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
The American Spectator
Will California Hobble the US Railroad Industry?
CEI’s Patricia Patnode is cited in Reason on the EPA’s imposition of regulation: As Patricia Patnode of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which signed the…
Blog
This week in ridiculous regulations: train crews and airport concessions
Our colleague R.J. Smith passed away. R.J. coined the term “free-market environmentalism,” ran CEI’s private conservation efforts for many years, and was a valued…
Daily Caller
Here’s Why It Could Take Longer To Rebuild The Baltimore Bridge Than The Whole Transcontinental Railroad
CEI’s Ryan Young is cited in Daily Caller about the length of time it is going to take to rebuild the Balitmore bridge: “If…
Search Posts
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter to Congress Dispelling PFC Myths
Dear Members of Congress, We write to you today to dispel myths surrounding the airport passenger facility charge (PFC).
Blog
Congressional Democratic Leaders Meet with President on Infrastructure Bill
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other congressional Democrats met with President Trump on April 30 to discuss an infrastructure package.
Blog
CEI Leads Coalition Urging Surface Transportation Board to Withdraw Proposed Switching Rule
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) led a coalition of 20 other free market organizations urging the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to withdraw a harmful…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter to STB on Competitive Switching Rule
Dear Chairman Begeman, Vice Chairman Fuchs, and Member Oberman, We, the undersigned, wish to congratulate and welcome you to your appointments. The Surface Transportation Board…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Supporting DOT on California High-Speed Rail Funding
We, the undersigned organizations, representing millions of taxpayers nationwide, appreciate your leadership and support your efforts to de-obligate $929 million in federal grants not yet…
Eno Transportation Weekly
Airport Investments Discussed in House Transportation and Infrastructure Hearing
Eno Transportation Weekly cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner’s testimony on infastructure funding. Compromise arose both in the sense of considering a variety of revenue…
AASHTO Journal
House Ways and Means Committee Holds Infrastructure Funding Hearing
AASHTO Journal cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner’s testimony at the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on infrastructure funding. In the future, Marc Scribner, a…
MarketWatch
Key Republican Raises Alarm About Hiking Corporate Taxes to Pay for Infrastructure Overhaul
MarketWatch cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on infrastructure spending. “There are very real infrastructure needs in the U.S., but they are not uniform…
Roll Call
5 Ways Congress May Try to Fix the Highway Trust Fund
Roll Call cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on mass transit. Marc Scribner of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, who will testify at Wednesday’s Ways…
Bloomberg BNA
Talking Cars Speaking Different Tongues May Make FCC Pick Winner
Bloomberg BNA cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on the NCTA’s request to allow unlicensed use of 5.9 GHz airwaves for Wi-Fi calls. Potential…
Federal News Network
Audio: Automatic Vehicles: Safer Than Humans?
Senior Fellow Marc Scribner joins the Federal News Network to discuss how automated vehicles will reduce the number of injuries and property damage caused by accidents…
Spokesman
Spokane Airport Executive Lobbies Congress for ‘User Fee’ Increase to $8.50 to Finance Improvements
Spokesman cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner’s participation in a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Krauter was joined at…
Comment
CEI Comments to the Surface Transportation Board in Support of AAR Petition
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I respectfully submit these comments to the Surface Transportation Board (“STB”) in support of Association of American…
Blog
Department of Transportation Should Rescind Crew-Size ‘Featherbedding’ Proposal
Unions in the railroad industry have a long history of “featherbedding,” the pejorative term for the practice of creating pointless make-work jobs. Most infamous was…
Blog
User Fees, Rather than Tax Dollars, Can Promote Airport Efficiency and Lower Airfares
This morning, I testified before the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives at a hearing titled, “The Cost of Doing…
Comment
Marc Scribner Testimony Before the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure U.S. House of Representatives
Chairman DeFazio, Ranking Member Graves, and Members of the Committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is…
C-SPAN
VIDEO: Marc Scribner Testifies Before House Ways and Means Committee
Senior Fellow Marc Scribner testifies before House Ways and Means Committee to discuss the nation's infrastructure needs.
Blog
Higher Taxes, Wasteful Spending Not Solutions to Infrastructure Problems
In recent years, there have been increasing calls to raise federal fuel excise tax rates in order to address what many have called an infrastructure…
Comment
Marc Scribner Testimony Before the Committee on Ways and Means U.S. House of Representatives
Chairman Neal, Ranking Member Brady, and Members of the Committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify before you today. My name is…
Products
Coalition for Future Mobility Letter on Federal AV legislation
Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader McConnell, and Minority Leader Schumer: Roughly two years ago, the Coalition for Future Mobility – a group…
Comment
Letter for the Record to the Senate Finance Committee on Senate Bill 252
Dear Chair Kelley and distinguished members of the Senate Finance Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to supplement the record of your hearing on Senate…
Trucks.com
Real-World Value of Truck Platooning Questioned as Support Wanes
Trucks.com cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on automated platooning. The Competitive Enterprise Institute shows 17 states have approved platooning in some form, according…
The Washington Examiner
Pressure to Get Self-Driving Cars on the Road
The Washington Examiner cited Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on the AV START Act. Marc Scribner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, was…
Trucks.com
Truck-Only State Tolls Roil Industry That Favors Fuel-Tax Hike
Trucks.com cites CEI Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on alternatives to fuel tax increases: A mileage-based user fee and unlimited private activity bonds for…
Blog
California’s Gov. Newsom Slams Brakes on California Bullet Train
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) on February 12th unexpectedly slammed the brakes on the state’s high-speed rail project. The project “as currently planned, would cost too…
Blog
Conservative Criticisms of Passenger Facility Charge Again Miss Mark
Our friends at the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) recently sent a letter to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in advance of a hearing…
GCN Tech
What’s Next for V2X Spectrum?
As the partial government shutdown began in late December, the Department of Transportation published a request for comments on how DOT should approach vehicle-to-everything communications. V2X refers…
Comment
CEI Comments to OST on Vehicle-to-Everything Communications
View Full Document as PDF Introduction On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I respectfully submit these comments in response to…
Freight Waves
User Fee Plan Enters 2019 Highway Funding Debate
Freight Waves cited CEI’s coalition letter led by Senior Fellow Marc Scribner: The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think…
Blog
CEI Leads Coalition in Support of Nationwide Road Usage Charge Pilot Program
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute sent a letter to Congress urging members to preserve and strengthen the users-pay/users-benefit highway funding principle and to establish a…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter to Congress Regarding Highway Trust Fund: Users-Pay
As Congress begins considering the future of the Highway Trust Fund, its top priority should be restoring the longstanding users-pay/users-benefit principle. Further increasing the reliance…
Blog
Would a TSA Strike Force an End to the Shutdown?
As the current partial federal government shutdown drags on and many federal employees continue to go without pay, some pundits have suggested that one way…
Blog
Eliminate Obsolete Patented and Proprietary Products Regulation
Today, I submitted comments to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on behalf of CEI in response to a notice of proposed rulemaking on promoting innovation in…
Comment
CEI Comments on FHWA on Patented and Proprietary Products
View Full Document as PDF Introduction On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I respectfully submit these comments in response to…
Products
Free to Prosper: Transportation
View the full chapter on transportation here Mobility is one of our most important needs, one we often take for granted until it is…
Blog
Year in Review 2018: Transportation Policy
CEI had a busy year in the transportation policy trenches. We worked at the federal, state, and local levels on a variety of projects. Below…
Comment
CEI Comments to NHTSA on Adaptive Driving Beam NPRM
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I respectfully submit these comments in response to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (“NHTSA”) Notice of Proposed…
Blog
American Association for Justice Places Trial Lawyer Interests over Saving Lives
The bipartisan AV START Act would create the first national highly automated vehicle regulatory framework in the U.S. This legislation is necessary to speed deployment…
Investor's Business Daily
Trump Is Right — Subsidies for Electric Cars, Renewable Energy Must End
Investor’s Business Daily cited CEI’s coalition letter opposing extension of electric vehicle tax credits. In a study for the Manhattan Institute’s Economics 21…
Politico
Morning Transportation
Politico cited CEI Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on Uber’s AV program. The logic behind the pipeline: Snatching up Beuse was widely hailed as a good…
Travel Weekly
Airline Consumer Advocates Unhappy With DOT Appointment
Travel 60 Weekly cited CEI President and CEO Kent Lassman and CEI Adjunct Fellow Frances Smith on U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao’s appointment of Smith as…
Washington Examiner
Electric-Car Tax Credits Are Popular — And Congress Can’t Decide Whether To Expand Or Abolish Them
Washington Examiner cited CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment Director Myron Ebell on electric-car tax credit. “The people who buy these vehicles are…
Comment
CEI Comments on Automated Vehicles 3.0 Guidance
View Full Document as PDF Introduction On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I respectfully submit these comments in response to…
Politico
Leadership Change-Ups At FAA
Politico cited CEI’s Senior Fellow Marc Scribner on CEI’s adjunct fellow Frances Smith appointment to DOT. CONSUMER RETORT: The Competitive Enterprise Institute shot back…
Blog
Cathy Chase’s AV START Act Flip-Flop
Cathy Chase, now the president of the lobby group Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, was previously a strong supporter of the Senate’s bipartisan AV…
Blog
Draft Legislation Proposes Transition from Renewable Fuel Standard to High-Octane Fuel
In a sweeping effort to change the way Washington regulates both fuels and vehicles, Reps. John Shimkus (R-IL) and Bill Flores (R-TX) of the House…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing Extension of Electric Vehicle Tax Credits
We, the undersigned organizations, write to strongly object once again to any effort to expand the current electric vehicle tax credit in any way. The…
Blog
Rubberstamping Regulations Is Not Consumer Protection
Earlier this week, Tribune Publishing’s syndicated travel writer Ed Perkins criticized the appointment of CEI’s Fran Smith to the newly reconstituted Aviation Consumer Protection Advisory…
Fox Business
Lessons from the GM layoffs: End the tariffs and the subsidies
General Motors announced on Monday it will be laying off 14,700 workers, closing five factories, and discontinuing several car models. This has caused some soul-searching in the…
News Release
Competitive Enterprise Institute Scholar to Champion Consumer Interests on Aviation Consumer Protection Advisory Committee
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to announce that adjunct scholar Fran Smith has been appointed by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation…