CEI Attacks the DOT Ban on Electronic Cigarettes on Airplanes

CEI fellow Marc Scribner said:

The Department of Transportation’s decision to ban electronic cigarettes on commercial flights has less substance to it than the vapor emitted by e-cigs themselves. 

In a twisting of the English language that would make Orwell proud, the DOT has stretched the definition of “smoking” to include smoke-free water vapor because some vapor products “resemble traditional cigarettes.”

As the Supreme Court has made clear, an “agency may not bootstrap itself into an area in which it has no jurisdiction” by stretching the language of a statute. The agency has evidently decided that, when it comes to following the law, it’s no longer bound by what the law says.

CEI originally filed comments on the proposed ban in 2011 which can be found here.

View more from Marc Scribner on this topic at CNN.com.

View the DOT’s final rule here.