Jerry Taylor served as director of natural resource studies, a senior fellow, and a vice president for development at the Cato Institute until 2014. He was published in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, the Columbia Journal of International Affairs, Regulation magazine, and other publications.

Taylor served on several congressional advisory bodies and testified frequently on Capitol Hill regarding various energy and environmental policy matters. He was the author or coauthor of numerous Cato policy studies addressing energy taxes, the oil market, electricity regulation, energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable development, and trade and the environment. He has also contributed to several anthologies, including The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (2007), Energy & American Society — 13 Myths (2007), The Republican Revolution 10 Years Later (2005), Earth Report 2000 (2000), China as a Global Economic Power (1997), and Market Liberalism (1993).