While some improvements has been made nationally in both air pollution and water cleanliness, both laws have resulted in the most complex, comprehensive, and costly environmental laws in existence.
Additionally, environmental improvements in both areas began to improve prior to the 1970s when both laws were enacted. Through pragmatic regulatory reform of both laws, the Competitive Enterprise believes Americans can have clean water and improved air quality without submitting to undue regulations that strangle industry and harm our economy.
Featured Posts
News Release
EPA tailpipe rule an abuse of power, consumer freedom
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today released its final rule on vehicle tailpipe emissions, which mirrors the proposed rule on the expected percentage of…
Blog
Spending bills fail to provide checks on Biden’s energy and environmental abuses
Over the weekend, House and Senate appropriations released the text of six final fiscal year (FY) 2024 spending bills: Energy and Water, Agriculture, Military…
Blog
EPA’s Scientific Integrity Policy is unscientific, lacks integrity
The Environmental Protection Agency recently released a draft update to its “Scientific Integrity Policy,” which aims to ensure the agency’s science-based decisions and…
Search Posts
Blog
Are There Broader Implications of the Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling?
“In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s mercury and air toxics standards, charging that the administration failed to adequately consider…
Blog
Understanding the EPA’s Power Grab through the “Waters of the U.S. Rule”
Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) promulgated the Waters of the U.S. Rule, a…
News Release
New EPA Regulation Codifies Uncertainty; Congress Should Overturn
Today, the Obama administration announced a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation that will affect thousands of waterways and wetlands. Myron Ebell, director of CEI’s…
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
California Drought 2.0, or Is it 3.0?
California’s water woes are back in the headlines after Gov. Jerry Brown commanded a 25 percent cut in consumption last week after extended drought. Pricing matters…
Blog
Taxpayer-Funded Green Ministries in Prince George’s County Violate the Constitution
Reporters like separation of church and state, unless it’s progressives violating it. Then, they lose interest in the concept. A recent Washington Post story cheerily reported on churches…
InsideEPA
CEI Pushes Air Law Reform To Bolster State-EPA ‘Cooperative Federalism’
Conservative think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is suggesting Congress pursue Clean Air Act amendments to correct what it sees as an imbalance in…
Blog
Western Water and California Drought, Part 2: No Need for Malthusian Despair
Well, some good news—it’s raining in Los Angeles. Western droughts combined with questionable water access policies spawn water crises that unfortunately are not unique…
Study
How the EPA Is Undermining Cooperative Federalism under the Clean Air Act
When it crafted legislation to fight air pollution, Congress relied on America’s unique system of federalism. For most of the Clean Air Act’s history, states and…
Forbes
Fountains Of Solutions: Western Water And California Drought
Ah, California drought and clashes over water rights: Nothing new, but the Washington Post now proclaims “nervousness over the state’s epic drought has given way…
Study
Congress Needs to Repeal “Buy America” Law
View Full Onpoint Here Communities will pay excessively high prices for water infrastructure upgrades during the coming decades unless Congress repeals a…
Blog
Separation of Powers Survived Today by a One-Vote Margin
My colleagues over at GlobalWarming.org are already mulling over what today’s ruling in UARG v. EPA means for the future of American industry and energy production, but there’s…
National Review
Man vs. Wild — California Water Crisis
National Review’s Law and Disorder Debate, “Man vs. Wild: California in Crisis,” took place in Washington, D.C., on February 28, 2014. The keynote speakers were…
Study
Myths and Facts about the West Virginia Chemical Spill
Senior fellow and chemical policy expert, Angela Logomasini, Ph.D., released a report examining the myths and facts surrounding the Jan. 9 chemical spill in West…
Master Resource
Supreme Court Global Warming Case: What Legislative History Reveals about Congressional Intent
“The EPA acknowledges that the Timing Rule produces ‘absurd results’ that contravene congressional intent…. The Timing Rule clearly exceeds any discernible congressional intent…
Arizona Daily Independent
EPA targets wrong cause of haze in Grand Canyon
William Yeatman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute notes that: “Regional Haze is an aesthetic regulation pursuant to the Clean Air Act. Its purpose is to…
EPW
Neglecting a Cornerstone Principle of the Clean Air Act: President Obama’s EPA Leaves States Behind
Cited on pages 15, 19, 22, 25.
Forbes
Will Supreme Court Review Of Greenhouse Rule Take Air Out Of EPA Regulatory Overreach?
Marlo, first of all, what potential significance does this Supreme Court decision to review the case have? Does it indicate evidence of a shift within…
Letters
Coalition Letter Opposing Reform-Less Water Resources Reform and Development Act
Full Document Available in PDF Coalition Letter Opposing Reform-Less Water Resources Reform and Development Act We understand that H.R. 3080, the…
Forbes
Supreme Court Takes Up Challenge To Sweeping EPA Carbon Rules
The appeal was supported by the U.S. Chamber, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Southeastern Legal Foundation as well as companies like coal…
Time
Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to EPA Climate Regulations
But there’s no doubt that this case will be a test for the Obama Administration and its green allies—and an opportunity for industry groups and…
Capital Research
The EPA’s War Against the States: States are supposed to lead in fighting pollution, but federal bureaucrats have usurped the states’ role
Full Document Available in PDF Summary: Congress intended the Environmental Protection Agency to work closely with state and local officials—those nearest to…
News Release
CEI Experts: New EPA Rule Could Mean End of Coal-Fired Plants in US
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 20, 2013 – If the carbon dioxide emissions standard for power plants proposed by the EPA today is enacted, the United States…
News Release
President’s Climate Plan Undemocratic, Bordering On Authoritarian, Disingenuous on Keystone
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 25, 2013 – President Obama’s climate agenda released today is being done without public or congressional support and is being pursued in…
News Release
CEI Has ‘Major Concerns’ With New Climate Agenda
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 24, 2013 — Competitve Enterprise Institute Experts Myron Ebell, Marlo Lewis and Christopher Horner will be available tomorrow to comment on President…
Comment
Testimony by Wayne Crews on the Water Desalination Act of 1996
CEI’s Wayne Crews testified before the House Subcommittee on Water and Power on Thursday, May 23, 2013 on the subject of the Reauthorization of Water…
Forbes
A Supreme Court EPA Decision That Could Cost Taxpayers $21 Billion Per Year
Is the Clean Air Act so badly flawed that it will cripple environmental enforcement and economic development alike unless the EPA and its state counterparts…
Forbes
EPA Cannot Regulate Water Flow, Federal Court Rules
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cannot lawfully restrict the amount of rainwater that enters a creek, a federal district judge ruled, in a victory for…
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…
Forbes
A fix for aging water lines
Municipal water lines in North Georgia are crumbling beneath residents’ feet. Aging iron pipes are breaking with greater frequency and inconveniencing businesses and commuters with…
Forbes
Competitve bidding solves Rome’s water problems
ROME’S AGING, corroded underground water pipes are crumbling beneath the feet of the city’s residents. Water main breaks are an inconvenience for businesses and commuters…
Forbes
Competitive bidding solves water problems one drip at a time
Augusta’s water lines are literally crumbling beneath citizens’ feet. Water line breaks are an inconvenience for businesses and commuters alike. Last year, a major eight-foot…
Comment
Comment Letter on EPA’s Carbon Pollution Standard
CEI's Marlo Lewis' comments submitted to the EPA on the agency's proposed "Carbon Pollution Standard."…
Study
All Pain and No Gain
The MACT Rule supposedly reduces risk to unborn children by lowering methylmercury concentrations in non-commercial fish. But the EPA provides no empirical evidence that any…
Forbes
The Pipe Crisis Beneath NYC
The recent nasty water-main break on West Broadway was a grim reminder that the city’s infrastructure woes aren’t restricted to pockmarked streets, creaky bridges and…
Comment
Testimony on Reauthorization of Water Desalination Act of 2011
Full Document Available in PDF Separation of State and Water Water availability is a core infrastructure concern; today, that specific legislative…
News Release
Study Calls for “Cost-Effective” Water Infrastructure Upgrades
Washington, D.C. April 12, 2012 — A new report published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute today highlights one critical tool in the battle to…
National Journal
Carbon Pollution Standard: 4 Ways Weird
EPA’s proposed “Carbon Pollution Standard” requires new fossil-fuel electric generating units (EGUs) to emit no more than 1,000 lbs of carbon dioxide (CO2) per megawatt…
News Release
EPA’s Global Warming Juggernaut Challenged in Court This Week
Washington, D.C., February 27, 2012 – EPA’s economically ruinous plans for regulating greenhouse gas emissions are being challenged in federal court this week by a…
Comment
Comment Letter on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Economy Standards
Full Document Available in PDF Re: 2017 and Later Model Year Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards and Corporate Average Fuel Economy…
National Journal
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…
National Journal
Myron Ebell: Environmental issues and the 2012 election
Myron Ebell: Environmental issues and the 2012 election…
National Journal
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…
Tri City Tribune USA
Healthy Breathing
Study
EPA’s Shocking New Mexico Power Grab
The EPA engineered an ad hoc regulatory regime under the Clean Air Act in order to run roughshod over New Mexico’s rightful authority and impose…
Comment
Marlo Lewis Testimony Before House Oversight & Government Reform Committee on CAFE Standards, EPA Power Grab
Full Document Available in PDF In the aftermath of a deal between the Obama administration…
Politico
EPA’s McCarthy: Clean Air Rules Fuel Jobs
Detroit News
House to Hold Hearing on 54.5 mpg Plan
Detroit News
Clean Air’s Dirty Residue
A lot has been made of recent court filings in which the Environmental Protection Agency suggested that it needed 230,000 more bureaucrats to regulate…
Staff & Scholars
Sam Kazman
Counsel Emeritus
- Antitrust
- Automobiles and Roads
- Banking and Finance
Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
Ben Lieberman
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment
Angela Logomasini
Adjunct Fellow
- Chemical Risk
- Consumer Freedom
- Energy and Environment
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
Founder; Chairman Emeritus
- Automobiles and Roads
- Aviation
- Business and Government