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.
Featured Posts
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: The search for critical minerals with Seaver Wang
In this week’s episode we cover the latest employment data, a new award for academic courage, free speech versus native…
National Review
Endangered Species Act reform restores property rights and common sense species conservation
For decades, the federal government’s misinterpretation of a single word (“harm”) in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has had severe effects on…
Study
Permitting Reform for a Freer and More Prosperous Nation
Contents Special Advisors The Importance of Permitting Reform Part 1: 11 Principles for Permitting Reform Part 2: Statute-by-Statute Analysis for Permitting…
Search Posts
Los Angeles Times
Threatened Species Could Lose Habitat Protections Under Department of the Interior Proposal
The Los Angeles Times cited CEI’s Rob Gordon on the Endangered Species Act. Rob Gordon, a spokesman for the free market think tank Competitive…
News Release
CEI Praises Dept of Interior’s Proposed Changes to Endangered Species Act Regulations
This week, the Department of Interior announced proposed revisions to portions of the regulations that implement sections of the Endangered Species Act.
News Release
CEI Applauds President Trump’s Pardon of Dwight and Steve Hammond
Today, President Trump announced the pardon of Dwight and Steve Hammond, two ranchers from Eastern Oregon who were prosecuted under the Antiterrorism Act of 1996…
Blog
Reforming ‘Waters of the United States’ Critical for Economic Growth
The Waters of the United States rule vastly expanded government control over land in America and is one of the prime examples of the…
Comment
Testimony of Myron Ebell on The Enhancing State Management of Federal Lands and Waters Act
View Full Document as PDF Chairman Gosar, Ranking Member Lowenthal, and members of the Committee: Thank you for inviting me to testify today…
4-traders
More than 50 Members, Stakeholders Call on Admin to Scrap Obama Mineral Withdrawals
4-traders cited the work of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in pressing reviews of Obama-era mineral withdrawals which were implemented without due consideration for the local…
The Hill
‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Is Back in Trump Era
The Department of the Interior on Jan. 4 released the draft of an Outer Continental Shelf oil and natural gas leasing plan that would dramatically…
Blog
Department of Interior Announces Ambitious New Offshore Oil Plan
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has announced an ambitious new oil and gas leasing plan for the federal Outer Continental Shelf.
The Daily Caller
With the Stroke of a Pen, Trump Claims Victory in the Decades-Long Battle Over ANWR
The Daily Caller covers the ANWR provision of the tax reform bill. President Donald Trump signed tax reform legislation that also ends the battle…
Blog
A Banner Year for Deregulation on Energy, Climate, and Environment
2017 has been a banner year for advancing free market policies across the board on energy, climate, and environmental issues.
Blog
President Trump Should Defend Federal Land Use and End Abuse of Antiquities Act
Misuse of the Antiquities Act by radical environmental pressure groups and compliant presidents circumvents the constitutional authority of Congress…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Supporting Review of National Monuments Under the Antiquities Act
View Full Document as PDF Dear Mr. President, As leaders of grassroots, legal, and public policy organizations throughout the United States, we…
Blog
Former U.K. Environment Secretary Owen Paterson Outlines the Environmental Benefits of Brexit
On October 4, 2017, Owen Paterson MP, who until 2014 was the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, visited…
Blog
Common Sense Trumps Absurd Bottled Water Ban
Cheers to the Trump Administration for taking this common sense stand on bottled water in national parks.
Blog
New Film ‘Food Evolution’ Confronts Confusion on GMO Crops
Genetic modification of food crops is a valuable scientific process that has already helped feed countless millions of people around the world and provided breathtaking humanitarian…
Blog
Smart Move to Repeal Department of Interior ‘Valuation Rule’ on Minerals
The repeal ensures that coal leasing and sales can continue while the agency develops and adopts a new rule informed by public comment.
News Release
CEI Supports Reducing Federal Lands for National Monuments, Returning Lands to Private Ownership
Myron Ebell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Center for Energy and Environment, responded to the Interior Department’s assessment of the use of federal land as…
Blog
NYT Pesticide Exposé Only Exposes Foolish Reporting
EPA decision not to ban chlorpyrifos was based on sound science.
Blog
Environmental Activists Continue to ‘Bee’ Wrong about Honeybee Health Challenges
Lawmakers need to start ignoring the environmentalist hype and let bee keepers continue to resolve environmental health challenges.
Blog
New Study Shows Minimal Pesticide Impact on Bees
95 percent of the time there were no detectable levels of neonics in hives or pollen from. This indicates a very minimal exposures, which should…
News Release
CEI Praises EPA Decision to Repeal Disastrous Waters of the U.S. Rule
This week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved to repeal the Obama administration’s Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule. This rule expanded federal oversight…
Blog
Trump Issues Executive Order on ‘America-First Offshore Energy Strategy’
President Trump issued an executive order on Friday directing the Departments of Interior and Commerce to “encourage energy innovation, exploration, and production” in U.S. offshore areas including…
Blog
An Overdue Review of the Antiquated Antiquities Act
Kudos to President Trump for signing the Antiquities Act executive order today directing Interior Secretary Zinke to undertake the long overdue review of the misuses and…
News Release
CEI Applauds Trump Executive Order To Counter Massive Land Grabs
President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review the designation of dozens of national monuments on federal lands. The…
Blog
Free the Fishermen: Cause of Action Defends Small Business at Sea
Cause of Action is defending New Hampshire fisherman David Goethel, and others like him, from extraordinarily expensive government regulations.
Blog
Struggling Fishermen Sue over Cost of Harvest Monitoring
It can be difficult to make one’s living off of the land – or the sea – these days. Federal and state regulations on natural resource…
Blog
Endangered Species Bee Listing Could Harm Bees, Butterflies, other Pollinators
In the interest of both pollinators and landowners, the incoming Trump Administration needs to advocate and pass serious reforms to the Endangered Species Act.
Blog
Obama’s National Monument Designation: Second-Term Environmental Policymaking at Its Worst
It is outrageous that President Obama, on the way out the door, would try to irrevocably federalize 1.3 million acres in the state, in spite…
Blog
Property Rights Are the Key to Protecting Land
We often hear that only government can protect the environment through outright land ownership or heavy regulatory control of private land.
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…
Washington Post
Feds not Needed
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
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…
