About
LEI’s mission is to provide information that improves the quality of energy and environmental institutions and policies.
What We Offer
Research
We conduct primary and applied research ranging from peer-reviewed publications to rapid short-form analyses.
Education
We raise energy policy literacy through a suite of educational products and engagements including regulatory comments, legislative testimony, and briefings.
Advice
We follow a practitioner-scholar model that provides practical, strategic insights tailored to decisionmaking circumstances.
Our Principles
LEI conducts robust research and education with three principles driving our position formation:
- Competitive Markets: Competitive markets grounded in private property rights drive innovation, encourage economic development, and foster human flourishing. Liberalizing markets improves energy competition, which has been suppressed by decades of policy interventions.
- Limited Government: Quality public policy limits government intervention to remedying persistent market flaws, such as externalities and natural monopolies. Policy interventions that weigh government failure and pass rigorous reviews are more likely to improve social welfare.
- Quality Institutions: Effective government depends on public institutions that uphold the rule of law, maintain clear missions, and are transparent, trustworthy, accountable, capable, and efficient. Quality public institutions also require a professional, merit-based workforce that maintains legitimacy through strong performance and responsiveness to those they serve.
OUR HISTORY
Trusted Energy Expertise
LEI was founded in 2026 by Kent Chandler, Devin Hartman, and Philip Rossetti. LEI’s origins trace back to stakeholders seeing a need to scale-up energy policy expertise that delivered high-quality work, had broad stakeholder credibility, and covered practical, important, but often neglected applications like the federal executive and state policymaking realms. One stakeholder remarked that “we need a lighthouse to illuminate a good policy path and to warn of problematic directions.” The “lighthouse” name stuck. At the time, no U.S. organization existed with a market orientation that exclusively focused on energy policy research and education. LEI fills that void.
FAQs
How does LEI form its policy positions?
LEI’s research, conclusions, and policy recommendations are driven by its subject-matter experts consistent with principled, transparent analysis methods. Our credibility is built on empirical evidence to guide us toward truth. Our positions will be updated as new evidence emerges. We are keenly aware of how groupthink, selection bias, and confirmation bias affects think tanks and undertake efforts, such as an intellectually diverse advisory board, to keep our positions grounded in evidence.
How does LEI maintain its independence from donors?
LEI provides trusted expertise, which requires institutional independence. Our robust internal controls uphold our independence from donors. These include independence statements in our proposals, protocols that insulate scholars from undue influence, disclosures, and conflict-of-interest policies for staff and our independent board.
Do political actors influence LEI’s positions?
No. LEI is, and will remain, truly nonpartisan and independent of political actors. We call balls and strikes the same way, regardless of who is associated with a given policy idea. This means our work provides positive reinforcement and negative accountability under any political circumstance.
What is LEI’s role in issue advocacy?
LEI is not an advocacy organization, but our work improves the quality of others’ efforts. Our research is useful to many advocacy organizations, such as consumer groups, innovative technology suppliers, and liberty and taxpayer-oriented groups. Input from these groups helps inform the timing value and institutional constraints in our analyses so our work is relevant to stakeholders. Advocacy groups often seek greater subject matter literacy, which we provide through our education function. For example, we are technical advisors to advocacy coalitions but refrain from being a member of those coalitions ourselves.
How does LEI engage other experts?
We aim to be highly collaborative with external experts. We have multiple projects underway with longstanding think tanks, who value our specialized focus. We coordinate with external experts to maximize the value of our independent research projects, offer to review their work, and seek their peer-review of our work to improve its quality. Academics often rely on us to inform them about how their research agenda can be most useful to realistic policymaking. We serve on expert working groups and advisory boards, such as those for the Energy Systems Integration Group and Future Power Markets Forum.
How does LEI approach fundraising?
Our initial funding comes from a blend of self-identified liberty, abundance, climate, and effective altruism philanthropy. We do not receive government funding, because it presents an unnavigable conflict when LEI critiques government policy.
Meet Our Team
Board of Directors
The Lighthouse Energy Institute (LEI) has a five-member board of directors. Its members are responsible for executing the fiduciary duties of care, loyalty, and obedience to the nonprofit corporation in all aspects of its governance.
Advisory Board
The advisory board of the Lighthouse Energy Institute provides strategic guidance and feedback on the organization’s work and future agenda.