Competitive Enterprise Institute

Academic research has identified CEI as one of the think tanks funded to overturn the environmentalism of the 1960s, central to promoting climate change denial. It was involved in assisting the anti-environmental climate change policy of the George W. Bush administration.{{cite book|author1=John S. Dryzek|author2=Richard B. Norgaard|author3=David Schlosberg|title=The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RsYr_iQUs6QC&pg=PA147|date=2011|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-956660-0|pages=147–}} CEI promotes environmental policies based on limited government regulation and property rights, rejects what it calls "global warming alarmism",{{cite web |title=Energy and Environment |url=https://cei.org/issues/energy-and-environment |website=CEI.org |access-date=1 December 2016}} and denies the science of climate change.{{Cite news |last1=Root |first1=Tik |last2=Friedman |first2=Lisa |last3=Tabuchi |first3=Hiroko |author3-link=Hiroko Tabuchi |date=2019-07-10 |title=Following the Money That Undermines Climate Science |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/climate/nyt-climate-newsletter-cei.html |access-date=2023-09-09 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |last=Taft |first=Molly |date=2023-01-10 |title=Climate Deniers Try to 'Fact Check' Real Reporting |url=https://gizmodo.com/climate-deniers-try-to-fact-check-real-reporting-1849969052 |access-date=2023-09-09 |website=Gizmodo |language=en}}

CEI is an opponent of government action by the Environmental Protection Agency that would require limits on greenhouse gas emissions. It favors free-market environmentalism and supports the idea that market institutions are more effective in protecting the environment than is government. In 2016, CEI President Kent Lassman wrote on the organization's blog that, "there is no debate about whether the Earth's climate is warming", that "human activities very likely contribute to that warming", and that "this has long been the CEI's position".{{cite web |url=https://cei.org/blog/cei-will-surmount-crimethink-persecution |title=CEI Will Surmount Crimethink Persecution |last=Lassman |first=Kent |date=April 13, 2016 |website=Competitive Enterprise Institute |access-date=2018-12-16}} In March 1992, CEI's founder Fred Smith said of global warming: "Most of the indications right now are it looks pretty good. Warmer winters, warmer nights, no effects during the day because of clouding, sounds to me like we're moving to a more benign planet, more rain, richer, easier productivity to agriculture."{{cite web |url=http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/fcons.asp |title=Consequences of Global Warming |publisher=NRDC |access-date=2011-08-25}}

In May 2006, CEI's global warming policy activities attracted attention as it embarked upon an ad campaign with two television commercials.{{Cite web|url=http://streams.cei.org/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091211233110/http://streams.cei.org/|url-status=dead|title=streams.cei.org|archive-date=December 11, 2009|access-date=May 14, 2020}} These ads promote carbon dioxide as a positive factor in the environment and argue that global warming is not a concern. One ad focuses on the message that CO₂ is misrepresented as a pollutant, stating that "it's essential to life. We breathe it out. Plants breathe it in... They call it pollution. We call it life." The other states that the world's glaciers are "growing, not melting... getting thicker, not thinner."{{cite web |last=Bank |first=Justin |date=2006-05-26 |url=http://www.factcheck.org/article395.html |title=Scientist to CEI: You Used My Research to 'Confuse and Mislead' |publisher=FactCheck.org |access-date=2006-05-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060530020431/http://www.factcheck.org/article395.html |archive-date=2006-05-30 }} It cites Science articles to support its claims. However, the editor of Science stated that the ad "misrepresents the conclusions of the two cited Science papers... by selective referencing". The author of the articles, Curt Davis, director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence at the University of Missouri, said CEI was misrepresenting his previous research to inflate their claims. "These television ads are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate," Davis said.[https://cf.iats.missouri.edu/news/NewsBureauSingleNews.cfm?newsid=9842] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704002437/https://cf.iats.missouri.edu/news/NewsBureauSingleNews.cfm?newsid=9842|date=July 4, 2007}}

In 2009, CEI's director of energy and global warming policy told The Washington Post, "The only thing that's been demonstrated to reduce emissions is economic collapse".{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/05/AR2009030503293.html |title=Europe Advises U.S. Officials on Climate |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2009-03-06 |access-date=2015-03-11}} In 2014, CEI sued the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy over a video that linked the polar vortex to climate change.{{cite web|title=US Civil Action No. 14-1806 |url=http://cei.org/sites/default/files/CEI%20v.%20OSTP%20-%20Polar%20Vortex%20FOIA%20-%20Complaint%20Filed%20-%20No.%2014-1806%20.pdf |website=CEI.org|access-date=1 December 2016}}

CEI advocates for regulatory reform on a range of policy issues, including energy, environment, business and finance, labor, technology and telecommunications, transportation, and food and drug regulation.{{cite web|url=https://cei.org/about-cei |title=About | Competitive Enterprise Institute |publisher=Cei.org |access-date=2019-01-15}}

Its annual survey of the federal regulatory state "Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State," documents the size, scope, and cost of federal regulations, and how the U.S. regulatory burden affects American consumers, businesses, and the economy.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/01/trumps-team-has-detected-the-dark-matter-of-government-regulation-meaning-you-aint-see-nothing-yet/ |title=Trump's team has detected the 'dark matter' of government regulation, meaning you ain't seen nothing yet |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=2017-02-01 |access-date=2019-01-15}} CEI's Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. coined the phrase "regulatory dark matter," referencing astrophysics to distinguish between ordinary government regulations or "visible matter," and "regulatory dark matter," which consists of "thousands of executive branch and federal agency proclamations and issuances, including memos, guidance documents, bulletins, circulars and announcements with practical regulatory effect."

In 2015, CEI filed an amicus brief in support of the petitioners in U.S. Telecom v. FCC. The brief argued that "Congress did not authorize the FCC to regulate the Internet when it enacted Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act [of 1996] and, in fact, placed it outside the scope of the FCC's rulemaking authority."{{cite web|url=https://cei.org/content/amicus-brief-congress-has-never-given-fcc-authority-regulate-internet |title=Amicus Brief: Congress Has Never Given FCC the Authority to Regulate the Internet | Competitive Enterprise Institute |publisher=Cei.org |date=2015-08-06 |access-date=2019-01-15}}

CEI has argued against using antitrust regulation to break up big technology companies such as Facebook and Google.{{Cite web|url=http://antitrust.cei.org/|title=Antitrust: Freedom and Innovation Through Antitrust Reform|website=The Competitive Enterprise Institute advocates abolishing antitrust laws. Antitrust restricts the rights of individuals to determine with whom and under what circumstances they wish to deal. The real cost of antitrust is the innovation it prevents.|access-date=May 14, 2020}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/breaking-up-platforms-has-sickening-implications/|title=Breaking Up Platforms Has Sickening Implications|website=National Review|date=Mar 12, 2019|access-date=May 14, 2020}}

CEI has a longstanding project to recapture what they term "the moral legitimacy of capitalism" through research, writing, events, and other outreach activities.{{Cite web|url=https://cei.org/center-for-advancing-capitalism|title=Center for Advancing Capitalism|first1=1310 L. Street|last1=NW|first2=7th Floor|last2=Washington|first3=DC 20005 Phone: 202-331-1010|last3=Fax: 202-331-0640|website=Competitive Enterprise Institute|access-date=May 14, 2020}}{{Cite journal | doi=10.1111/j.1468-0270.2011.02130.x| title=Countering the Assault on Capitalism| year=2012| last1=Smith Jr| first1=Fred L.| journal=Economic Affairs| volume=32| pages=60–63| s2cid=219340394| hdl=10.1111/j.1468-0270.2011.02130.x| hdl-access=free}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.wbur.org/npr/141033128/venture-capitalist-cautions-against-job-creation-myths|title=Venture Capitalist Warns Of Job Creation Myths|website=www.wbur.org|date=4 October 2011 |access-date=May 14, 2020}} In 2019, CEI's vice president for Strategy Iain Murray argued, in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, that advocates of capitalism and free markets had taken the support of social conservatives for granted.{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/free-marketeers-have-taken-social-conservatives-for-granted-11566255556|title=Opinion | Free-Marketeers Have Taken Social Conservatives for Granted|first=Iain|last=Murray|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=Aug 19, 2019|access-date=May 14, 2020|via=www.wsj.com}}

CEI was a member of the advisory board of Project 2025, a collection of conservative and right-wing policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power should the Republican nominee win the 2024 presidential election, from June 2022 through March 2024.{{Cite news |last=Mascaro |first=Lisa |date=August 29, 2023 |title=Conservative Groups Draw Up Plan to Dismantle the US Government and Replace It with Trump's Vision |url=https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922112031/https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981 |archive-date=September 22, 2023 |access-date=July 8, 2024 |work=Associated Press News}}{{Cite web |last=Musgrave |first=Shawn |date=2024-07-19 |title=The List of Conservative Groups Abandoning Project 2025 Keeps Growing |url=https://theintercept.com/2024/07/19/conservative-groups-abandon-project-2025/ |access-date=2024-07-22 |website=The Intercept |language=en-US}}

The Competitive Enterprise Institute "is one of a small number of think tanks that have a litigation arm to their organization, according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal."{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/think-tanked/post/competitive-enterprise-institute-files-lawsuit-against-obamas-consumer-watchdog/2012/06/22/gJQAjnPUvV_blog.html | title=Competitive Enterprise Institute files lawsuit against Obama's consumer watchdog | last=McDuffee | first=Allen | date=22 June 2012 | newspaper=The Washington Post | access-date=16 April 2018 }}

From 2015 to 2019, the Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) was part of CEI. It has since spun off as part of the new Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, a free-market nonprofit public-interest law founded by former CEI attorneys Ted Frank and Melissa Holyoak.{{cite web|author=Tony Mauro and Marcia Coyle |url=https://www.law.com/supremecourtbrief/2019/01/07/serial-adversaries-at-scotus-ted-franks-new-gig-fuct-up-for-argument/ |title=Serial Adversaries at SCOTUS – Ted Frank's New Gig|publisher=Supreme Court Brief|date=7 January 2019|access-date=26 March 2019}} {{cite web|url=https://hlli.org/announcing-hamilton-lincoln-law-institute/ |title=Announcing Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute|publisher=Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute|date=17 December 2018|access-date=26 March 2019}} CCAF represents class members against what it calls, "unfair class action procedures and settlements."{{cite web|url=https://cei.org/issues/class-action-fairness |title=Class Action Fairness | Competitive Enterprise Institute |publisher=Cei.org |access-date=2019-01-15}}

CEI and Frank argued Frank v. Gaos before the U.S. Supreme Court on October 31, 2018, opposing a proposed class action settlement involving Google, who paid out an $8.5 million settlement including $6 million in cy-près funds and more than $2 million for class-action lawyers. Class members were not awarded any part of the settlement.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/us/politics/supreme-court-google-class-action-lawsuit.html |title=Supreme Court Weighs Google Settlement That Paid Class Members Nothing |work=The New York Times |date=31 October 2018 |access-date=2019-01-15|last1=Liptak |first1=Adam }}

In 2015, CEI and Frank successfully appealed a class action settlement in a case about the length of Subway's "footlong" sandwiches. CEI argued that the proposed settlement benefited only nine people in the class but awarded more than half a million dollars to the class attorneys. Judge Diane Sykes's ruling rejected the settlement in the Subway case that would have paid plaintiffs' attorneys $525,000 and left the class with nothing. The court's decision included the statement that "[a] class settlement that results in fees for class counsel but yields no meaningful relief for the class is no better than a racket."{{cite web|last=Gilbert |first=Sarah |url=https://news.bloomberglaw.com/class-action/insight-before-you-settle-that-class-action-remember-the-footlong |title=INSIGHT: Before You Settle That Class Action, Remember the Footlong |publisher=News.bloomberglaw.com |date=2018-10-24 |access-date=2019-01-15}}

CEI funded and coordinated King v. Burwell and Halbig v. Burwell, two lawsuits that challenged the Internal Revenue Service's implementation of the Affordable Care Act.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/02/03/upshot/obamacare-back-at-the-supreme-court-frequently-asked-questions.html | title=Obamacare, Back at the Supreme Court: Frequently Asked Questions | last=Sanger-Katz | first=Margot | date=25 June 2015 | website=The New York Times | access-date=16 April 2018 }} The strategy of bringing such lawsuits was pioneered by Michael S. Greve, former chairman of CEI's board of directors, who stated: "This bastard [the act] has to be killed as a matter of political hygiene. I do not care how this is done, whether it's dismembered, whether we drive a stake through its heart, whether we tar and feather it, and drive it out of town, whether we strangle it."{{cite magazine | url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/09/hard-cases-jeffrey-toobin | title=Hard Cases | last=Toobin | first=Jeffrey | author-link=Jeffrey Toobin | date=9 March 2015 | magazine=The New Yorker | access-date=16 April 2018 }}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/opinion/linda-greenhouse-by-any-means-necessary.html|author=Linda Greenhouse|title= By Any Means Necessary|newspaper=The New York Times|date=20 August 2014 |access-date=2015-03-11|author-link=Linda Greenhouse}} The King v. Burwell suit alleged that the IRS's implementation violated the statute and sought to block "a major portion of Obamacare: the subsidies that more than 6 million middle-income people, across more than 30 states, now receive to buy health insurance." CEI general counsel Sam Kazman argued in a USA Today op-ed that the disputed IRS rule "raises a basic issue that goes far beyond Obamacare: Do agencies have to follow the laws enacted by Congress, or can they rewrite them?"{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/03/01/king-v-burwell-competitive-enterprise-institute-editorials-debates/24229781/ |title=Obamacare rule harms millions: Opposing view |newspaper=Usatoday.com |date=2015-03-01 |access-date=2015-03-11}} The case made its way to the Supreme Court, which is a 6–3 decision rejected the challenge and upheld the ACA subsidies.

In 2012, the CEI, along with the conservative activist group 60 Plus Association, filed a lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CEI's suit alleges that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act's creation of the CFPB violates the constitutional separation of powers.{{cite web | url=https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/almID/1202762374102/Judge-Rejects-RecessAppointment-Challenge-Over-CFPB-Director/?slreturn=20180312071740 | title=Judge Rejects Recess-Appointment Challenge Over CFPB Director | last=Barber | first=C. Ryan | date=12 July 2016 | website=The National Law Journal | access-date=16 April 2018 }} The CEI also contends that President Obama's recess appointment of Richard Cordray as CFPB director was unconstitutional{{cite web | url=https://www.law360.com/articles/683172/dc-circ-revives-texas-bank-s-cfpb-challenge | title=DC Circ. Revives Texas Bank's CFPB Challenge | last=Weinberger | first=Evan | date=24 July 2015 | website=Law360 | access-date=16 April 2018 }} and that the powers of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, created by Dodd-Frank, are unconstitutional. In 2016, a federal judge rejected the challenge to Cordray's appointment. The CEI's challenge to the constitutionality of CFPB remains pending in the federal courts.

Every year CEI hosts an annual dinner gala and presents the Julian L. Simon Memorial Award. The Simon award honors the work of the late economist, winner of the Simon–Ehrlich wager. Award winners have included:

In 1991, CEI established the Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellowship to identify and train journalists who wish to improve their knowledge of environmental issues and free-market economics. In this manner, the program seeks to perpetuate the legacy of Warren Brookes, who was a longtime journalist with the Boston Herald and the Detroit News and a nationally syndicated columnist. Former and current fellows include:{{Cite web |title=The Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellowship |url=https://cei.org/the-warren-t-brookes-journalism-fellowship/ |access-date=2023-11-02 |website=Competitive Enterprise Institute |language=en-us}}

{{main|Bureaucrash}}

Bureaucrash was a special outreach and activist project of CEI described as an international network of pro-freedom activists working to promote a political ideology based on personal and economic freedom. It conducted political activism using new media, creative marketing, and education campaigns. The project maintained a website (bureaucrash.com), which as of November 2023 is now only a web redirect to CEI's main website.

CEI is funded by donations from individuals, foundations and corporations.{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052301305_pf.html |title=The Tempest |work=Washingtonpost.com |date=2006-05-23 |access-date=2015-03-11}} Donors to CEI include a number of companies in the energy, technology, automotive, and alcohol and tobacco industries.{{cite news|last1=Eilperin|first1=Juliet|title=Anatomy of a Washington dinner: Who funds the Competitive Enterprise Institute?|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/06/20/anatomy-of-a-washington-dinner-who-funds-the-competitive-enterprise-institute/|access-date=25 September 2016|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=June 20, 2013}}

CEI's revenues for the fiscal year ending on September 30, 2015, were $7.5 million against expenses of $7.4 million.{{cite web|title=Competitive Enterprise Institute |url=http://www.guidestar.org/profile/52-1351785 |publisher=GuideStar|access-date=25 September 2016}} ExxonMobil Corporation was a donor to CEI, giving the group about $2 million over seven years.{{cite news |last1=Mufson|first1=Steven |title=Exxon Mobil Warming Up To Global Climate Issue|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/09/AR2007020902081.html|access-date=25 September 2016|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=February 10, 2007}} In 2006, the company announced that it had ended its funding for the group.{{cite news|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07011/753072-28.stm |title=Exxon Mobil softens its climate-change stance |publisher=Post-gazette.com |date=2007-01-11 |access-date=2011-08-25}}

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{official website}}
• [http://www.ceiopenmarket.org/ CEI blog]
• [http://www.globalwarming.org/ GlobalWarming.org] Cooler Heads Coalition homepage
• [http://edirc.repec.org/data/ceiiius.html EDIRC listing] (provided by RePEc)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222930/http://nccsweb.urban.org/communityplatform/nccs/organization/profile/id/521351785/popup/1 Organizational Profile] – National Center for Charitable Statistics (Urban Institute)
• {{ProPublicaNonprofitExplorer|521351785}}

{{Coord|38.9040|-77.0431|display=title}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Organizations of environmentalism skeptics and critics

Category:Think tanks established in 1984

Category:Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C.

Category:Think tanks based in Washington, D.C.

Category:Political advocacy groups in the United States

Category:Political and economic think tanks in the United States

Category:Libertarian think tanks

Category:Conservative organizations in the United States

Category:1984 establishments in Washington, D.C.