Daren Bakst
Director of the Center for Energy and Environment and Senior Fellow
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Daren Bakst
Director of the Center for Energy and Environment and Senior Fellow
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Daren Bakst is Director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment and a Senior Fellow. In this role, he manages, develops, and leads the coalition, advocacy, and research activities of the Center, which is one of the most effective advocates for Free Market Environmentalism.
Before joining CEI as Deputy Director in March, 2023, Daren was a Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the Heritage Foundation, where he played a leading role in the launch of the organization’s new energy and environment center, and created and hosted the Heritage Foundation’s energy and environment podcast the “PowerCast.” During his decade at Heritage, Daren wrote about energy and environmental policy, food and agricultural policy (including editing and co-authoring the book Farms and Free Enterprise), regulation, and trade among other topics.
Daren also worked on environmental policy and regulation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he was a policy counsel and served as the executive to the association’s Government Oversight, Operations & Consumer Affairs committee, which was responsible for issues such as regulatory process reform. Daren has significant state level experience, working for seven years at the Raleigh, N.C.-based John Locke Foundation, one of the largest state-based, free-market think tanks. As director of legal and regulatory studies, his broad portfolio included energy and environmental policy, regulatory reform, and property rights.
Daren has testified numerous times before Congress, regularly submits comments to federal agencies and has appeared in or been quoted by a wide range of media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Times, CNN, Fox Business News, Al-Jazeera America, and U.S. News and World Report. He is a member of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Executive Committee and serves on the College Level Advisory Board for Constituting America, an organization that informs and educates about the importance of the U.S. Constitution.
Daren, who hails from Florida, received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from George Washington University. A licensed attorney, he holds a law degree from the University of Miami and a master of laws degree from American University.
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Contributions
Deep Dive Episode 262 – Analyzing the EPA’s Proposed Renewable Fuel Standard Rule
On December 30, 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published an updated rule on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that represents a significant departure from previous RFS rules.
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Analyzing the EPA’s Proposed Renewable Fuel Standard Rule
In this webinar, leading experts will provide background on the RFS, delve into the details of the proposed rule, including its potential costs and benefits, and address questions regarding statutory authority and the non-delegation doctrine.
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Sackett v. EPA: How Will the U.S. Supreme Court Define “Waters of the United States?”
Experts discuss the first case of the new SCOTUS term and the implications it may have for defining “waters of the United States.”
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Deep Dive Episode 236 – Sackett v. EPA: How Will the U.S. Supreme Court Define “Waters of the United States?”
In this podcast, experts discuss the first case of the new SCOTUS term and the implications it may have for defining “waters of the United States.”
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The Latest Energy and Environmental Regulations
Daren Bakst
Even for experts who regularly track energy and environmental regulations, it can be difficult to stay abreast of many important regulations that have been proposed or soon will be proposed across the federal government. This post is intended to help those interested in federal energy and environmental regulations. While by no means comprehensive, its focus is identifying many important rules that have been proposed and are still receiving comments (as of the date of this writing) or that will soon be proposed, that is, they are still under Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) EO 12866 review.
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How Bad Regulations Harm the Environment
Daren Bakst
In a recent blog post for the New Civil Liberties Alliance entitled “Bad Regulations Destroy Our Environment,” Harriet Hageman describes the regulatory failures that created the perfect “environment” for the catastrophic forest fires that plagued the interior west for much of 2020.
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Deep Dive Episode 160 – The Myths and Facts Regarding the EPA’s Benefit-Cost Analysis and Science Transparency Rules
In this live podcast, subject-area experts examine the likely real-world impact of two new EPA rules.
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The EPA Should Properly Address the Abuse of Ancillary Benefits in CAA Rulemaking
Daren Bakst
When the EPA finalizes its recently proposed rule on the consideration of costs and benefits in CAA rulemaking, the agency should clarify that there are limits to applying indirect benefits, also known as “ancillary benefits” or “co-benefits,” in regulatory decision-making.
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Deep Dive Episode 135 – Evaluating the EPA’s Proposals to Retain the Existing Particulate Matter and Ozone Standards
Experts discuss the EPA’s recent proposals to retain both the existing particulate matter and ozone primary and secondary standards.
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EPA’s Section 401 Rule Respects Federalism While Addressing State Abuses
Daren Bakst
A central feature of the Clean Water Act (CWA) is cooperative federalism. In fact, right at the start of the statute, Congress made it clear that states are expected to take the leading role in addressing water pollution.
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Deep Dive Episode 111 – The Truth About the EPA’s Science Transparency Rule
Richard Belzer, Daren Bakst, and Adam White discuss a proposed rule that would require the EPA to make public important information underlying both significant regulatory actions and influential scientific information disseminated by the Agency.
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Deep Dive Episode 90 – The New Definition of WOTUS
In this episode, Daren Bakst, Tony Francois, and John Paul Woodley discuss the new definition of WOTUS and its potential impacts.
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Deep Dive Episode 67 – The New Endangered Species Act Regulations
Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marines Fisheries Service finalized several new Endangered Species Act regulations. In this episode, Jonathan Wood speaks to Daren Bakst on some of the controversy and legal challenges surrounding those new rules.
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Deep Dive Episode 50 – Analyzing the New Proposed Rule Defining “Waters of the United States”
For decades, the EPA and Corps have struggled to come up with a proper definition that is both consistent with the plain language of the statute, respects the state role in addressing water pollution, and is consistent with the rule of law. In this episode, experts will discuss a recently proposed rule defining “waters of the United States” and its implications.
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Defining the “Waters of the United States”
Daren Bakst
To help provide important information and analysis on this proposed rule, the Federalist Society hosted a teleforum entitled “Analyzing the New Proposed Rule Defining ‘Waters of the United States.”
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Deep Dive Episode 29 – Analyzing how EPA is Addressing “Secret Science”
Daren Bakst (The Heritage Foundation) and Richard B. Belzer Ph.D. discuss EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s recent announcement on “secret science” and “how transparency in government can be strengthened and better inform policymaking.”
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