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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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Ten Thousand Commandments 2025
Introduction Record federal debt is contributing to record-setting regulatory burdens. While new spending programs show up in budget figures, new regulations requiring the private sector…
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Powering Intelligence: Meeting AI’s Energy Needs in a Changing Electricity Landscape
Introduction The electric grid is one of the most critical pieces of infrastructure underpinning modern life, yet it faces growing threats from increased demand, regulatory…
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Aloha Approvals
Hawaii’s permitting system is at a critical juncture, faced with the dual challenges of rebuilding in the wake of the 2023 Maui wildfires and addressing…
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Modernizing the EPA: A Blueprint for Congress
Forward Kent Lassman, President of the Competitive Enterprise Institute President Richard Nixon established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Reorganization Plan No. 3 of…
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Free to Prosper
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Feeling Minnesota
Minnesota’s efforts to streamline environmental permitting under former Gov. Mark Dayton (D) initially saw some success, with reforms aimed at reducing approval times for priority…
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FTC Flunks Interim Report
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Basketball vs. Bureaucracy
North Carolina’s permitting reforms in recent years have significantly reshaped the state’s regulatory landscape, focusing on accelerating project approvals and reducing bureaucratic delays. Key changes…
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Climate Disclosure’s Triple Threat
Introduction Financial regulators from the US federal government, California, and Europe have each recently adopted climate disclosure rules for companies. These environmental, social, and governance…
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Mardi Gras for Permits
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s (LDEQ) Expedited Permit Program, established in 2006, represents an innovative approach to speeding up environmental permit approvals. This report…
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No Permission Needed
Robust, resilient, and high-capacity internet service is critical to America’s economic prosperity and success. A key part of internet service is Wi-Fi, which provides Americans…
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Evaluating Telehealth
Executive Summary Why Did We Write This Report Telehealth—the use of remote audio and/or video technologies to provide health care services—has been promoted as…
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Permanently in Recovery
Washington state has made some significant strides in reforming its environmental permitting processes through its Permit Timelinesss initiative. The Governor’s Office for Regulatory Innovation and…
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Boosting Business in the Desert
Recent permitting reforms in Arizona have focused on streamlining regulatory processes to improve the state’s business climate. Developments include passage of the 2023 Permit Freedom…
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The Innovation Imperative
The Competitive Enterprise Institute recently celebrated its 40th anniversary in Edinburgh, Scotland. Edinburgh was chosen because the city was celebrating the 300th anniversary of the…
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Corn Whiskey Clarity
Over the past two decades, Iowa has implemented several reforms aimed at enhancing the efficiency of its environmental permitting procedures. This report focuses on two…
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The Supreme Court’s New New Deal
In the final weeks of its 2024 term, the Supreme Court of the United States issued several opinions that transform the nation’s regulatory climate. The…
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Empire State of Mind
Executive Summary New York State’s environmental permitting procedures represent a mixed bag. On the one hand, the Uniform Procedures Act (UPA), signed into law in…
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Ten Thousand Commandments 2024
The hidden tax of regulation has proved appealing to lawmakers who feel the pressure of a national debt topping $34 trillion. Off-budget regulations requiring private…
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How to Keep the Lights On
A reliable electrical grid is essential to all aspects of daily life. Power keeps the lights on, appliances running, and keeps our homes warm on…
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Congress, Not Agencies, Should Answer Major Policy Questions
Many of the biggest policy decisions affecting the lives of Americans are made by federal agencies, not Congress. During the Biden administration, this has included…
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Distilling Efficiency
Colorado has made notable efforts to streamline its environmental permitting processes over the past few decades through initiatives like the Colorado Joint Review Process (CJRP),…
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Climate Disclosure Spam
Introduction “Despite cost-saving changes from the proposed rule, the final rule will prove expensive for public companies and their shareholders who will be paying for…
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Transparency on Tap
The Commonwealth of Virginia has been implementing a Virginia Permit Transparency (VPT) initiative over the last several years, which includes an online permitting portal designed…
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Restoring Good Guidance Practices
Executive summary Federal agency guidance documents form a large and expanding part of the administrative state’s regulatory universe. These informal documents including memoranda, bulletins, and…
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Champagne Regulations on a Beer Budget
Regulation is often regarded as akin to a tax, albeit one that takes place off of the government’s books. Similar to a value-added tax, it…
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Adam Smith’s guide to life, loveliness, and the modern economy
Introduction: Going strong at 300 Ryan Young This essay collection celebrates Adam Smith’s 300th birthday. He is best known for being the first modern economist,…
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Achieving Change at the Federal Trade Commission
Introduction “Never mistake activity for achievement.” – John Wooden Although small in budget, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sometimes had an outsized impact. Created to fulfill one of…
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Myths and Facts in Radiation Risks
Introduction Nuclear power is probably the only known energy source that can support the world’s growing energy needs while simultaneously reducing global carbon dioxide emissions.1…
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Major Questions on Net Neutrality
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised once again to change and classify broadband internet access service (BIAS), the mass market wireline and wireless broadband…
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Breaking the Backlog
Pennsylvania has a long history of reforming its environmental permitting practices to improve efficiency. Despite periods of progress and some improvements in average review…
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Forcing the UN’s Hand on China
Most United Nations (UN) environmental treaties are a bad deal for America that are made worse by classifying China as a developing nation and thus…
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Toward a US-Swiss Trade Agreement
This paper examines the benefits and challenges of a potential free trade agreement (FTA) between the United States and Switzerland. Such an agreement would do…
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Big Problems with SEC Climate Disclosure Mandate
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is finalizing its mandatory climate disclosure rule[1] that will require publicly traded companies to provide the…
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Don’t Depower Crypto
Introduction In President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget blueprint,1 the president proposed a new tax aimed at the electricity use caused by cryptocurrency mining. Known…
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Conflict of Justice
Introduction Imagine that a federal agency has charged you with violating a law or regulation, and you have to defend yourself in court. But you…
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A Global Antitrust Paradox?
Executive summary In today’s Washington, bipartisan consensus is rare. But at least two points of consensus remain. The first is that America’s defining geopolitical challenge…
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Four Hot Issues at COP28
Over 75 different agenda items will be discussed and negotiated in Dubai at the 28th annual Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework…
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Ten Thousand Commandments 2023
View Full Report Here Ten Thousand Commandments is the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s annual survey of the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations, and…
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The UN’s Annual Climate Conference
I remember the first Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) I participated in.1 It was back in…
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Rules for Robots – A framework for governance of AI
Introduction With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies in recent years, we have seen increasing calls for regulation to mitigate the…
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The World Needs More Lawyers
This study was originally authored for the Regulatory Transparency Project at The Federalist Society By Shoshana Weissmann, Daniel Greenberg, Luke Wake, Braden Boucek and Jonathan…
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A Free Market Solution for Drug Distribution
Executive summary This paper describes and explains the function of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) in the American health care economy. PBMs are private businesses that…
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Threats Then and Threats Now
Executive summary In 1971 Lewis Powell, a prominent Republican lawyer who would go on to serve on the Supreme Court, wrote a memo warning about…
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The Forgotten History of the Wagner Act
Introduction President Joe Biden on April 26, 2021, announced the creation of a special Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment. The purpose of the…
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FTC’s Subscription Deception
Proposed Negative Option Rule has no opt-out from bureaucratic overreach Introduction The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a Negative* Option Rule Notice of…
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Four Principles for Real Permitting Reform
Federal legislators continue to focus on permitting reform. For example, the Senate is reportedly1 working on more ambitious reform than those recently enacted in the…
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Unauthorized and Unprepared: Refocusing the CDC after COVID-19
Executive Summary What This Paper Covers The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s preeminent public health agency, has acknowledged that it failed badly…
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Global Infrastructure Permitting
Executive Summary The construction of major infrastructure projects, such as power plants, highways, and ports, is heavily regulated. In major industrial economies, such projects typically…