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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Op-Eds
Privatizing National Parks
Wonders never cease. China, once the poster child for socialist nonsense (remember the backyard steel furnaces?), seems determined to experiment with a wide…
Op-Eds
In Too Deep: Wetland Rules Move Toward Local Control
Freeman Op-Ed in National Review Online<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in hot water…
Op-Eds
Wildfire Witch Hunt Will Likely Miss The Real Culprits
A witch-hunt is under way in Washington state for the negligent weenie roasters believed responsible for sparking a modest forest fire that suddenly turned deadly…
Op-Eds
Dredging Politics: A Purely Political Decision
Klutz and Riggs Op-Ed in National Review Online<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> With a few highly visible environmental decisions under…
Op-Eds
Placing Private Property Rights at Risk
Freeman and Riggs Op-Ed in The Washington Times<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> If the presidential election were based on surface…
News Release
Land Grab Legislation Headed for Vote
Washington, DC, July 24, 2001 – The U.S. House Committee on Resources is expected to vote this week on a bill that would…
News Release
CEI Criticizes FDA Delay In Approving New Heart Valve
Washington, DC, July 27, 2001—The Food and Drug Administration acted far too slowly in approving the Omnicarbon heart valve, the Competitive Enterprise Institute…
News Release
Environmental Experts Criticize Legislation that Threatens Private Landownership
Washington, DC, June 20, 2001 – The House Natural Resources Committee is today hearing testimony on a bill that would massively increase government…
Op-Eds
Sustainable Development? How About Sustainable Growth?
The economic news out of Europe is bad — again. The euro is trending lower. German business confidence is down. Once-optimistic growth forecasts are being…
Study
Arsenic and Old Politics
View Full Document as PDF President George W. Bush has been taking a lot of heat for his decision to review the…
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Secretary Norton Highlights Private Conservation Day
Ffteen years ago Dr From the May 2001 CEI UpDate Fifteen years ago Dr. A. G. “Skeet”…
News Release
Bush Administration Backs Roadless Rule, Proposes Amendments
Washington, DC, May 4, 2001- The Competitive Enterprise Institute is urging the Bush administration to set a tight timetable for local forest review…
News Release
Bush, Court to Consider “Roadless Rule” for National Forests
Washington, DC, May 3, 2001- The Competitive Enterprise Institute is urging the Bush administration to revoke the controversial “roadless rule” for national forests,…
News Release
Bush Administration’s First 100 Days: A Report Card on Environmental Policy
Washington, DC, April 26, 2001— The Competitive Enterprise Institute today released grades for President Bush’s first 100 days of environmental policy. Many of…
News Release
CEI Commends Bush for Reviewing Drinking Water Rule
Washington, DC, April 23, 2001— The Competitive Enterprise Institute praised the Bush administration for its recent announcement that it will postpone the arsenic…
News Release
Media Advisory: Proponents of “Smart” Environmentalism Available for Earth Day
Washington, DC, April 17, 2001— As people around the world prepare to celebrate the 31st Earth Day, this Sunday, April 22nd, concerned individuals…
Study
Rescind Clinton’s 58.5 Million-Acre Roadless Designations
In one of his last acts as president, Bill Clinton set aside 58.5 million acres of “roadless” area in the national forests. This…
Op-Eds
Dead Wood
The sudden departure late last month of U.S. Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, a Clinton-era holdover, evoked a sigh of relief in parts of the…
Op-Eds
Entrepreneurs and the Environment: Michael De Alessi in The World and I
Encryption and Health Care Published in The World and I April 1, 2001 Despite much ecological pessimism in recent…
News Release
Environmental Policy Expert to Testify Before Government Reform Committee on Roadless Plan for National Forests
Washington, DC, March 26, 2001 – In testimony tomorrow before the House Committee on Government Reform, Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow…
Op-Eds
Congress Holds Private Conservation Hearings
We expect "firsts" to occur at the beginning of a new legislative session Freeman Op-Ed in Environment and Climate News We expect…
Op-Eds
Forest Service Tinderbox Policies: Robert Nelson WT Op-Ed
Published January 29, 2001 Published January 29, 2001 The Washington Times Forest fires in the United States devastated more…
Study
Salmon Conservation in Scotland: A History of Legislative Tradition and Private Action
Full Document Available in PDF Iain…
News Release
Norton Confirmation Good News for Western Lands
Washington, D.C., January 30, 2001 – “The confirmation of Gale Norton offers the nation an opportunity to rethink and reformulate environmental policy,” said…
News Release
Gale Norton May Return Western Lands to Western Hands Despite President Clinton’s Monument Designation
Washington, D.C., January 18, 2001 – While Congress considers the confirmation of Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior, President Clinton announced the…
Op-Eds
Strong Bush Prescription Needed to Cure an Overactive FDA: Henry Miller Guest Op-Ed
Much of the real work of the new Bush administration will be done not by the high-profile members of the president’s cabinet w…
News Release
Gale Norton Under Assault by Pro-Regulation Greens
Washington, D.C., January 12, 2001 – Secretary of the Interior-Designate Gale Norton faces an uphill confirmation fight. Ms. Norton’s history of pursuing innovative…
Op-Eds
The Medicine Chest ‘Villain’: Roger Bate WT Op-Ed
Ever since I read “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” as a young boy, I have been a big fan of the mysteries penned by spy-master, John…
News Release
Current Federal Approach to Wetlands All Wet
January 9, 2001 — Two developments yesterday on the issue of wetlands regulations demonstrate that, as CEI has long argued, the current federal…
Op-Eds
The Monumental Hoax Behind the Starlink Scare: Miller Op-Ed in the National Post
Published December 31, 2000 Published in the National Post (Canada) January 06, 2001 Headline: The Monumental Hoax Behind the…
News Release
CEI Releases “Sprawl” Principles as Nation Awaits EPA Appointment
Washington, DC, December 21, 2000 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute, along with over one hundred other co-signers, announced ten principles for freedom…
News Release
Organic Food Standards May Violate First Amendment
WASHINGTON, DC December 20, 2000—New standards for organic foods may violate First Amendment free speech rights, the Competitive Enterprise…
Op-Eds
All the Hype that Can Be Put to Type: Sean Paige Op-Ed in Washinton Times
Published in the Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT) Published in the Washington Times October 08, 2000 …
Op-Eds
A Scorched-Earth Debate Hits West
Smoke still is rising from vast scorched acreage in the Rocky Mountain West, and fire continues ruthlessly to consume the tinderbox that much of the…
Op-Eds
Abolish The Forest Service: Bob Nelson in Forbes Magazine
Thin out small trees to protect forests from fire. Not a bad idea, as recently floated by the U.S. Forest Service, but too late when…
Study
Western Wildfires: Seeing the Forest Through Dense, Dead, and Diseased Trees
This year’s forest-fire season in the West may be the worst in 50 years. An area larger than Maryland-6.5 million acres-has burned, and…
Products
Let’s Go to the Videotape! Documentary Provides Balance to Save-the-Rainforest Celebs
From the August/September 2000 issue of CEI UpDate Two cute tamarinds, perched on a branch, appear to frown and furrow their brows with…
Op-Eds
Clearing the National Forests’ Underbrush: Freeman/Simmons Op-Ed in Raleigh N-O
Published in the News and Observer (Raleigh, NC) <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News…
Op-Eds
Fires By Design: Bob Nelson Op-Ed in Washington Post
Published in the Washington Post Published in the Washington Post August 9, 2000 This year's forest fire season in the West may…
Study
A Burning Issue
This book argues that the U.S. Forest Service has outlived its usefulness. It should be abolished. Founded in 1905,…
Op-Eds
Lessons From the Western Fires: Colorado Can Learn From Los Alamos — Nelson Op-Ed in Denver Post
Published in the Denver Post Published in the Denver Post June 25, 2000 You may have seen the…
Op-Eds
Smokey Bear’s Bad Adventure: Bob Nelson Op-Ed in Sacramento Bee
Copyright 2000 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc Published in the Sacramento Bee July 12, 2000 Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune News…
Products
Foul Water or Foul Science? The EPA Targets America’s Farms
Next up in the regulatory bulls-eye: American agri-culture. Washington’s tool to expand its scope over this sector of the economy comes in the…
Op-Eds
Uncle Sam Gets Burned Out West
Some say the world will end in fire,” wrote the poet Robert Frost, “some say in ice.” But after the wildfires U.S. westerners recently witnessed…
News Release
CEI Comments to USDA on Proposed Organic Rules
COMMENTS OF THE COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE TO THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE,…
News Release
Capitol Hill Briefing on Forest Policy
The Competitive Enterprise Institute<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> invites you to a lunch briefing with Dr. Robert H.
Comment
CEI Scholar Testifies Before Congress on Forest Policy
Full Document Available in PDF My name is Robert H. Nelson. I am a Professor of Environmental Policy at the School of Public…
Op-Eds
Labelling And Risk: The Case Of Bioengineered Foods
More and more, consumers are basing their food purchases on individual preferences about food content. For many consumers this means a focus on nutrition or…
News Release
NEW CEI BOOK: Free Market Environmental Reader Now Available
Ecology, Liberty & Property: A Free Market Environmental Reader Jonathan H. Adler, Editor Publication Date: Spring 2000Price: $16.95ISBN #1-889865-02-8 Click here to order Ecology, Liberty…
Study
Ecology, Liberty & Property
Ecology, Liberty & Property: A Free Market Environmental Reader Publication Date: Spring 2000Price: $16.95ISBN #1-889865-02-8 Are free markets and environmental protection compatible? Is…
Op-Eds
Introduction to ‘Ecology, Liberty, and Property’
The book "Ecology, Liberty, and Property: A Free Market Environmental Reader," edited by Jonathan H. Adler, was published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute in 2000.
Products
CARA Land Grab a Congressional Wallet Snatch
On May 11 the House of Representatives voted 315 to 102 to pass the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), which now goes to the…
Products
Flames at Los Alamos: What Went Wrong?
In December 1999, the Los Alamos National Laboratory identified “wildfire as the greatest threat to Los Alamos operations.” As recently as April, Diana Webb,…
Op-Eds
The Forest Service Plays With Fire: Riggs/Simmons Op-Ed in OC Register
Published in the Orange County Register May 21, 2000<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Do…
News Release
Fueling Los Alamos: Longstanding Federal Land Mismanagement Coupled with Recent Timber Restrictions Create Combustible Mix
Washington, DC, May 11, 2000 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute charged that fires like the one raging at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in…
News Release
House Passes Massive Land-Grab Bill: Majority of Republicans Abandon Private Property and Balanced Budget for Pork
Washington, D.C., May 11, 2000 – In the same week the national laboratories at Los Alamos were evacuated due to out-of-control wildfire on government…
News Release
New Earth in the Balance; Same Old Muddled Thinking
May 1, 2000 — Ah, how the time flies. It’s been 30 years since Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) and company sponsored the first Earth…
News Release
Earth Day 2000—A Time For Celebrating Successes
Washington, DC, April 21, 2000 – There will be a lot to celebrate tomorrow when millions of people around the world gather on the 30th…
News Release
CEI/Chamber of Commerce Environmental Summit 2000 slated for April 7
The gloves come off April 7. That’s when Ron Bailey, adjunct scholar at CEI and the editor of Earth Report 2000, squares off…
News Release
New Article Blasts Environmental Myths
Washington, DC, March 6, 2000 – Environmental journalist Ronald Bailey proved Al Gore and his radical Green friends wrong today with his new article…
Products
Say It Ain’t So, Andy!
The Sobering Scope of EPA’s Total Maximum Daily Load The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will not allow California farmers Guido…
News Release
Melting Polar Ice Caps Most Likely Caused By Natural Changes
Washington, DC, February 28, 2000 – The U.S. Global Change Research Program is holding a public seminar today on Capitol Hill, “Climate Change in…
Study
Opération Déclubage Management of Recreational Fisheries in the Province of Québec
Full Document Available in PDF In the 1974 movie The Apprenticeship…
Products
Why the Buffalo Roam
Contrary to popular myth and legend, the fabled American plains buffalo were not saved by the US government. They are not even true buffalo.
Study
Earth Report 2000
Earth Report 2000: Revisiting the True State of the Planet Date: 1999 Edited by: Ronald Bailey Published by: McGraw-Hill Earth Report 2000 is a…
News Release
Public Interest Groups File Deceptive Advertising Complaint Against Ben And Jerry’s
Washington, DC, December 16, 1999 – Citizens for the Integrity of Science and the Competitive Enterprise Institute filed a complaint with the Federal Trade…
News Release
Al Gore’s Statistical Hocus Pocus On Urban Sprawl: Gobbling Up Numbers, Not Open Space
Washington, DC, December 9, 1999 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute charged that Vice President Al Gore’s claim earlier this week of an alarmingly increased…
News Release
ER Physicians: “FDA is Too Slow”
WASHINGTON, DC, October 29, 1999—A new nationwide poll of emergency room physicians sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) finds that delays in FDA…
News Release
ER Physicians: “FDA is Too Slow”
WASHINGTON, DC, October 29, 1999—A new nationwide poll of emergency room physicians sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) finds that delays in FDA…
Products
Cows or Buffaloes?
Products
Lessons From Cypress Bay
Op-Eds
Forest Fires Rage as Government Fiddles: Bob Nelson Op-Ed in LA Times
Published in the Los Angeles Times Published in the Los Angeles Times October 17, 1999 COLLEGE PARK, MD —…
Citation
Feds Prepare to Gobble Up Land
Op-Eds
Urban Growth Boundaries Not so Smart for Growth (Letter to the Editor)
The Aug. 30 District Forum on revitalizing regional smart growth argued that “the challenges of growth can only be met successfully at the regional level.”…
Study
Anti-“Sprawl” Policy: Congested Thinking and Dense Logic
“Urban sprawl” has morphed into a catchall phrase that describes the cause and consequence of any social deviation related to the suburbs, including, and…
Study
Dumb and Dumber: Two Wrongs Don’t Make A Patients’ Bill of Rights
This week, the Senate considers legislation to impose a lengthy laundry list of new federal regulations and accompanying costs on employer-insured health plans. The…
News Release
Institute Opposes “Patients’ Bill of ‘Wrongs'”
Washington, D.C., July 13, 1999 – This week the United States Senate is considering the “Patients’ Bill of Rights,” an amalgam of various mandates…
Op-Eds
Michigan by the Sea: Bob Nelson Article in Weekly Standard
Michigan by the Sea Published in The Weekly Standard July5/July 12, 1999 issue In the 1980s and ’90s,…
News Release
David Riggs Joins CEI
Washington, D.C., June 8, 1999 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is pleased to welcome economist and policy analyst David Riggs to its environment…
News Release
Fact And Fiction On “Smart Growth” & “Urban Sprawl”
Vice President Al Gore and environmental activists argue that suburban development, pejoratively called “urban sprawl,” is destroying the environment. Loss of farmland and open…
News Release
Earth Day Is A Time To Remember The Proud History Of Private Stewardship, Says Conservation Group
April 22 should be a time of reflection on the great efforts by the thousands of people who work diligently to preserve some small…
News Release
Media Advisory: Earth Day Experts
Most Americans want a clean environment. That is no surprise. What surprises traditional environmental activists is that most people don’t support extensive federal regulation.
News Release
Pro-Environment, Not Pro-EPA: Americans want environmental protection, but not more federal regulation
America’s support for strong environmental protection does not translate into strong support for heavy-handed federal regulation. CEI’s just released National Environmental Survey demonstrates that…
News Release
Pro-Environment, Not Pro-EPA: Americans want environmental protection, but not more federal regulation
America’s support for strong environmental protection does not translate into strong support for heavy-handed federal regulation. CEI’s just released National Environmental Survey demonstrates that…
Study
Culling To Be Kind: Why This Year’s Ivory Sales Will Help Elephant Conservation
View Full Document as PDF This month, nearly 34 tons of elephant ivory from Namibia and Zimbabwe will be shipped to…
Study
Saving Fisheries without Property Rights: “Surgery with a Baseball Bat”
View Full Document as PDF The collapse of the once-rich fisheries off the coast of New England is testimony to the…
Products
Smart Growth Stupidity
For years, redevelopment has been pushing Austin’s low-income Latinos eastwards. A couple decades ago, the culprit was a highway: IH35, a road that runs…
Op-Eds
Only The Forest Service Can Prevent Forests
Remember,” Smokey Bear likes to remind careless campers, “only you can prevent forest fires.” Only you – and the U.S. Forest Service, which has been…
Study
FDA Modernization After One Year: Drug Approval is Still Too Slow
The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997—signed into law one year ago this Wednesday—is under attack. Spurred by the withdrawal of…
Study
Regulatory Sprawl: Who Should Decide Where We Live?
View Full Document as PDF On September 9, the Sierra Club released a distraught report on urban sprawl, blaming the spread…
News Release
Clinical Drug Testing: Will Reform Equal Delay?
Washington, DC, June 11, 1998 — Reports released today by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) vastly overstate the need for new…
News Release
Clinical Drug Testing: Will Reform Equal Delay?
Washington, DC, June 11, 1998 — Reports released today by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) vastly overstate the need for new…
News Release
Clinton-Gore Ocean Photo-Op Goes Overboard
Washington, DC, June 11, 1998 — A Clinton Administration ocean conference now under way is a misguided effort to generate controversy and justify unwarranted…
Products
Urban Sustainability
The grand cliché of environmental policy, "sustainable development," has migrated into urban affairs, where the native politicians and bureaucrats have made it their own.
Products
ATF Documents Reveal Ban on Protected Speech
We have previously reported on CEI’s pending lawsuit with the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) challenging the constitutionality of the agency’s ban…
Study
Taking Private Land for Private Interests: The Agenda and Policies of the American Farmland Trust
Full Document Available in…
News Release
Food Fight! Federal Organic Labeling – One Big Unadulterated Mistake
Washington, D.C., May 1, 1998 — “A government attempt to define organic food is no different than a government attempt to regulate religious doctrine…
News Release
Food Fight! Federal Organic Labeling – One Big Unadulterated Mistake
Washington, D.C., May 1, 1998 — “A government attempt to define organic food is no different than a government attempt to regulate religious doctrine…
Products
The Mother of All Food Fights
Someone once commented that, if the federal government regulated restaurant fare, there’d be blood in the streets. Vegetarians would be fighting with meat-eaters, Jews…
Products
The Promise of Private Conservation
Private individuals, groups, and associations provided conservation amenities long before the birth of the environmental movement, but today these efforts are often subsumed by…
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