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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News Release
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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News Release
Enlightened Green Alternative To Earth Day Blues
Washington, DC, April 17, 1998 —Saving the planet is a nice idea, but the focus on Earth Day has for too long been on…
Study
Conservation Through Commerce
Full Document Available in PDF To many people the words “conservation” and “commerce” are anathema. And…
Study
Flush With Anger: Should Washington Regulate Toilets?
One of Congress’ dumbest ideas was having federal bureaucrats redesign household appliances. Under the 1992 Energy Policy Act, several plumbing fixtures must now meet…
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How Green Was Common Law?
On December 17, the Center for Private Conservation hosted a roundtable on the Common Law Approach to Pollution Prevention to assess the extent…
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Told Ya’ So: The Trojan Pony’s Revenge
On March 16, the General Accounting Office reported that people who exercised their rights under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996…
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Fishing For Solutions
While dramatic stories of thedepletion of the world’s fish stocks frequently grab the spotlight in the popular press, reports of the death of fishing…
Study
Conservation Easements & Private Land Stewardship
Full Document Available in PDF “Conservation easements” are property rights created to…
News Release
Institute Attacks Whitman Call For State Control of Open Space
Washington, DC, January 21, 1998 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) blasted Governor Christie Todd Whitman’s (R-NJ) plan to lock up one million acres…
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Who’ll “Manage” Managed Care?
Public anxieties over the quality and limitations of managed health care are fueling a new round of federal proposals to regulate the medical marketplace. The…
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Farmland Everywhere
To just about anyone who has driven non-stop from St. Louis to Denver it is practically inconceivable that American is running out of farmland. Yet…
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Schell’s Game in Seattle
In November, Seattle voters elected Paul Schell mayor. Few were surprised. Schell was the anointed candidate, the establishment favorite. Populist challenger Charlie Chong, by contrast,…
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Privatizing The Inner City
Suburbanites have long benefited from the control over their immediate surrounding environment that they get from the system of land use controls in their areas.
News Release
International Land Designations Threaten Sovereignty, Usurp Powers Of Congress
WASHINGTON, DC June 3, 1997 – A proliferation of international treaties aimed at protecting the “global environment” are involving the United Nations increasingly in…
Study
The Wood Duck
The wood duck has long occupied a special place in the hearts of waterfowl fanciers, hunters, bird watchers, and others because of the male’s striking…
Study
The Wood Duck
Full Document Available in PDF The wood duck has long occupied a special place in…
Op-Eds
Lords of the Flies
When President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, he inadvertently codified Aldo Leopold’s stylish but stupid aphorism, “To keep every cog and…
Study
The Yellowstone Affair: Environmental Protection, International Treaties, and National Sovereignty
Full study available in pdf format Environmental regulation has gone international in recent decades. There has been a proliferation of treaties, conventions, and protocols aimed…
News Release
Wetland Study Author to Testify on Hill
WASHINGTON, DC April 29, 1997 —Denouncing the Army Corps of Engineer's Section 404 wetlands restoration program as “costly, ineffective, and unnecessary” Environmental Policy Analyst…
News Release
America is Swamped: Study Documents Net Increase In Wetlands
WASHINGTON, DC April 17, 1997 —America is gaining wetlands, according to a new study by the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The study found that over…
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Better Late Than Never
The Food and Drug Administration has long been criticized for delaying the approval of new medical drugs and devices. Under outgoing Commissioner David Kessler, the…
News Release
Institute Offers Grazing Reform to Chew On
Establishing, tradable grazing rights will go a long way to resolving the differences between ranchers and environmentalists, according to a new study released by the…
News Release
New CEI Study: Promising Treatments Delayed by FDA
Charging that outgoing FDA Commissioner David Kessler has left a legacy of increased bureaucracy and deadly overcaution, the Competitive Enterprise Institute will release a new…
News Release
New FDA Bill Offers Hope for the Desperate
The Access to Medical Treatment Act (H.R. 746 ), a bipartisan bill being introduced in the House today, marks a step forward in both medicine…
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More Kid Stuff
Advocates of politically controlled universal health care coverage have retooled their offensive game plan. Uninsured children will serve as blocking backs for an end run…
Study
How To Reform Grazing Policy
Full Document Available in PDF Property rights have been recognized since ancient times as an essential element of a well ordered society.
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Real Patient Protection
An old political maxim has it that "as Maine goes, so goes the nation." A few decades ago, however, the balance of political trend-setting power…
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No Basis in Reality
"If there is one event that causes the diverse environmental community to hyperventilate in unison, it is an assault on the ESA (Endangered Species Act),"…
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The Power of Positive Drinking
CEI is back in federal court. On October 29th, CEI filed suit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to challenge the agency’s…
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Message From the President: Hoarding the Nation’s Wealth
President Clinton's presidential order to drive man and his works from much of southern Utah makes political sense, but makes for very bad policy.
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Green but Anti-Government
Numerous opinion surveys have documented widespread public support for environmental protection. Polls routinely find that over 70 percent of Americans characterize themselves as environmentalists…
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The Political Economy of MSAs
As noted in the last issue of UpDate, the tax-advantaged medical savings accounts (MSAs) proposed in this year's round of congressional health care legislation would…
News Release
Listen to CEI’s Radio and TV ads on Drug Lag–the delayed availability of new therapies due to FDA regulation
CEI’s radio ad on FDA’s drug approval system, Ocean Storm, is available at: http://cei.org/sites/default/files/CEI_Radio_Storm.mp3 CEI’s television ad is available at:…
Products
MSA’s — Panacea or Placebo?
The policy debate over whether to extend tax benefits to Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) has tended to polarize into two camps. MSA advocates gravitate toward…
Study
Private Reef Building in Alabama and Florida
Full Document Available in PDF Fishing communities around the world…
Products
Regulation vs. Conservation
For the past two decades, federal land-use control has been the primary means of protecting endangered species and ecologically-sensitive lands. Laws such as the Endangered…
Study
Rachel’s Folly: The End of Chlorine
Full Document Available in PDF The environmentalists are right about one thing: Dirty…
Study
Oysters and Willapa Bay
Contents: Oysters Oysters and Willapa Bay Eliminating the Tragedy of the Commons Experimentation and Innovation Fighting for Water…
Study
Resolving the Tragedy of the Commons by Creating Private Property Rights in Wildlife
Full Document Available in PDF During…
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Private Protection
Since 1970, conservationists have painted a dismal picture of an increasing struggle for survival of wildlife, with one species after another being pushed to the…
Op-Eds
Restricting Trade Will Not Help The Environment
Full Article Available in PDF Format Executive Summary Expanding free trade to include all nations could have beneficial effects…
Study
How to Dismantle the Interior Department
Full Document Available in PDF The Department of the Interior was…
Study
The World’s Forests
Full Document Available in PDF A number of diverse currents and pressures are simultaneously being brought to bear on the world’s forests. In…
Study
How And Why To Transfer BLM Lands To The States
Executive Summary Devolving federal responsibilities to the states has emerged as a central theme of the 104th Congress. No area has greater potential…
Study
The True State Of The Planet
The True State of the Planet: Ten of the World’s Premier Environmental Researchers in a Major Challenge to the Environmental Movement Date: 1995 Edited…
Study
Appendix: Are Property Rights Popular?
Full Document Available in PDF Conflicting sides in the property rights debate claim popular…
Study
Property Wrongs: The Growth of Federal Land-Use Control
Full Document Available in PDF In the spring of…
Study
Putting People Last: Endangered Species vs. People
Full Document Available in PDF Law-abiding, workaday Americans all across…
Study
Population, Food, and Income
Full Document Available in PDF World population has increased tremendously in our century…and it continues to grow with extraordinary speed. This demographic explosion,…
Study
Pick a Number
Full Study Available in PDF How much would you be willing to pay for an…
Op-Eds
A Free-Market Environmental Vision
Full Chapter Available in PDF Format Executive Summary There is one environmental vision, and only one, that is compatible…
Op-Eds
Fire in Paradise: The Yellowstone Fires and the Politics of Environmentalism
ON AUGUST 20, 1988–A DAY THAT came to be known as “Black Saturday”–about 160,000 acres were consumed by fires in the greater Yellowstone Park…
Op-Eds
The Market and Nature
(Originally appeared in The Freeman, September 1993) Many environmentalists are dissatisfied with the environmental record of free economies. Capitalism, it is claimed, is…
Op-Eds
Eco-Apartheid: It’s Africans versus Elephants and Environmentalists
Full document available in pdf format.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Developing nations regularly complain that……
News Release
Consumer Advocacy Group Attacks FDA for Slow Approval of Cancer Treatment
May 14, 1992—(Washington, DC) The Competitive Enterprise Institute today charged that FDA’s delay in approving Interleukin-2 may have cost as many as 3500 lives. IL-2…
Op-Eds
Environmental Policy at the Crossroads
Full Chapter Available in PDF Format Executive Summary It has always been with us, and…
Op-Eds
Environmental Protection: Is there a Better Way
Earth Day 1990-22 April—marks twenty years since the first Earth Day and since the modern environmental movement became a force for politicians to reckon with.
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