Competitive Enterprise Institute
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The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a non-profit public policy organization founded in 1984 by Fred Smith. CEI's stated belief is that consumers are best helped not by government regulation of commercial interests, but by consumers being allowed to make their own choices in a free marketplace. CEI states that it promotes classical liberal ideals through analysis, education, coalition-building, advocacy, and regulation.[1]
CEI is a think tank funded by donations from individuals, foundations and corporations, including the Scaife Foundations, the Ford Motor Company Fund, Pfizer, and the Earhart Foundation. (More details below.) CEI cites its major issues of concern as Environmental Policy, Regulation and Economic Liberty, Legal and Constitutional, and Health and Safety. Among the methods used to implement the organization's agenda are various press releases and policy papers, testifying at governmental hearings, suits against various governmental agencies, paid advertising, editorial and op-ed pieces, open letters, books, and NGO operations.
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[edit] Policy areas
[edit] Environmental Policy
According to CEI, the Wall Street Journal has called it "the best environmental think tank in the country."[1] CEI says it promotes "free market environmentalism" and says market institutions are more effective in protecting the environment than is government.
Among other things, CEI has been an outspoken opponent of government action on global warming that would require limits on greenhouse gas emissions. 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". [2]
One of CEI's projects is the Cooler Heads Coalition, which operated the website globalwarming.org. Myron Ebell is the chairman of CHC, and the Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the CEI.
In December of 2005 CEI participated in the UNFCCC negotiations in Montreal as an NGO, sending back several dispatches summarizing events of the conference [3].
In a 2006 letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury (after the Archbishop urged Christians to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), the CEI said that reducing these levels, even in "baby steps," would "result in the deaths of more people in the U.S. than global warming would worldwide". [4]
[edit] Regulation and Economic Liberty
CEI uses think tank and advocacy methods to support activities in various areas, such as antitrust and government regulation, in matters including corporate welfare, Internet and E-Commerce, and Privacy and Security. They have caused or influenced subjects in the area, including matters involving CAFE, rent control, FDA proposals, and the FTC. One of the CEI's projects related to this is The Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellowship.
[edit] Legal and constitutional
CEI is also active in the legal aspects of antitrust and government regulation. The Project on Technology & Innovation is extending CEI's efforts into new areas, including antitrust in high tech and network industries, privacy, e-commerce, intellectual property, and telecommunications.
CEI opposes a range of regulatory intervention into commercial activities including bans on alcohol advertising, fuel economy mandates and proposals to mitigate global warming. CEI supports constitutional checks over government's power over corporations.
[edit] Health and safety
CEI criticises health and safety regulation and argues through its Death by Regulation project that overregulation itself can be deadly. For example, they have claimed that automotive downsizing due to federal fuel economy standards may increase road accident deaths, and have criticised the delayed availability of new medical therapies due to Food and Drug Administration rules.
[edit] CEI Staff
CEI lists its Adjunct Scholars and twenty-five full-time staff members, their titles, and major area of responsibility on its website.[5]. Some notable staff members include:
- Fred Smith (director) - Founder and president
- Michael Greve (director) - American Enterprise Institute
- Leonard Liggio (director since 1994) - Atlas Economic Research Foundation
- Myron Ebell (since 1999) - specializes in climate change
- Steven Milloy - editor of Junkscience.com and foxnews.com columnist
[edit] Criticism
CEI has been called an "ideologically-driven, well-funded front for corporations opposed to safety and environmental regulations that affect the way they do business"[2] by Sourcewatch, which has in turn been criticised (by Alan Caruba) as being funded by "left-wing foundations... that seek a competitive edge or want to influence public policy".[3] Sourcewatch itself refers to CEI as being "a neoliberal think tank" and has posted articles such as "Smoking as a civic duty", criticizing a series of CEI articles containing that quote.
In May 2006, CEI released a controversial ad campaign with two television commercials [6] arguing that global warming is not a problem. The commercials used the tagline "Carbon Dioxide - They call it pollution; We call it life." One ad stated that the world's glaciers are "growing, not melting... getting thicker, not thinner."[4] The ad cited two Science articles to support its claims. However, the editor for 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-Columbia, said CEI was misrepresenting his previous research to back their claims. "These television ads are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public about the global warming debate," he said. [7]
The second ad in the campaign claimed that carbon dioxide 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."[4] However, many scientific organizations believe greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are causing Earth's surface temperatures to warm. For example, in June 2005, the science academies of eleven leading industrialized nations (including the United States' National Academy of Sciences) released "Joint science academies' statement: Global response to climate change" which stated that carbon dioxide levels have increased from 280 ppm to 375 ppm in the last 256 years, and that "Increasing greenhouse gases are causing temperatures to rise..."[4]
Individuals associated with CEI have also been criticised. Steven Milloy has written extensively on global warming and other topics while receiving undisclosed funding from ExxonMobil. Following this disclosure, Milloy's name was removed from the list of adjunct scholars at the Cato Institute. He was subsequently appointed as an adjunct scholar at CEI.
[edit] Funding
In its IRS Form 990 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, CEI reported revenues totalling $2,919,537, including donations from individuals, foundations and corporations. Its net assets were $1,670,808. Salaries and benefits to its top employees were reported as:
- Fred L. Smith, President, $175,000
- Marlo Lewis, Senior Fellow, $100,000
- Sam Kazman, General Counsel, $98,000
According to page nine of a report from the CEI contained on the University of California, San Francisco's Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (LTDL), the following companies and foundations were among those listed as supporting CEI's work with annual contributions of at least $10,000, currently the CEI's "Entrepreneurs" level:
Aequus Institute, Amoco Foundation, Inc., Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Coca-Cola Company, E.L. Craig Foundation, CSX Corporation, Earhart Foundation, Fieldstead and Co., FMC Foundation, Ford Motor Company Fund, Gilder Foundation, Koch Family Foundations (including the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, and Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation), Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc., Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation, Philip Morris Companies, Inc., Pfizer Inc., Precision Valve Corporation, Prince Foundation, Rodney Fund, Sheldon Rose, Scaife Foundations (Carthage Foundation and Sarah Scaife Foundation), and Texaco, Inc. (Texaco Foundation).
The listing on the Philip Morris Glossary of Names: C at the LTDL gives the note "Received public policy grant from Philip Morris (1995); Pro-market public interest group dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government."
ExxonMobil Corporation was a major donor to CEI, with over $2 million in contributions between 1998 and 2005. [8] In 2002 the company gave $405,000;[9] in 2004 it gave CEI $180,000 that was earmarked for "global climate change and global climate change outreach." [5] In 2006, the company announced that they had ended their funding for the group.[10]
[edit] Governance
The organization is governed by a board of directors. The current board of directors consists of: William Dunn, Michael Greve, Leonard Liggio, Thomas Gale Moore, William O'Keefe, Frances Smith, and Fred Smith.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Self-description on National Survey of Oncologists
- ^ SourceWatch contributors (2006-05-27). Competitive Enterprise Institute. SourceWatch.org. Retrieved on May 30, 2006.
- ^ Caruba, Alan (2006-01-29). Smearing Conservative Writers. NewReleaseWire.com. Retrieved on May 30, 2006.
- ^ a b c Bank, Justin (2006-05-26). Scientist to CEI: You Used My Research To "Confuse and Mislead". FactCheck.org. Retrieved on May 30, 2006.
- ^ Exxon-Mobil 2005 annual giving (donations) report: Competitive Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C., General Operating Support 90,000, General Operating Support* 180,000 ,Total 270,000 2005 annual giving report
[edit] External links
- CEI homepage
- Official blog: CEI Open Market
- Cooler Heads Coalition homepage
