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
National Review
J. D. Vance’s One-Track Mind for Railroad Regulation
Ohio senator and GOP vice-presidential nominee J. D. Vance has something of a soft spot for unions, as evidenced by his co-sponsorship of the…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Paying for mass transit with Marc Scribner
In this week’s episode we cover California’s minimum wage for fast-food workers, overturning the FCC’s universal service fee, and pushing back on…
Capitol Matters
East Palestine Report: Congress Should Rethink Its Reaction
In almost a decade working for the British Department for Transport, no officials impressed me as much as the accident investigators. They were dedicated experts who…
Search Posts
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…
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
A DOT Driving Record
Study
Jack Kemp: Closing Down the Hard Times CAFE
Congress soon will decide whether to continue the “freeze” on existing CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards that have been in place for…
Op-Eds
When Auto Safety Is Against the Law
In 1997, between 20 and 40 Connecticut residents were killed by a defective product. The dangers ofI this product have been documented for more than…
News Release
New Study Shows Death Toll Of Auto Fuel Economy Mandates
Full Study available via .pdf file. Washington, DC, June 21, 1999 – Of the 21,000 car occupant deaths that occurred last year, between…
News Release
Jack Kemp Named Distinguished Fellow At Competitive Enterprise Institute
Washington, DC, April 29, 1999 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to announce that the Honorable Jack Kemp has been named CEI’s first…
Study
Passenger Service Regulation: A Placebo for Air Travel
View Full Document as PDF Spurred by several recent travel horror stories, the quality of airline travel has become a hot…
News Release
Safety Effects Of Fuel Efficiency Law Shift Public Opinion: Survey Shows
Washington, D.C. January 20, 1999 – A nationwide survey on environmental concerns released this week shows that most Americans oppose automobile fuel efficiency standards…
Products
Airline Deregulation – The Next Step
In the 20th anniversary year of airline deregulation, air travel is again at the forefront of public policy. Policymakers have been besieged with a variety…
Study
Airline Deregulation: The Unfinished Revolution
Full Document Available in PDF In the 20th anniversary year of airline…
Products
Cars and Communism
The following is excerpted from a forthcoming CEI monograph on mobility and the fall of Communism. Our grandparents told us…
News Release
Anti-Consumer Regulations Proposed By DOT
Washington, DC, April 6, 1998 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute today denounced proposed airline pricing guidelines released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation…
Study
Destroying Competition in Order to Save It: Predation Rules and the Airline Industry
“We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” According to legend, this rationale was once given by the U.S. army to…
Op-Eds
Large Vehicles Are The Solution, Not The Problem
Copyright 1998 Dow Jones Industrial, Inc. If you listen to journalists, you'd think sport-utility vehicles were more dangerous…
Products
Perry Mason Hearings
Blame it on inexperience, minority-itus, or El Niño, but some of our friends on Capitol Hill still imagine that the purpose of hearings is…
Products
We Luv Our Suvs
For a country so concerned about the well-being of soccer moms, it is hard to understand the recent verbal assault on their transportation of…
Products
Back to the Future
Over the past several years, America has faced a disturbing trend. It started with the disco revival and John Travolta’s return to the silver screen.
News Release
Institute Denounces Air Bag Deactivation Rule: Too Little, Too Late
WASHINGTON, DC, November 18, 1997 — The Competitive Enterprise Institute today charged that the U.S. Transportation Department's new air bag deactivation rule was a…
Products
Every Air Bag A Wanted Air Bag
Last December, as news spread of the risks posed by air bags to children and other vulnerable groups, President Clinton promised that “car dealers…
News Release
James Gattuso Joins CEI as Vice President
Washington, D. C., December 22nd, 1997 – The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) announced today that James Gattuso has joined the staff as Vice President…
Products
CAFE’S “Smashing” Success
If at first you cannot succeed in pushing a bad idea, try, try again – just use different rhetoric. Twenty years ago, when corporate average…
News Release
CEI Blasts NHTSA’S Handling Of Air Bags And CAFE At Congressional Hearing
WASHINGTON, DC May 22, 1997 -Testifying at a House reauthorization hearing on NHTSA, CEI today charged that the agency was on the verge of…
Products
Immorality of the Airbag Mandate
While the air bag issue occupies the full-time attention of dozens of technocrats, its ethical aspects have largely been ignored. At CEI's request, Bowling Green…
News Release
National Poll on Air Bags Shows Need for Change
WASHINGTON, DC March 28, 1997 — By a ratio of nearly 3 to 1, the public favors giving people the choice of purchasing a…
Study
Sudden Impact: The Collision Between The Air Bag Mandate And Ethics
Full Document Available in PDF Air bags…
Products
Drivers Caught in the Full-Cost Trap
Over the past several years, the push to limit Americans' use of their automobiles has gained a great deal of momentum. Advocacy groups and government…
News Release
Air Bag Hearings Turn Deaf Ear to Consumer Choice
Two free market-advocacy groups charged that today's Senate hearing on air bags was a meaningless replay that failed to consider real alternatives to the current…
Products
Cars and Civil Rights
1996 was the Centennial of the Car; it should have been called the Censorial of the Car. From magazine cover stories to interminable PBS…
News Release
Govt. Deliberately Watered Down Air Bag Warnings in 1993
Arguing that the public should ask some serious questions before being subjected to a “new and improved” air bag mandate, the Competitive Enterprise Institute will…
Products
Air Bags
Air bags were one of my first issues when I began working in public interest law twenty years ago. I had just started as…
Study
The Free Market Automobility Bibliography
News Release
Institute Rolls Out Study on Cars and Freedom
The Car is under increasing attack as a polluter, gas guzzler, and destroyer of civilized life. But in a new study to be presented…
Comment
Reforming the Endangered Species Act: The Property Rights Perspective
Full Document Available in PDF Thank you, Mr.
Washington Times
Trouble Standards
Op-Eds
Auto Fuel Economy Standards: Good For The Environment? Or A Cause Of Highway Deaths?
Full Policy Brief Available in PDF Format Executive Summary The Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program was part of legislation…
Op-Eds
The Liberating Benefits Of Automobility
Full Article Available in PDF Format American’s love affair with the automobile has become…
Orange County Register
