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By 1992, CEI's annual budget had reached $765,000. That year it helped coordinate "Earth Summit Alternatives" to counter the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, generating anti-environmental commentary that appeared on the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, National Review, Washington Times, Detroit News, Investor's Daily, Inside EPA's Clean Air Report, CNBC, C-SPAN, CBS Radio and Voice of America. It also published its first book, titled ''Environmental Politics''.
In 1992, Jonathan Adler, CEI's director of environmental studies, wrote ''Implementing the U.S. Clean Air Act in Arizona'' in conjunction with the [[Barry Goldwater Institute for Public Policy Research]], a small think tank headed by [[Michael Sanera]], a former professor of political science at Northern Arizona University and an adjunct scholar at the conservative [[Heritage Foundation]]. <ref> [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006RW03C/qid=1148438836/sr=1-13/ref=sr_1_13/104-2202380-8195161?s=books&v=glance&n=283155"Implementing the U.S. Clean Air Act in Arizona"] , Barry Goldwater Institute for Public Policy Research, 1992. ASIN B0006RW03C.</ref> The following year they wrote another report "Reforming Arizona's Air Pollution Policy".
In 1994 CEI began working on a book with the [[Alabama Family Alliance]] and the [[Arizona Institute for Public Policy Research]] (also founded and headed by Sanera). Tentatively titled ''An Environmental Primer for Parents: How to Talk to Your Children About Environmental Issues'', the book was eventually published under the title ''Facts Not Fear'', with Sanera and [[Jane S. Shaw]] listed as the authors. It claims that environmental education in the classroom is a politicized effort to indoctrinate kids into becoming activitistsactivists. Sanera was also instrumental in gutting a previously strong environmental education mandate in Arizona. He and CEI have become leading forces behind an ongoing, industry-funded campaign to eliminate funding for environmental education throughout the United States.<ref>John Stauber, [http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2000Q2/fearnotfacts.html "Facts Not Fear Wants to Make the World Safe for Styrofoam"], ''PR Watch'', Second Quarter 2000, Volume 7, No. 2.</ref>
In 1995, CEI joined several other think tanks in attacking ''Our Stolen Future'', the book about environmental endocrine disruptors by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski and Peter Myer. Just prior to the book's release, CEI released two separate studies belittling "the hypothetical risks to human health" discussed in Colborn's book. On the same day that CEI's reports came out, [[Consumer Alert]] (run by [[Frances B. Smith]], the wife of CEI founder [[Fred Smith]]) issued its own news release labeling the book "a scaremongering tract."<ref>David Helvarg, [http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Our-Stolen-Future-Defense.htm "Poison Pens: When science fails, try public relations: the chemical industry's attempt to discredit Our Stolen Future"], ''Sierra'', Volume 82, Number 1, Januray/February 1997.</ref>
In March 1996, CEI's [[Michelle Malkin]] and [[Michael Fumento]] published "Rachel's Folly," which claims that dioxin is good for you. <ref>Michael Fumento, [http://www.cei.org/gencon/025,01518.cfmRachel's Folly: The End of Chlorine] , Competitive Enterprise Institute, February 29, 1996.</ref> CEI's [[Jonathan Tolman]] (who holds a bachelor's degree in political science), published a study that month titled "Nature's Hormone Factory," claiming that naturally-occurring chemicals produced by plants and other living organisms are as dangerous as industrial chemicals. <ref>Jonathan Tolman, [http://www.cei.org/gencon/025,01455.cfm"Nature's Hormone Factory: Endocrine Disrupters in the Natural Environment"] , Competitive Enterprise Institute, January 31, 1996.</ref> In December of that year, CEI submitted comments opposing the EPA's proposed air quality rule to limit particulate emissions, claiming that "the EPA has failed to consider whether the proposed standard may actually increase mortality due to reductions in disposable income that compliance efforts may produce. ... At all times regulation imposes costs that mean less real income to individuals for alternative expenditure. That deprivation of real income itself has adverse health effects, in the form of poorer diet, more heart attacks, more suicides." <ref>[http://www.bydesign.com/naaqs/cei.pm.htmlComments of the Competitive Enterprise Institute on the Environmental Protection Agency's Proposed Rule Changing the Ambient Air Quality Standards For Particulate Matter"], NAAQS on the Web, December 13, 1996.</ref>
In 1997 ''Boston Globe'' reporter Jeff Jacoby described CEI as "one of Washington's feistiest think tanks." The same year CEI's Adler lobbied Congress to cut off federal funding for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. <ref>[http://home.earthlink.net/~jhadler/nfwf.htmlWritten Testimony of Jonathan H. Adler, Director of Environmental Studies for the Competitive Enterprise Institute"] , Submission to the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans Committee on Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, September 25, 1997.</ref> In July, it participated in an anti-environmental summit sponsored by the conservative [[Western States Coalition]] in Spokane, Washington. Under the theme of "Responsible Legislation Through Education: Solutions That Work," the conference showcased [[Michael Sanera]]'s attacks on environmental education. Ironically, while much of the conference focused on the alleged indoctrination of school children by environmentalists, the event featured a "trade show" of industry-sponsored K-12 curricula and materials. <ref>Western States Center, [http://www.westernstatescenter.org/publications/97summit.html" Western States Coalition Summit VIII: The Anti-Environmental Lobby and Environmental Education"], Western States Center, Jult 1997 (approx).</ref>
CEI was also active in opposing the 1997 international global warming negotiations in Kyoto. CEI staff including [[Fred Smith]], [[James Sheehan]], Jonathan Adler and [[Marlo Lewis]] featured prominently in a list of "experts" provided to reporters by the industry-funded [[Global Climate Coalition]]. "The campaign against the 1997 Kyoto global warming treaty waged by right-wing think tanks has been another area where corporate America has heavily invested in right-wing policy groups that advance its interest" noted author David Callahan in 1999."The Competitive Enterprise Institute has been a particularly aggressive advocate of the notion that global warming is a 'theory not a fact.' Since 1991, CEI's budget has grown from less than $1 million to over $ 4 million." [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/1999/9911.callahan.think.html] Callahan also noted that although the extent to which conservative think tanks rely on corporate funding support varies widely, CEI and the [[American Enterprise Institute]] "have two of the highest levels of corporate support, with both getting roughly 40 percent of their 1996 revenues from corporations." [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/1999/9911.callahan.think.html]
