In recent years, especially under the Biden administration, there has been an unprecedented attack on the supply of reliable and affordable energy, from reducing oil and gas lease sales to the administration’s efforts to shift from reliable electricity sources to renewable energy sources. The partisan Inflation Reduction Act is a central piece of the harmful electrification effort that will undermine the electricity grid. If all of this was not bad enough, there are also governmental efforts to limit Americans from using reliable and affordable energy, such as efforts to severely limit the availability of gas-powered vehicles and bans on natural gas appliances.
Ensuring abundant, reliable, and affordable energy is a must, as is consumer freedom when it comes to energy. The Competitive Enterprise Institute advocates for policies to keep energy abundant, affordable, and competitive. Carbon fuels—coal, natural gas, and oil—provide about 80 percent of U.S. and global energy. They are the world’s dominant energy sources because, in most markets, they beat the alternatives in both cost and performance.
CEI is leading efforts to defend the personal energy choices of Americans. We advocate for policies that will stop government at all levels from banning or restricting what good and services Americans can choose to best meet their needs.
For decades, CEI has opposed regulatory overreach from the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies that put undue costs on energy industries and consumers. These include President Biden’s new power plant rule, the “Blackout Plan,” which would ignore the major questions problems detailed in West Virginia v. EPA, increase consumer electricity prices, and threaten grid reliability. CEI’s research and policy proposals have been instrumental on energy issues.
Featured Posts

Blog
President Trump’s three new energy executive orders: A quick overview
On April 8, President Trump signed three new executive orders (EOs) that address the United States’s energy sector. The key themes of the EOs include…

Blog
Congress needs to repeal the Biden EPA and California attack on gas-powered cars
The attack on gas-powered vehicles exists on multiple fronts, including through federal and state regulation.Regarding federal regulation, much of the attention has been focused on…

News Release
Senate votes to repeal Biden rule against water heaters
Today the U.S. Senate voted on a joint resolution to repeal a Biden-era Energy Department rule imposing unwarranted energy efficiency restrictions on consumer water…
Search Posts
The Guardian
Trump Aides Abruptly Postpone Meeting on Whether to Stay in Paris Climate Deal
The Guardian highlights CEI’s digital ad urging President Trump to withdraw U.S. commitment to the Paris Climate Treaty. Conservative and free market groups…
Daily Caller
Corporate America’s Support Of The Paris Climate Agreement Is Exactly Why Trump Should Oppose It, Say Former Transition Officials
The Daily Caller discusses with Myron Ebell how corporations are lobbying the Trump administration to stay part of the Paris Climate Treaty. U.S.-based…
Washington Examiner
Conservative Group Prods Trump To Withdraw From Paris Climate Deal
Washington Examiner discusses with Myron Ebell CEI’s ad urging President Trump to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Treaty as he promised to during…
Blog
Saving Coal: Most Foolish Reason to Support Paris Agreement
A gaggle of coal-industry interests is aggressively lobbying the Trump administration to stay in the Paris Agreement, which they claim President Trump could modify to…
American Spectator
Government Makes the Poor Poorer
American Spectator discusses environmental regulations that harm the poor with Marlo Lewis. Marlo Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute points out that the…
Washington Times
How government makes the poor poorer
The Washington Times discusses how an enviornmental regulation harms the poor with Marlo Lewis. Marlo Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute points out…
The Gazette
Critics of repealed FCC law overreact
The Gazette discusses the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband privacy rule with Ryan Radia. Ryan Radia, research fellow and regulatory counsel at the Competitive…
Investor's Business Daily
Stephen Moore: Government Makes The Poor Poorer
Investor’s Business Daily discuss how certain enviornmental regulations can hurt the poor with Marlo Lewis. Marlo Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute points…
Blog
The Great Greenhouse Rollback Begins
On Tuesday, March 28, President Trump signed his Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth. The E.O. directs agencies to suspend, revise,…
Blog
Top Three Silliest Reactions to Trump’s Climate Executive Order
#3 Silliest Reaction: Red Scare! According to Nathan Richardson at Resources for the Future, the big problem with Trump’s Executive Order is what it signals…
Blog
White House Proposes Expanded Cuts to EPA Budget
The White House is going to send Congress an EPA budget that is $5.7 billion, or 31% below current funding of $8.1 billion.
Blog
Buckeye Institute Study: Ohio’s Green Energy Mandate Is Bad Economics
If Ohio's renewable energy mandate is fully implemented, the state would suffer 134,100 fewer jobs and a loss of $15.5 billion in GDP by 2026…
Blog
Let Africa Power Its Future with Affordable Energy
Economic development in Africa needs affordable, reliable fossil fuels, not expensive, intermittent renewables, as some Western environmentalists demand.
Blog
White House Proposes 24% Budget Cut for Environmental Protection Agency
Last week that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had sent its initial budget numbers to the Environmental Protection Agency for the agency…
Blog
Proposed EPA Budget Cuts Raise Serious Concerns
Proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency budget suggest a poorly thought out initial effort.
Blog
Science Committee Spotlights Major Flaws in Calculating ‘Social Cost’ of Carbon Dioxide
Estimating the "social cost" of carbon is a highly speculative enterprise that should not be guiding federal policy on energy and the environment.
Blog
Failure to Renounce Paris Climate Deal Would Create Major White House Policy Conflict
On the campaign trail, presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would “cancel” U.S. participation in the Paris Agreement. He now appears to be back-pedaling.
Watchdog.org
Despite impending plant closures, coal’s death could be ‘greatly exaggerated’
Watchdog discusses with Marlo Lewis the current financial struggle of coal plants, and the future the coal industry is facing. Marlo Lewis, a…
Blog
Will Trump EPA Challenge California’s De Facto Authority to Regulate Fuel Economy?
Former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is now Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Pruitt led the coalition of 27 states, more than…
New York Times
E.P.A. Workers Try to Block Pruitt in Show of Defiance
The New York Times discusses Scott Pruitt’s nomination and Civil Service rules at the Environmental Protection Agency with Myron Ebell. The showdown could…
Blog
GOP Beltway Veterans Pitch Trump on Carbon Tax
A group of former Republican White House and cabinet officials advocated a carbon tax in a meeting with Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn, Ivanka Trump,…
Blog
Trump Not Bound by Obama Volkswagen Settlement with EPA
The judicial settlement which was reached between Volkswagen and the U.S. Department of Justice last October infringes on President Trump’s Article II authority.
Blog
Congress Should Nullify Obama’s Unlawful and Wasteful Methane Rule
This week, the U.S. House will consider a Congressional Review Act joint resolution of disapproval to overturn the Bureau of Land Management’s methane capture rule.
Blog
Congress Should Eliminate SEC Rule that Discloses Company Information to Foreign Governments
Congress should pass a joint resolution of disapproval and block the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rule relating to ‘‘Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers.”…
Blog
Congress Should Eliminate Obama’s Stream Protection Rule
Congress should eliminate the Department of Interior’s harmful Stream Protection Rule. …
Blog
White House Should Revisit Volkswagen Settlement with EPA
A coalition of free-market groups ask President Trump to investigate the VW emissions settlement with the EPA.
Blog
Senate Should Disregard Spurious Public Health Charges against EPA Nominee Pruitt
The Senate should disregard accusations that EPA Administrator-designate Scott Pruitt is somehow responsible for asthma rates in his home state of Oklahoma.
Blog
Trump Reverses Obama Rejection of Keystone XL Pipeline
President Trump today signed executive orders aimed at reviving the Keystone XL Pipeline and rescuing the Dakota Access Pipeline from death by regulatory delay.
Blog
Pruitt Cool under Fire at Senate Confirmation Hearing
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing on the nomination of Scott Pruitt to be Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Blog
Chamber of Commerce CEO Lays Out 2017 Agenda
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue gave his annual “State of American Business Address” to a packed hall at the Chamber’s H…
Blog
Scrutinizing Sen. Carper’s Questions for EPA Nominee Pruitt
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) is unwilling to hold a confirmation hearing on President-elect Trump’s choice for Environmental Protection Agency administrator until the nominee, Oklahoma Attorney…
Blog
Questions Senators Should Ask Rex Tillerson
Tillerson is probably the only influential person President-elect Trump would ever nominate as Secretary of State who supports both a carbon tax and the Paris…
Blog
Activist Criticism Again Misses Mark on EPA Nominee Pruitt
It’s implausible to argue that Pruitt’s past acceptance of PAC donations are “unprecedented” for someone overseeing the…
Blog
Environmental Litigation Strategies and Defenses for Trump Era
Environmental litigation groups like the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Center for Biological Diversity will pursue three types of lawsuits over the…
Blog
New York Times Misleads on U.S.-China Renewable Energy Trade
The source of demand for Chinese renewable energy exports are countries, like the U.S. and Europe, that have mandated and subsidized green energy.
Blog
Energy & Environmental Policy News: Multimedia Roundup
Observations and analysis on recent energy and environment news by senior fellow William Yeatman.
Blog
EPA Region 6 Throws Bombs to the Bitter End
Among the Environmental Protection Agency's 10 offices, by far the most aggressive during the Obama administration has been Region 6, which operates out of Dallas…
Blog
Trump Administration Will Have Legal Authority to Halt Clean Power Plan
It would not be illegal for President Trump to order the Environmental Protection Agency not to enforce the Clean Power Plan.
Blog
Best of the Blog 2016
Certain topics were especially popular with readers in 2016.
Blog
NRDC Is Wrong: Trump Can Issue Day 1 Executive Order Declaring Clean Power Plan Illegal
The Clean Power Plan in its current form is illegal, and there is no problem with the President issuing an executive order to this effect…
Blog
Two Recommendations for EPA: 1) Revise, Don’t Repeal; 2) Do Your Job
There is a climate policy that’s even worse than EPA regulations written by Natural Resources Defense Council lobbyists: state torts for injunctive or monetary relief…
Blog
Obama Couldn’t Win a Third Term, Because He Would Have To Own His Global Warming Policy
I strongly doubt that President Obama would win a third term, as he claimed yesterday.
Blog
EPA’s Clean Power Plan Lies Undermine Congressional Oversight
Congress’s primary means of investigation are hearings and follow up questions, but these mechanisms are rendered meaningless when the agency lies.
Blog
Congress Must Combat Threats to Affordable Energy
Policy makers should reject policies to tax and regulate away mankind’s access to affordable energy.
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…
E&E News
In right’s energy-subsidy clash, shades of Koch vs. Pickens
National Review
Who is ‘Richard Windsor’?
In The Liberal War on on Transparency, published by Threshold Editions last month, I revealed the existence of a series of black, or “alias” email…
Blog
Can Congress Veto EPA’s Fuel Economy Rush Job?
The Environmental Protection Agency’s recent proposal to keep in place the agency’s model year greenhouse gas emission standards for new motor vehicles is the epitome…
Blog
RealClear Radio Hour: Political Disasters in Science and Economics
This week on RealClear Radio Hour, Marc Edwards and Dan Liljenquist recount politically induced disasters from the perversion of science to the pension crisis.
Blog
Trump Picks Scott Pruitt to Head EPA
Yesterday, President-elect Donald Trump picked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The nomination is significant in several ways.
Staff & Scholars

Sam Kazman
Counsel Emeritus
- Antitrust
- Automobiles and Roads
- Banking and Finance

Paige Lambermont
Research Fellow
- Capitalism and Free Enterprise
- Energy
- Energy and Environment

Marlo Lewis, Jr.
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment

Ben Lieberman
Senior Fellow
- Climate
- Consumer Freedom
- Energy

Jacob Tomasulo
Policy Analyst
- Climate
- Energy
- Energy and Environment