”
The $800 billion stimulus package is shipping American jobs overseas. More than 79 percent of “green jobs” funding under the stimulus package went to…
Newsletter
The Gulf Oil Spill, GM’s Bailout Troubles and the Costs of CO2 Regulation
Environmentalists call for a stop to offshore drilling in reaction to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. CEI files a complaint against General Motors with…
Comment
CEI Comments on EPA Biopesticides Registration for Biotech Plum
Full Document Available in PDF The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) appreciates…
News Release
EPA May Force Pesticide Label on New Biotech Fruit
Washington, D.C., April 30, 2010 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute today condemned a proposed Environmental Protection Agency action plan that would, for the first…
Blog
Earth Day Agriculture and Sustainable Intensification
What’s the most sustainable way to grow the food we eat? The answer environmentalists give is always "local and organic." But, increasingly, the answer from…
Blog
Food Fight Over a Living Relic of the Past
There’s an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today on a big new…
News Release
Keep Humanity in Earth Day
Washington, D.C., April 21, 2010—This year, the Competitive Enterprise Institute urges those celebrating Earth Day to remember that human beings are part of the natural…
News Release
White House Conservation Program Faces Identity Crisis
The White House’s recently announced “America’s Great Outdoors” conservation program shows some encouraging signs – such as including landowners, sportsmen and business representatives in initial…
Blog
Green Thumbs and GMOs
A friend just recommended this op-ed published in the Boston Globe on Sunday. The title and subtitle say it all: "Green Thumbs: Genetically engineered crops…
Blog
The Story of Leftist Propaganda in Schools
At BigHollywood.com, Anne McIlhinney critiques the anti-industrial environmental propaganda film, The Story of Stuff. The film’s narrator, Annie Leonard, argues that modern civilization…
Blog
A salute to coal mining
In today’s Investor’s Business Daily, CEI’s Iain Murray tells about his first-hand experience with coal-mining and salutes the miners and the mine owners…
Newsletter
Alcohol, Climate Change, and Landscaping
The government currently enforces a system of alcohol distribution whereby importers, breweries, and wineries can only sell to wholesalers. Some government ads about global warming…
Blog
Is There No Adult Supervision at the Campaign for Liberty?
My colleagues brought to my attention this grossly misinformed, misleading, and error-laden essay on the Campaign for Liberty’s website. The main thrust of the piece…
Blog
Obama Administration Rewards Corrupt Mortgage Giants, Punishes Productive Private Banks, Fleeces Taxpayers and Responsible Credit Cardholders
The Obama administration wants to increase taxes on productive banks that are self-supporting, while exempting the mortgage giants and other companies that got massive taxpayer…
Blog
If we want elephants to die off, we only need to do what we’re doing
They can be saved, however. Dan Hannan in London talks about “privatising” the elephant (and watch the video): To us, elephants are…
Blog
One cheer for Obama on nuclear energy
Obama has done something right concerning nuclear energy; credit where credit’s due. But he also did something very wrong, which we’ll get to. The president…
Blog
O’Neill on the Sorry Heritage of “Overpopulation”
At Spiked Online, Brendan O’Neil dissects the absurdity of neo-Malthusians who seek to portray themselves as intellectual mavericks, by presenting “overpopulation” as the environmental…
LaCrosse Tribune
Use of Genetically Modified Alfalfa Unnecessarily Held Hostage
What’s the most sustainable way to grow the food we eat? If you think the answer is always local and organic, you may be…
Blog
New Federal Program Kills Jobs, While Costing Taxpayers Half a Billion Dollars
A federal biofuels program enacted in the name of fighting global warming and reducing dependence on foreign oil is instead killing jobs while perhaps…
Richmond Times-Dispatch
EPA Delivers Lump of Coal to Appalachia
If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, the Environmental Protection Agency would still investigate. This corny…
Blog
Following the scientific method: an example
Experiments in science that don’t reinforce scientists’ hypotheses can be vitally important in understanding complex systems. Serious scientists don’t fudge the results or hide…
Newsletter
Suing NASA, Swine Flu Declines and Climategate Tricks
CEI announces a plan to sue NASA over violations of the Freedom of Information Act. The Centers for Disease Control report cases of swine flu…
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Other L.A.
The hot and humid impoverished region of Lago Agrio has unusual tourism traffic these days. Its renowned Toxic Tours have attracted many…
Blog
Buffet Displays Hope in America’s Energy Future
Warren Buffet, one of the most respected investors in America, recently purchased Burlington Northern, one of the nation’s largest railroads with some 32,000 miles of…
Blog
Obama One Year Later — A Legacy of Lies and Broken Promises
It’s been a year since the president was elected, and he’s already piled up an impressive list of lies and broken promises. The broken promises…
Richmond Times-Dispatch
1 Year Later-Obama’s Legacy of Lies and Broken Promises
It’s been a year since the president was elected, and he’s already piled up an impressive list of lies and broken promises.
Blog
Cap-and-Trade Global Warming Bill Is A Scam, Experts Reveal
Two EPA lawyers criticized the cap-and-trade energy bill passed by the House as a scam, noting in The Washington Post that it will be manipulated…
Blog
“Cities are probably the greenest thing that humans do.”
Environmental guru and author of the Whole Earth Catalog Stewart Brand has a new book out in which he argues that "My fellow environmentalists have…
Blog
Science and the Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture
The UK Royal Society's long-awaited study on improving agricultural productivity and increasing food security was released this morning. it suggests that a healthy concern for…
Blog
Bill Gates Says Africa Needs GMOs
On Friday, Bill Gates announced at the World Food Summit in Des Moines that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would be redoubling its efforts…
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Not So Peachy Advice
Recently featured on Good Morning America, the Environmental Working Group identified a “dirty dozen” list for the most contaminated produce that includes: peaches, apples,…
Blog
Three Cheers for the Nobel Economic Prizes!
After the weird “future” award to President Obama of the Nobel Peace Prize, another Nobel committee has made a brilliant choice – awarding the Economics…
Blog
2002 Economics Nobel Prize Winner Vernon Smith on 2009 Winner Elinor Ostrom
In honor of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Economics to Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, it’s worth recalling a mention of Ostrom’s…
Newsletter
Opposing Net Neutrality, TSA Unionizing and Banning Soft Toilet Paper
The Washington Post editorializes against the FCC’s proposed “net neutrality” regulations. The American Federation of Government Employees seeks to unionize airport safety screeners and other…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 54: Shovelnose Sturgeon
Why does the Fish and Wildlife Service want to list it as a threatened species? Because it looks like the pallid sturgeon, which is currently…
Blog
AP: Obama Health-Care Plan Raises Taxes, Breaks Campaign Promises
The Associated Press is now chiding President Obama for falsely claiming that his proposed tax on uninsured people is not a tax. It is…
Blog
Chevron Plaintiff Lawyer’s Least Favorite Writer
In Forbes yesterday, New York lawyer Steven Donziger, consultant attorney for Ecuadorian plaintiffs in the suit against Chevron, criticizes my article,…
News Max
Cap-and-Trade’s Cost to Americans: $1,761 per Household
Blog
Big Health and Energy Tax Increases for the Middle Class from Obama and Liberal Congressmen
Even the trimmed-down version of Obama's health-care plan recently announced by a ranking Senator contains lots of tax increases for the middle class.
Blog
The Man Who Fed the World
Norman Borlaug was an American agricultural scientist and plant breeder whose work sparked what is now known as the Green Revolution. He was recognized with…
Blog
The New Organic and Out-of-the-Box Thinking
Congratulations to Pamela Ronald, a UC Davis plant pathology professor, on winning one of this year's Science in Society Journalism Awards, sponsored by the National…
News Max
‘Racist, Communist’ Green Jobs Czar Van Jones Resigns
Obama’s racist, communist, America-bashing Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones, has resigned after revelations that he was a 9/11 “Truther,” who believed that George Bush…
Blog
Video Evidence Suggests Chevron Lawsuit Riddled With Corruption, Santacruz Comments on the Case
A major scandal has arisen in the biggest environmental lawsuit in history - the $27 billion lawsuit against Chevron oil company brought by a lawyer…
News Release
Consumer Reports Becomes National Snitch
CONSUMER REPORTS BECOMES NATIONAL SNITCH Turns High-Performing Showerhead Over to EPA for Exceeding Water-Flow Limit Washington, DC, August 31, 2009 – CEI today…
Washington Examiner
Greens Threaten American Indian Prosperity
Navajo Nation, the largest tribe in the United States, has faced a number of enemies in its long history: Anasazi warriors, Andrew Jackson and now,…
Blog
Freegom Isn’t Free
Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal, a new book by British author Tristram Stuart, will soon be hitting shelves in the UK and…
Products
CEI Planet: May – June 2009
To view this issue of the CEI Planet, please click here to download the PDF file. Below are selected articles…
Blog
The Environment’s “Odd Couple”: Sustainable Use and Private Management
Chaffee County, Colorado currently has the opportunity to engage in an advantageous business partnership, but environmental groups are attempting to derail this proposition that…
Blog
Penn and Teller on Organics
The irreverent and hilarious comedians Penn and Teller have produced another episode of their television show Bullshit about organic foods. Friends of CEI, Ron Bailey…
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
- Banking and Finance
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
Founder; Chairman Emeritus
- Automobiles and Roads
- Aviation
- Business and Government