Since our founding in 1984, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has sought to reform and reduce environmental regulation of land, shrink the federal estate, and unlock federal lands for private ownership.
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Congress should codify the National Listing Workplan
In the 15 years after the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was passed in 1973, it was repeatedly amended. Congress passed major amendments that updated…
News Release
Pumping the brakes on permitting reform in Michigan: CEI report
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released a new report on Michigan’s recent history of environmental permitting policies. “Michigan has undergone several attempts in recent…
Study
Pumping the Brakes on Reform
This report examines Michigan’s recent permitting reforms, highlighting how some productive efforts to enhance accountability and efficiency have largely stalled. While the state took steps…
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A New Course for Wild Tigers
A New York Times editorial highlights a struggle faced by the wild tiger, noting its population is down to approximately 3,200 from a high…
Study
Pesticides and Agriculture
Full Document Available in PDF In 1989, environmental activists claimed that a chemical called Alar…
Study
Measuring the Scope of Federal Land Ownership
Full Document Available in PDF During much of American history, landuse regulation was…
Study
Agricultural Biotechnology Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF For conventionally bred plants, regulators rely on plant breeders to…
Study
Agricultural Biotechnology Overview
Full Document Available in PDF Every year, millions of people worldwide die from starvation and…
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Voters Rejected Enviro-Alarmism About Gulf Oil Spill
My colleague Ben Lieberman’s thoughtful op-ed in The Washington Times focuses on voters’ rejection of environmental alarmism about the Gulf oil spill. It appears…
Citation
‘Natural’ Foods Activist Gets It Wrong
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Fiscal Commission Should Support Increased Energy Production, Not Increased Energy Taxes
Among the many suggestions in the Fiscal Commission’s draft report is a 15 cents-per-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax. No doubt, this…
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Massive Property Tax Increases Coming for Homeowners in Northern Virginia
Homeowners in Northern Virginia may face massive, record-setting property tax increases of 20 percent or more in the upcoming year. One reason is the EPA’s…
LaCrosse Tribune
GOP Shift in House Not Likely to Affect Farmers
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Rare Earths — Not So Rare?
What do yttrium, ytterbium, erbium and terbium have in common? They are rare earth elements first found in the Swedish town of Ytterby between 1828…
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Global Food Crisis Forecast; Aggravated by Biofuels and Global Warming Legislation
A global food crisis is “forecast as prices reach record highs.” “Rising food prices and shortages could cause instability in many countries as the…
Blog
Malthusian Indoctrination of Children Funded with Your Tax Dollars
Many people are familiar with Annie Leonard, creator of “The Story of Stuff,” a factually inaccurate viral video being shown in classrooms throughout America. In…
Blog
Salute to Capitalism — And the Miners’ Rescue
“Capitalism saved the miners” is the provocative title of Daniel Henninger’s article in today’s Wall Street Journal. And he makes his case quite clearly. …
Blog
Moratorium Lifted, But Drilling Still Blocked
With much fanfare, the Obama administration has lifted its moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. But don’t expect much actual drilling any…
Blog
Obama Administration Slowed Response to BP Oil Spill By Keeping Public In the Dark
The Obama administration initially downplayed the seriousness of the Gulf oil spill, “slowing response efforts and keeping the American people in the dark…
LaCrosse Tribune
Secret BLM Meetings Cause Uproar in Wyoming
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CEI Podcast – September 23, 2010: The Frankenfish Myth
CEI Senior Fellow Greg Conko, author of The Frankenfood Myth, talks about the promise and imagined peril of genetically modified salmon.
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GOP “Pledge to America” Includes Constructive Reg Reform
The House Republican “Pledge to America” unveiled today has been criticized by RedState’s Erick Erickson and other center-right pundits for a lack of specifics.
Blog
Kiss Your Ash Goodbye — Regulating Coal Combustion Byproducts As Hazardous Is An Unnecessary Job Killer
The Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant is currently garnering most of the attention from the agency’s critics, but…
Blog
Unemployment Jumps to 9.6%, 54,000 More Jobs Lost
Unemployment went back up to 9.6%, as the nation shed 54,000 jobs in August. Yet Obama calls this “Recovery Summer.” This is…
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Record Federal Spending Increase Due to Wasteful Spending Like the Failed Stimulus Package
Federal domestic spending increased by a record 16 percent this year, thanks to wasteful spending by the Obama administration, such as its “huge economic…
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Government Spends Billions Bailing Out Foreign Firms and Countries, and Replacing American Jobs With Foreign Green Jobs
Our government spent as much money bailing out foreign firms as some countries spent on stabilizing their entire financial system. Much of the money…
Blog
Government-Sanctioned Lying and Reparations Increase National Debt: The Pigford Class Action
There are only 36,697 black farmers in the entire country, but in a class-action lawsuit, more than 86,000 African-Americans claimed to have suffered…
Blog
CSR and Oil Companies: The Truth Dawns?
The environmental left is in some disarray following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. After all, BP had trumpeted for years the idea that it was…
Blog
The Environment is a Luxury Good
One of the central insights of Free-Market Environmentalism is that people treat the environment as a luxury good. They are willing to pay for it…
News Release
Senate Plan to Prevent Oil Spill Should Eliminate Government Cap on Liability
Washington, D.C., July 30, 2010—The Senate is preparing to vote next week on a bill aimed at preventing future BP-style oil spills—a plan that could…
Study
Who Should Pay for the Gulf Oil Spill?
Liability and Incentive Issues Raised by the Deepwater Horizon Incident…
Newsletter
Financial Regulation, the Gulf Oil Spill, and Privacy on Facebook
Congress passes the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill. The New York Times chronicles the economic fallout from the BP oil spill. Pundits argue that Facebook is…
Blog
EPA, Not Jones Act, Blocked Dutch Skimmers
It was apparently the EPA, not the Jones Act, that blocked Dutch skimmers from cleaning up the oil spill in Louisiana in late April:…
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Readers Contest Factcheck.Org’s “Oil Spill, Foreign Help, and the Jones Act”
FactCheck.org argued that the Jones Act, which ordinarily bans both foreign ships and foreign crews from working in U.S. waters, did not interfere with foreign…
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Blowout Prevention Act Would Blowout Domestic Oil Production
Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment held a hearing on H.R. 5626, the Blowout Prevention Act of 2010. Although…
Blog
Blowout Prevention Act — or Oil Production Prevention Act?
That’s the question I address today on the free-market energy blog, MasterResource.Org. This morning, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment is holding…
Newsletter
Climate Skeptics, The Case Against Cap and Trade and Oil Spill Red Tape
The National Academy of Sciences recently published a report attacking the credentials of climate change skeptics. The Gulf oil spill has…
Blog
New Federal Interference With Oil-Spill Clean-Up: Feds Stop Louisiana From Dredging Needed to Create Protective Sand Berms
A TV station in New Orleans reports that “the federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand…
Blog
Judge rules Obama deepwater drilling ban “arbitrary and capricious”
Yesterday, Judge Martin Feldman of the Eastern Louisiana District Court lifted the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on all oil and gas drilling in the…
Blog
Judge Blocks Gulf Drilling Ban, Citing Deception by Obama Administration; Obama Continues to Delay Gulf Clean-Up
A federal judge has just blocked the Obama administration from imposing a blanket ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
News Release
Supreme Court Overturns Judge’s Ruling in Major Win for Biotech Crop Breeders
Washington, D.C., June 21, 2010 — The Supreme Court today over-turned a lower federal judge’s ruling that farmers could not plant a biotech alfalfa variety…
LaCrosse Tribune
Obama Uses Oil Spill to Push Failed Energy Policies
In his speech, President Obama used the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to push his failed energy policies, such as…
Blog
Obama Administration Blocks Clean-Up of Oil Spill by Louisiana and Foreign Allies By Imposing Red Tape
The Obama Administration recently used red tape to force Louisiana to stop using 16 barges that were cleaning up the Gulf…
LaCrosse Tribune
Obama’s Actions Prevent Timely Clean-Up By U.S. Allies
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that … possess some of the world’s most…
LaCrosse Tribune
Obama Blocks Louisiana, Foreign Allies from Oil Spill Clean-Up
The Obama Administration recently used red tape to force Louisiana to stop using 16 barges that were cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico…
Blog
Obama Uses Oil Spill to Push Failed Energy Policies
In his speech last night, President Obama used the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to push his failed energy policies, such…
Blog
Obama Blocked Clean Up of BP Oil Spill by Friendly Countries; International Assistance Blocked by Regulations Obama Had The Authority To Waive
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of the…
LaCrosse Tribune
Most Green Jobs Went to Foreign Firms (Letter to the Editor)
It is incredible that the federal government spent billions of dollars on so-called "green jobs" without having any definition of what a green…
LaCrosse Tribune
Obama Refuses to Waive Law to Allow Foreign Help With Oil Spill
Crucial offers to help clean up BP’s oil spill “have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that . . . possess some of…
LaCrosse Tribune
Action Needed Now to Stop EPA Power Grab
I wrote this morning in the American Spectator about how tight the vote is on Senator Murkowski’s bid to stop the…
Blog
BP Supported Obama Stimulus Package, Global Warming Bill, and Corporate Welfare; BP Bankrolled Obama Campaign
Columnist Tim Carney notes that BP, responsible for the massive oil spill, is “a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s…
LaCrosse Tribune
BP’s Disturbingly Close Ties to Obama Administration
Columnist Tim Carney notes that BP, responsible for the massive oil spill, is “a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s…
Blog
Global-Warming Bill Contains Ethanol Subsidies, Which Cause Famine, Hunger, Food Riots, and Political Unrest
People across the world “are being battered by surging food prices that are dragging more people into poverty, fueling political tensions and forcing some to…
