Air travel and rail transport were early examples of deregulation bringing huge benefits to consumers and industries. Yet automobility, air travel, and freight rail, are increasingly threatened with further regulation that will reduce their ability to transport goods and people. CEI opposes these attacks by arguing for greater freedom in mobility and opposing perverse transportation industry regulations.
Transportation Issue Areas
Featured Posts
Blog
A smoother path through security: Improving the TSA short of privatization
With Congress finally passing a Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill last week, the immediate crisis that left airport security strained is behind us. However,…
Blog
Highway robbery in plain sight and how to fix the Highway Trust Fund
Established to provide a dedicated, user-financed stream for highway investment, the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) was once a model of fiscal alignment between revenue…
News Release
Energy and oil prices driving force behind March inflation increase: CEI analysis
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for March shows a 0.9 percent increase across all sectors, mainly driven by significantly higher energy and oil…
Search Posts
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. TRANSPORTATION The twin bankruptcy filings this week of Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines raise…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. AUTOMOBILITY The Wall Street Journal editorializes on why tightening federal fuel economy standards would “trade blood…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. ENERGY Lost refining capacity in the wake of Hurricane Katrina contributes to higher gas prices and…
News Release
Katrina Shows Weaknesses of Energy Supply Chain
Washington, D.C., August 30, 2005—The disruption to oil and gas operations off the coast of Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina this week has raised…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. AUTOMOBILITY Scripps Howard columnist Jay Ambrose cites Sam Kazman’s work on the deadly effects…
Op-Eds
Fuel Efficiency Trade-Offs
Monday's Page One article “Drumbeat grows louder for fuel efficiency” cites John Lichtblau's claim that Congress missed an opportunity in the recently enacted energy…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. AUTOMOBILITY Forbes reports on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s plan to update its fuel economy…
News Release
NHTSA to Make Fuel Economy Program Deadlier
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today is expected to announce new fuel economy standards for light trucks, including SUVs, a move the Competitive Enterprise…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. HEALTH & SAFETY More people are debunking the myth that fast food is responsible for obesity…
News Release
Auto Emissions Report Ignores Safety Concerns
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” /> Washington, D.C., August 10, 2005—Today, Environmental Defense released an updated report advocating higher restrictions on…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. HEALTH & SAFETY The EPA proposes new regulations governing storage of radioactive waste at the proposed…
Op-Eds
Bureaucrats Can’t Run A Railroad
Given its recent troubles, Amtrak's flagship Northeast corridor high-speed Acela train might as well be renamed “Decela.” Amtrak officials suspended the service and acknowledged that…
Op-Eds
Bureaucrats Can’t Run A Railroad
Given its recent troubles, Amtrak's flagship Northeast corridor high-speed Acela train might as well be renamed “Decela.” Amtrak officials suspended the service and acknowledged that…
News Release
First Step in Fuel Economy Reform Should Be Assessing CAFE’s Lethal Effect
Contact: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 <?xml:namespace prefix =…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. AUTOMOBILITY The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposes new fuel economy rules based on car…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
1. ENERGY Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger imperils California’s economy with new regulations on greenhouse gases. CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow…
Op-Eds
Privatize Amtrak the Right Way, Avoiding Pitfalls of British Experience, by Iain Murray
WASHINGTON – Given its recent troubles, Amtrak’s flagship Northeast corridor high-speed Acela train might as well be renamed “Decela.” Amtrak officials suspended the service and…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. TRANSPORTATION Communities in states such as Michigan, Florida, Texas and…
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Abolish Federal Pension Guarantee
Just as the squeaky wheel gets the grease, a government program gets Congress’ attention by going deep in the red. And the Pension Benefit Guaranty…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. CIVIL LIBERTIES A coalition of conservatives and liberals unite to oppose the renewal of…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. ENERGY The Senate is debating whether to add limits on greenhouse gas emissions to…
Study
The Revolution Spins toward More Regulation
Full document available in pdf format. …
Op-Eds
Air Sickness: Who’s to Blame? (Part 2)
Full study available in pdf format If management-labor relations at large airlines are preventing fair competition with newer airlines, to what extent…
Newsletter
The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News 1. TRANSPORTATION Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta warns Amtrak that federal funds may not be available to bail…
Study
Privatizing Rail, Avoiding the Pitfalls Lessons from the British Experience, by Iain Murray
Full Document Available in PDF The U.S. national…
Op-Eds
American Dream or American Politics?
To the Editor: Roland J. Hwang has a curious approach to the issue of the auto industry's future (“Hybrids can propel Big 3…
Study
The Price is Right—Or Better Be!
Full Document Available in PDF On the popular television game show “The…
News Release
$1.5 billion Bush Tax on Air Travel Fails Cost-Benefit Test
Contact for Interviews: Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> …
New York Times
The autonomist manifesto
New York Times
Honk if you hate cars
News Release
Honk If You Support World Car-Free Day
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252 …
Op-Eds
Sam Kazman: Too Tough on SUVs, Too Soft on Mini-Cars
Official traffic statistics are one of the last things that you'd expect to find distorted by political correctness. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,…
News Release
New Study Indicates Federal Fuel Economy Standards Even Deadlier Than Previously Thought
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” /> Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Jody Clarke, 202.331.2252…
News Release
Evidence Contradicts NHTSA Claim of Growing SUV Risk
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” /> Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison,…
Op-Eds
The Scapegoat Utility Vehicle
Reprinted with permission from Foundation for Economic Education, http://www.fee.org First sin, then treason, and finally, reckless idiocy. For owners…
Op-Eds
Is Big Bad?: SUV Critics Hold Consumers in Contempt
Reprinted with permission from the August/September issue of Reason magazine. High and Mighty: SUVs: The World’s Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got…
USA Today
Republican Senator, Auto-Safety Advocate Form Unlikely Alliance
News Release
Energy Legislation End Game in Senate
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273…
Op-Eds
Rules May Save Fuel but Won’t Save Lives
When it comes to saving fuel, federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations are expensive, cumbersome and insidiously deadly. They force new technologies…
News Release
Two Groups Sue Transportation Department over Fuel Economy Standards
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Click here for audio soundbites (mp3), soundbite 1; soundbite 2.
News Release
Two Groups Sue Transportation Department over Fuel Economy Standards
Contact for Interviews: <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273 The…
News Release
CEI President Urges DOT to Reduce Regulation of Online Travel Services
Today the Department of Transportation (DOT) is holding a public hearing regarding the latest review of its restrictions on computer reservations systems (CRSs).
News Release
Federal Auto Regulations Getting Deadlier
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Washington, D.C., April 2, 2003—New federal fuel economy rules announced yesterday will make Americans less safe…
CEI Planet
February Edition of CEI Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition:…
News Release
East Coast Snowstorm Shows Usefulness Of SUVs
Washington, D.C., February 20, 2003—Instead of being attacked for their vehicles, SUV owners this week heard only calls for help. From Virginia…
News Release
Boost Your Environmental IQ Online
Washington, D.C., February 7, 2003—The Competitive Enterprise Institute is launching a new online feature, the "e-class" quiz, this week. The quiz, developed by CEI’s…
News Release
Senators Introduce Deadly New Proposal
Washington, D.C., January 30, 2003 — Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) today proposed increasing the severity of one of the…
News Release
SUV Owners Under Assault Again
Washington, D.C., January 8, 2003— A new campaign attacking SUVs and linking them to terrorism through our dependence on foreign oil is farcical…
Products
January Edition of CEI Monthly Planet
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition: “The Grim Green…
News Release
Deadly Auto Regulations May Get Worse
Washington, D.C., December 12, 2002—The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is today announcing that it will propose an increase in the fuel economy standards…
USA Today
Letter to the Editor, The Washington Post
Railroad deregulation provides a model for liberalizing all network industries. Network industries such as railroads, electricity and telecommunication have two elements: the flows (trains,…
Study
Online Travel Services: The Antitrust Assault On Orbitz – And On Consumers
Full Document Available in PDF Orbitz,…
Products
June/July 2002 Edition of CEI Update
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition: “Daniels In The…
News Release
Will California’s Senate Follow Assembly’s Lead And Pass Costly Auto Regulations?
Washington, D.C., April 26, 2002 — The California State Assembly has passed new regulations that could increase the cost of new cars and…
Op-Eds
FDA Overreaches
Who could possibly oppose a pediatric-testing rule for drugs? For starters, physicians and parents who realize that while this rule is supposed to protect children,…
News Release
CEI Ad Opposes Robert Redford’s Twisted Logic On Fuel Economy Standards
Full Document Available in PDF Format Summary ROBERT REDFORD,IF YOU’RE GOING TO PUT OUR LIVES AT RISKFOR THE SAKE…
News Release
Robert Redford’s Latest ‘Role’ Misleads Americans About Dangers of Fuel Economy Standards
Washington, DC, March 20, 2002—Robert Redford may have given the most incredible performance of his career when he narrated radio ads recently for…
News Release
New Fuel Economy Ad Campaign Misleading
Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002 — With the future of one of the federal government’s riskier regulations currently being debated in Washington, a…
USA Today
CAFE Society
Products
February 2002 Edition of CEI Update
Full Document Available in PDF Articles in this edition: “Poised For A Broadband…
USA Today
CAFE Kills Both Jobs and Motorists
Op-Eds
Bailouts: Picking Winners and Losers
Last September, after barely two weeks of debate, Congress enacted legislation to bail out the nation's airlines. Intended to help repair the economic…
Op-Eds
Financial Aid For Airlines Calls For Careful Decision
Last September, after barely two weeks of debate, Congress enacted legislation to bail out the nation's airlines. Intended to help repair the economic…
Op-Eds
WHO Cares? World Health Organization Cares More About Its Own Life Than The Lives Of The Poor
Paul Dietrich was visiting Mozambique’s capital city, Maputo, during its civil war in 1984, when an educational billboard taught him a lesson he never forgot.
Op-Eds
Airport Insecurity
DeLong Op-Ed in National Review Online Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge recently told Chris Matthews that airplane security ultimately depends on the passengers,…
Op-Eds
Private Sector Is Better At Providing Airline Safety
Today, after weeks of stalemate in Congress, President Bush will sign the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. On the key sticking point, federalization…
Op-Eds
Armed Crews Can Protect Airliners
DeLong Op-Ed in The Providence Journal <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> The Senate recently passed an airport-security bill that contains…
Op-Eds
Beware “Simple” Solutions
Gattuso Op-Ed In The USA Today<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Everyone agrees that action is needed to improve…
Op-Eds
If Pork Had Wings
Horner Op-Ed in The Washington Times<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> That didn't…
Op-Eds
Fear of Federalizing
Gattuso Op-Ed In The Washington Times<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Less than a month after…
Study
Will New Regulation Derail the Railroads?
Full Document Available in PDF Despite the success of railroad…
Op-Eds
Is Bailout The Best Remedy?
Gattuso Op-Ed in The Washington Times<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Before the tragedies of Sept.
Op-Eds
A Crashing Failure: The Stupid Tragedy of CAFE
Provided courtesy of www.nationalreview.com/ If the National Academy of Sciences discovered that a certain chemical was killing several…
Comment
Automobility And Freedom: Kazman Remarks At The Objectivist Center
Reprinted from Navigator, Volume 4, Number 8, September 2001. (This article is adapted from a lecture that Sam Kazman gave at…
USA Today
Resort to False Fuel Savings
Products
Life, Liberty, And Cell Phones
From the August 2001 Edition of CEI Update A car speeds down a busy highway, zigzagging unpredictably from lane to…
Study
The Leaked Study on CAFE: Why It Doesn’t Justify Higher Fuel Economy Standards
This past Monday, the New York Times carried a front-page story on the National Academy of Sciences’ auto fuel-economy study.[1] The…
Op-Eds
Massachusetts: Go Slow on Disconnecting Drivers
Gattuso and Rupert Op-Ed in The Lowell Sun<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> …
USA Today
Fatal Mileage Rules
Products
A Real Bill Of Rights For Passengers
Well, the sure signs of summer are upon us once again. The temperature is rising, there are tourists everywhere, and things are slowing down to…
Op-Eds
Blame EPA for Oil Companies’ “Price-Gouging”: Lieberman Op-Ed
Distributed by Bridge News Service Distributed by Bridge News Service April 5, 2001 WASHINGTON–Last June, drivers in Chicago…
Products
Now, Who’s to Blame?
California Governor Gray Davis and the state’s Democratic legislature are starting to seize control of the energy industry in Next to the…
Products
The Campaign Against the Car: Europe’s Call for a Car-Free Day
From the October/November issue of CEI UpDate Al Gore might not have mentioned it during his presidential campaigning, and you…
Products
Where Are All the Flying Cars?
Whether it’s H.G. Wells or 2001: A Space Odyssey, it seems that everyone has a vision of the future. The optimism of the post-war era…
Products
The Great Global Gasoline Crunch of 2000
From the October/November issue of CEI UpDate High motor fuel prices are now a major issue, both in America…
Op-Eds
Big Regulations for the Big Rigs: Gattuso Op-Ed in Washington Times
Published in the Washington Times Published in the Washington Times October 18, 2000 For most of this…
News Release
If Auto Safety Defects Are Criminalized, Shouldn’t Ralph Nader Be in Jail?
Washington, DC, October 2, 2000 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute today charged that congressional proposals to criminalize auto safety defects failed to…
Op-Eds
Car-Free Days? No Thank You: Hanasz Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal Europe
Published in the Wall Street Journal Europe September 20, 2000 We are all by now accustomed to the many campaigns to "free" us from the…
Op-Eds
Punish Ford-Firestone, But Don’t Reward NHTSA: Kazman WSJ Op-Ed
Published in the Wall Street Journal September 12, 2000 This year’s worst tire disaster claimed more than 100 lives. It came after scores of documented…
Products
Airline Mergers: What to Fear
Sometimes it seems that if you stick around Washington long enough, you start to see policy issues repeat themselves, coming around for a…
Op-Eds
Death By Caution: Fuel Economy Standards Cost Lives
The Precautionary Principle has become the rhetorical war-horse of the global warming movement. With the Earth's survival at issue, environmentalists claim, it's surely…
News Release
New Smart Air Bag Rule as Bad as the Original Mandate
WASHIGNTON, DC, May 5, 2000 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute today charged that NHTSA’s new smart air bag rule could be a potentially deadly replay…
Products
Only Smart Air Bag Mandate is No Mandate at All
By the time you receive this newsletter, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) either will have issued its “smart” air bag mandate, or will…
News Release
Most Americans Are “Dirty,” Says Enviro Group
Washington, DC, February 14, 2000 – “According to the League of Conservation Voters’ (LCV) Congressional Scorecard, most Americans are ‘anti-environmental,’” said Angela Logomasini, Director of…
News Release
Institute Attacks FAA Child Restraint Mandate As Deadly
Washington, DC, December 17, 1999 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute today charged that FAA’s newly-proposed child restraint mandate will actually increase transportation fatalities. The…
News Release
Institute Releases New Study On “Cars, Women, and Minorities”
Washington, D.C., November 29, 1999 – While grouching over holiday traffic preoccupies much of the nation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute today releases a…
Study
Cars, Women, and Minorities: The Democratization of Mobility in America
Full Document Available in PDF The central role of…
Op-Eds
Entrepreneurs Still Finding Sunny Skies
When JetBlue Airlines makes its debut this winter, its passengers may be reaching for buckets of popcorn instead of peanuts. The airline industry’s latest contender,…
News Release
CEI Launches Radio Campaign Against CAFE
Washington, DC, August 26, 1999 – Federal regulations that mandate fuel efficiency for new cars are also making them less safe, contributing to thousands…
Washington Times