Difference between revisions of "Competitive Enterprise Institute"

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American Enterprise Institute
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'''Competitive Enterprise Institute''', founded in 1984, says it "has grown into a $3,000,000 institution with a team of nearly 40 policy experts and other staff".<ref>"[http://web.archive.org/web/20020127163935/http://www.cei.org/pages/about.cfm About CEI]", Competitive Enterprise Institute website, version placed in web archive January 27 2002, accessed in web archive April 27 2009</ref>
  
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One of the most important and vociferous anti-environmental think tanks in Washington, it is the main climate change-sceptical organisation in Washington as well as promoting "Sound Science" and denigrating environmentalists.
  
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It is described by PR Watch as "an ideologically-driven, well-funded front for corporations opposed to safety and environmental regulations that affect the way they do business".<ref>"[http://web.archive.org/web/20011107223849/http://www.prwatch.org/improp/cei.html Impropaganda Review: Competitive Enterprise Institute]",  PR Watch, version placed in web archive 7 November 2001, accessed in web archive 27 April 2009</ref>
  
Founded in 1943 and located in Washington, D.C., the [http://www.aei.org/ American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI)] is the Godfather of Washington neo-conservative lobby groups - America's richest, largest and most influential think tank. It is also regarded as one of the Bush administration's closest allies.  
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It has close working relationship with other right wing think tanks as well as the [[Wise Use Movement]]. It is a member of the Wise Use umbrella organisation, the [[Alliance for America]]. {{ref|3}}
  
It has the CEOs of both pharmaceutical giant Merck and of The Dow Chemcial Company, as well as the Vice President of Exxon, among the many corporate figures on its [http://www.aei.org/about/filter.,contentID.20038142214500073/default.asp Board of Trustees].
 
  
Several of the leading lights of the Bush administration, most notably Vice President Dick Cheney, directly connect to AEI, which also rents office space to the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). Founded in 1997, PNAC has been agitating since its inception for war with Iraq. Like PNAC, the AEI is regarded as a major promoter of President Bush's war-agenda.  
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==Projects/Issues==
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CEI belongs to various conservative alliances, including the [[Alliance for America]], [[Get Government Off Our Backs]], the [[National Consumer Coalition]] (a pro-corporate front group headed by [[Frances Smith]], the wife of CEI founder [[Fred Smith]]), and the [[Environmental Education Working Group]] (EEWG), a national umbrella group for organizations working to undermine environmental education in schools. It also sponsors several other subsidiary organizations, including:
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*[[Center for Private Conservation]] A green-sounding front group that opposes environmental regulations by claiming that "free market" solutions work better.
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*[[Cooler Heads Coalition]]
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*[[Center for Environmental Education Research]] Michael Sanera's organization based in Washington, D.C. {{ref|14}}
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==Conko and Prakash – Pro-Biotech==
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CEI affiliates [[Gregory Conko]] and [[C.S. Prakash]] are two of the most vociferous proponents of biotech in the US. Prakash is professor of plant genetics at Tuskeegee University in Alabama, and a co-founder of the [[AgBioWorld]] Foundation along with Conko. According to his biography, "Dr. Prakash has also been actively involved in enhancing the societal awareness of food biotechnology issues around the world. His Internet website http://www.AgBioWorld.org has become an important portal, disseminating information and promoting discussion on this subject among stakeholders such as scientists, policy makers, activists and journalists. He recently served on the [[USDA]]'s [[Agricultural Biotechnology Advisory Committee]] and continues to serve on the Advisory Committee for the Department of Biotechnology for the government of India". {{ref|15}}
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Prakash claims that his newsletter 'AgBioView' is read by more than 4,000 experts in 55 countries, and is "widely recognized as a premier news outlet on agbiotech issues because of its broad focus on technical, societal and ethical issues". {{ref|16}}
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But some of the material on AgBioView is highly suspect. According to GMWatch, "Prakash also shares the antipathy of the extreme right towards those with environmental concerns. Some of the material he has posted on his [[AgBioView]] list has accused critics of GM crops of fascism, communism, imperialism, nihilism, murder, corruption, terrorism, and even genocide; as well as of being worse than Hitler and on a par with the mass murderers who destroyed the World Trade Centre". {{ref|17}}
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Also the [[AgBioView]] list was central in undermining important research published by [[Nature]] that concluded that maize in Mexico had been contaminated. Some of the most virulent attacks against the research were on AgBioView discussion group. Prakash says that the AgBioWorld website "played a fairly important role in putting public pressure on Nature." {{ref|18}}
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The first attacks on the website were traced back to false e-mails linked to [[Monsanto]]’s PR company [[Bivings]] and Monsanto itself. There are also unresolved issues on whether AgBioWorld had also been set up by [[Bivings]]. {{ref|19}} 
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Prakash was also at the announcement in May 2003 by US Trade Representative [[Robert B. Zoellick]] and Agriculture Secretary [[Ann Veneman]] that the United States - joined with Argentina, Canada, and Egypt - would file a [[World Trade Organization]] (WTO) case against the [[European Union]] (EU) over its "illegal five-year moratorium on approving agricultural biotech products".
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Also at the announcement were [[T.J. Buthelezi]], a farmer of biotech crops from South Africa; Dr. [[Diran Makinde]], Dean of the School of Agriculture, University of Venda for Science and Technology, South Africa; and Dr. [[Ariel Alvarez-Morales]], Center for Research and Advanced Studies, Irapuato, Mexico. {{ref|20}} Conko was also at the press conference.
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Later that day, all the above appeared at a CEI seminar in Washington "to speak out against the European Union's moratorium on trade in genetically engineered foods. Agricultural experts from around the world will discuss the negative impact of the EU moratorium on the developing world and urge the United States government to mount a World Trade Organization challenge".
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The conference was addressed by Conko, Prakash and Nobel Prize winner and GM proponent [[Norman Borlaug]], as well as [[Professor Makinde]], Dr. [[Ariel Alvarez-Morales]] and [[TJ Buthelezi]]. {{ref|21}} Buthelezi has been paid by Monsanto and the biotech industry. GM Watch notes that "with their assistance he has been brought to Washington, Brussels, Pretoria, St. Louis, London, Johannesburg, and Philadelphia to help promote GM foods". {{ref|22}}
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Conko used the conference to argue that, "The European Union's refusal to license new biotech crops is a clear and blatant violation of its obligations under trade treaties it has signed and ratified," said Competitive Enterprise Institute Director of Food Safety Policy [[Gregory Conko]]. "More importantly, it poses a genuine threat to the health and well-being of people throughout the developing world." {{ref|23}}
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Both Prakash and Conko work with other biotech proponents. Prakash has travelled overseas to speak at a number of events on behalf of the US State Department, including at the US embassy in London. He has also spoken at a debate staged by the right-wing [[Institute of Economic Affairs]] in London in 2000, {{ref|24}} and at the [[Seeds of Opportunity]] conference chaired by British contrarian [[Philip Stott]] in 2001. Also attending were known GM proponents such as [[Phil Dale]], from the [[John Innes Center]], and Lord [[Dick Taverne]] from [[Sense About Science]] as well as leading members of the UK's [[Royal Society]]. {{ref|25}}
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Conko has also worked with other right-wing activists such as [[Kendra Okonski]], who used to be at the CEI and who now works at the [[IPN]] on trade related issues, calling for "more open trade, lower subsidies and better protection of property rights". {{ref|26}}
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He has written articles with [[Henry I. Miller]] of the [[Competitive Enterprise Institute]] and [[Hoover Institution]], one of which argues that the "new biotechnology pose no inherent risks" despite evidence to the contrary. {{ref|27}} Another article on biotechnology suggests that the [[UN Biosafety Protocol]] was based on "trade protectionism" and "anti-science fearmongering", {{ref|28}} which was originally published on the [[European Science and Economic Forum]] website (see below). {{ref|29}}
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In March 2003 Conko took part in a debate on 'GM food: should labelling be mandatory?' which was organised by the ex-[[Living Marxism]] organisation [[Spiked]] and the [[International Policy Network]], at the London office of PR company [[Hill and Knowlton]]. {{ref|30}} At the meeting Conko argued against any requirement to label GM foods. {{ref|31}}
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===Climate===
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The CEI has a long-standing opposition to [[Kyoto]] and a commitment to debunking climate science. In 1996, [[RJ Smith]] said that "after the US State Department announced they were going to call for mandatory controls in Kyoto, we said, 'What do we do? How do we stop this?'" At a strategy meeting held in November 1996, participants included [[Ray Evans]] from Australia's [[Western Mining Corporation]], along with a senior world vice-president for [[Ford Motors]], the then [[American Petroleum Institute]] Executive Director [[William O'Keefe]], and [[Dick Lawson]], the executive director of the US [[National Mining Association]]. {{ref|32}}
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In February, [[Fred Smith]] warned that the insurance industry may use climate change as a way of off-loading liability onto taxpayers, comments that were dismissed by the insurance industry. {{ref|33}}
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In July 1997 the CEI held the first of its anti-Kyoto conferences in Washington. Entitled "The Costs of Kyoto", the speakers included [[Fran Smith]] from the [[Wise Use]] group [[Consumer Alert]], [[Patrick Michaels]] from [[Cato Institute]] and British contrarian [[Wilfred Beckerman]] from Oxford University. There was also Australian Embassy Chief of Mission [[Paul O'Sullivan]] and [[Brian Fisher]] from the [[Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics]] (ABARE), whose funders include [[Rio Tinto]], [[Texaco]], [[Mobil Oil]], [[Exxon]], the [[Australian Coal Association]], the [[Australian Aluminum Council]] and [[Statoil]], the Norwegian oil company. {{ref|37}} Beckerman is author of ''Small Is Stupid: Blowing the Whistle on the Greens'' which argues that global warming is "no cause for alarm". {{ref|38}}
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Next came a conference in Canberra, whose speakers included US Senator [[Malcolm Wallop]], who chairs the [[Frontiers of Freedom Institute]], who said: "This conference is the first shot across the bow of those who expect to champion the Kyoto Treaty".
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Other speakers were [[Patrick Michaels]] from [[Cato]] again, along with US Senator [[Chuck Hagel]] (known sceptic), US Congressman [[John Dingell]] (known sceptic), and [[Richard Lawson]], President and Chief Executive Officer of the US [[National Mining Association]]. {{ref|39}} Later that year they worked with the [[Heartland Institute]] to expose "the junk science and flawed economics often used in the debate over global warming." {{ref|40}}
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In the run up to Kyoto, the CEI employed a double PR strategy of singing the benefits of climate change and also talking about the economic catastrophe that was [[Kyoto]]. [[Fred Smith]] argued there were four benefits of climate change: "The growth rate of plants would increase faster than anyone thinks possible. Agricultural growing regions would expand northward. There'd be a reduction in heating needs, which is more than the cost of cooling. And warm is healthy". {{ref|41}}
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CEI statements also argued that climate change would create "a milder, greener, more prosperous world" and that Kyoto was a "power grab based on deception and fear". {{ref|42}} The CEI also organised a rally of the [[Cooler Heads Coalition]], where leading climate sceptic Republican Senator [[Chuck Hagel]] of Nebraska warned that Kyoto would create an "economic disaster" and hurt US national security. {{ref|43}}
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[[Jonathan Adler]], then of the CEI, dismissed fears about climate change: "Indeed, the more that is known, the less it seems that humans have to fear from global warming. The indications are that a warmer world would be far more benign than previously imagined. One recent study found no indication that global warming would produce killer heat waves in urban areas, environmentalist claims notwithstanding. Another in the British journal ''Nature'' suggested that global warming poses little threat to polar ice caps. Indeed, the report suggested that some ice shelves should expand, not melt, if the Earth warms. So much for the greenhouse apocalypse". {{ref|44}}
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In 1999, similar or related claims were to follow. Kyoto would "kill small business". {{ref|45}} The "unusual weather does not equal climate change." {{ref|46}} GOP Contender [[Dan Quayle]] lambasted [[Al Gore]] at the CEI, accusing him of promoting a global warming policy based on findings that were "highly debatable" with "no scientific consensus." {{ref|47}} 
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The CEI continued to work against Kyoto through 2000. In October they filed a lawsuit against the then President [[Bill Clinton]], alleging he illegally expanded the scope of, and spending on, a report by the US [[Global Change Research Program]] on climate change for political reasons which would have assisted Vice President Gore's presidential campaign. "At this point, [the national assessment] is opinion and advocacy, not science," said [[Christopher Horner]] from CEI, adding, "That's not what Congress asked for." Co-plaintiffs included Reps. [[Joseph Knollenberg]] (R-Mich.) and [[Jo Ann Emerson]] (R-Mo.), Sen. [[James Inhofe]] (R-Okla.), [[Consumer Alert]], [[60-Plus Association]], and the [[Heartland Institute]]. {{ref|48}}
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In January 2001, with Clinton gone, the CEI attacked the [[IPCC]]'s scientists who predicted that the Earth's temperature could rise by as much as 5.8 degrees Celsius over the coming century. [[Myron Ebell]] retorted that, "The summary's scary predictions of much faster warming are based on discredited global climate computer models." {{ref|49}}
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March 2001 signalled the true intent of the Bush administration and the CEI claimed to play an intricate part in helping formulate its position. Firstly, President Bush "stunned environmentalists" by reversing a campaign pledge that his administration would not regulate power plants' emissions of carbon dioxide as a pollutant. The CEI claimed a "great victory and everyone should congratulate themselves on the work they did to achieve this end." {{ref|50}}
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A letter from Adjunct Fellow [[Jack Kemp]], who served for 18 years in the House of representatives as a Republican, praised the Bush Administration over its handling of climate change. His letter credited the CEI with providing Bush with the "intellectual support and political cover to 'do the right thing' on carbon dioxide emissions". [[Myron Ebell]] claimed that the [[Kyoto Protocol]] was now "a walking corpse. We want to keep that corpse walking as long as possible". {{ref|51}} Kemp labelled Kyoto as "eco-extremism" based on "phony science" and "fear-mongering". {{ref|52}}
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Secondly, the Bush Administration rejected the Kyoto Protocol. "We had been working towards it," said [[Myron Ebell]], "But it's so surprising because its a bold move, so decisive and so unlike his father, who would have fudged or have done something to paper it over." {{ref|53}}
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"Leading opponents of the Kyoto Protocol" put forward by the CEI included [[Myron Ebell]], [[Christopher Horner]], [[Frances Smith]], the chairman of the [[National Consumers Coalition]], [[Paul Georgia]] of the [[Cooler Heads]] newsletter, and [[John Carlisle]] from the [[National Center for Public Policy Research]] (subsequently the [[Capital Research Center]]). {{ref|54}}
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The CEI was also active in opposing any members of the Clinton administration left in post by the incoming Bush team, one of whom was [[Ian Bowles]], in charge of international environmental issues at the [[National Security Council]]. "We thought the election was a break in policies," said Myron Ebell. "...[Bowles] is a zealot who believes that global warming is a problem and that Kyoto is the answer. It seems to me the administration would be better served by getting people who represented the Bush administration much more quickly." {{ref|55}} It was no surprise therefore that Myron Ebell was named Villain of the Month by [[Clean Air Trust]] for his "ferocious lobbying charge to persuade President Bush to reverse his campaign pledge to control electric utility emissions of carbon dioxide."
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Later that year Ebell was still talking about the "benign" effects of climate change and attacked the [[IPCC]] as "alarmist in order to support the global warming treaty. If they didn't do it, they would be out of a job." {{ref|56}}
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In early 2002, when Bush outlined his "Clean Skies" proposals for clean air and to tackle climate change, [[Myron Ebell]] called it "a misguided concession to environmental alarmism." Meanwhile the plan was attacked by environmentalists. [[Carl Pope]], executive director of the [[Sierra Club]], called the program a "Valentine's Day gift to corporate polluters" that "will do nothing to curb global warming." {{ref|57}}
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In May 2002, the US [[EPA]], in consultation with other departments, published the [[Climate Action Report 2002]], to be submitted to the [[United Nations Framework Convention]]'s Climate Change secretariat. The report warned that climate change was a clear and present threat to the US, based on predictions from modelling undertaken by the respected [[Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research]] in the UK. {{ref|58}} It stated: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing global mean surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise." {{ref|59}}
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The Competitive Enterprise Institute was at the centre of overt and covert action to undermine the US EPA's report on climate change and change the Bush administration position.
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Firstly the CEI claimed that the EPA report violated an agreement made in September 2001 between the White House, CEI and other groups and three members of Congress settling a lawsuit challenging a national climate change assessment report released in 2000 by the Clinton administration.
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"For the EPA now to accept the National Assessment's findings as valid undermines and contradicts President Bush's global warming policies," said Ebell. "The EPA needs to be told that the Clinton Administration is gone and Al Gore did not win the election." According to the CEI, the Bush administration agreed to withdraw and repudiate the 2000 report after that document was challenged in a lawsuit brought by Sen. [[James Inhofe]] (R-Okla.), Reps. [[Joe Knollenberg]] (R-Mich.) and [[Jo Ann Emerson]] (R-Mo.), as well as CEI and other right-wing groups, who claimed it was based on "junk science". {{ref|60}}
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A leaked e-mail from dated 3rd June 2002 from [[Myron Ebell]] to [[Phil Cooney]], chief of staff at the [[White House Council on Environmental Quality]], started by saying "Thanks for calling and asking for our help." It then goes on to say, "I want to help you cool things down." The e-mail discusses possible tactics for playing down the report and getting rid of EPA officials, including its then head, [[Christine Whitman]]. "It seems to me that the folks at the EPA are the obvious fall guys and we would only hope that the fall guy (or gal) should be as high up as possible." {{ref|61}}
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Ebell advised Cooney that he was "willing and ready to help, but it won't be possible to do much without some sort of backtracking from the Administration."
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Just two days later, Bush repudiated the EPA report as having been "put out by the bureaucracy," reiterating his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol. "The Kyoto treaty would severely damage the United States economy," he said. "And I don't accept that." {{ref|62}}
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[[Christopher C. Horner]] welcomed the move saying that Mr. Bush had distanced himself from the report "because of concern from the right that he was going to accept the European environmental world view, that he had changed his mind as the report indicated he had." {{ref|63}}
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The CEI also filed a petition with the administration "to prevent the distribution of a fatally flawed report on global warming", {{ref|64}} accusing the EPA of publishing "knowingly fictional" science. {{ref|65}}
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It also publicly wrote to the Bush Administration attacking the EPA's line on climate change in a co-ordinated letter, whose signatories read like a long list of right-wing groups, [[Wise Use]] and known climate-change sceptics.
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*[[Climate Change Sceptics' Letter to the President, June 2002]]
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Later that month (June 2002), the CEI criticised the "Clean Power Act" [S. 556] proposed by Senator [[James Jeffords]], Vermont Independent, and the "Clean Smokestacks Act" proposed by [[Henry Waxman]] [H.R. 1256], which would have established new controls on power plant emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and carbon dioxide, as "Multi-pollutant madness". {{ref|66}}
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By August 2002 and the [[UN Summit on Sustainable Development]] in Johannesburg, the CEI was one of 31 conservative individuals and groups, including the [[American Enterprise Institute]], [[Atlas Economic Research Foundation]], [[Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow]], [[Capitol Research Center]], [[Heartland Institute]] and [[National Center for Policy Analysis]] who wrote again to Bush to applaud his decision not to attend the [[WSSD]] and to keep climate change off the agenda:
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"Even more than the Earth Summit in Rio (de Janeiro) in 1992, the Johannesburg Summit will provide a global media stage for many of the most irresponsible and destructive elements involved in critical international economic and environmental issues," said the letter. "Your presence would only help to publicize and make more credible their various anti-freedom, anti-people, anti-globalization, and anti-Western agendas." Bush declined the invitation to attend. {{ref|67}}
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The groups argued that "potential" global warming is "the least important global environmental issue" and the letter calls upon US negotiators attending the summit in Johannesburg to "keep it off the table and out of the spotlight." {{ref|68}}
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Two state attorney generals have asked Attorney General [[John Ashcroft]] to investigate because the memo "reveals great intimacy between CEI and [the administration] in their strategizing about ways to minimize the problem of global warming. It also suggests the CEQ may have been directly involved in efforts to undermine the United States' official report, as well as the authority of the EPA administrator." {{ref|69}}
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In April 2003 the CEI co-ordinated another letter, this time to The Honorable Mr. [[Pete Domenici]], Chairman of the [[Committee on Energy and Natural Resources]], on the subject of climate:
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:"The undersigned organizations write to share our views... Because we share your commitment to policies that will promote continuing abundant supplies of affordable energy to American consumers and producers, we were surprised to find that your committee's draft contains a climate change title. We believe that this title is ill considered and, if enacted in anything like its present form, its effects will in the long run overwhelm the many positive elements in the bill. It would in our view create the institutional and legal framework and the political incentives necessary eventually to force Kyoto-style energy rationing on the American people.
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:Even more disturbingly to us, it would set us on this path without engaging in a full national debate over its enormous consequences. Instead, including this climate title in comprehensive energy legislation seems to assume that the debate is over, even though that debate has never occurred. It seems to us that before we settle on the main provisions of this climate title, we would first have to agree that global warming alarmism is scientifically warranted, that there are benefits as wells as costs to these policies, and that it is inevitable we are soon going to be living in a carbon-constrained world...
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:Sincerely,
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:[[Fred Smith]] and [[Myron Ebell]] - Competitive Enterprise Institute
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:[[Paul M. Weyrich]] - [[Coalitions for America]]
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:[[Grover Norquist]] - [[Americans for Tax Reform]]
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:[[Malcolm Wallop]] - [[Frontiers of Freedom]]
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:[[David A. Keene]] - [[American Conservative Union]]
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:[[Paul Gessing]] - [[National Taxpayers Union]]
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:[[James L. Martin]] - [[60 Plus Association]]
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:[[James P. Backlin]] - [[Christian Coalition of America]]
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:[[Amy Ridenour]] - [[National Center for Public Policy Research]]
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:[[Darrell McKigney]] - [[Small Business Survival Committee]]
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:[[Richard Lessner]] - [[American Renewal]]
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:[[Tom DeWeese]] - [[American Policy Center]]
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:[[Chuck Muth]] - [[Citizen Outreach]]
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:[[Steven Milloy]] - [[Citizens for the Integrity of Science]]
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:[[Ronald Pearson]] - [[Council for America]]
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:[[Kevin L. Kearns]] - [[US Business and Industry Council]]
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:[[Dennis Avery]] - [[Hudson Institute]]
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:[[Jim Boulet, Jr.]] - [[English First]]
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:[[Joan L. Hueter]] - [[American Council for Immigration Reform]]
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:[[C. Preston Noell, III]] - [[Tradition, Family, Property]], Inc.
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:[[Benjamin C. Works]] - [[Strategic Issues Research Institute of the US]] (SIRIUS)" {{ref|70}}
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The following month The CEI and 32 other right-wing organisations raised "concerns about the approach Congress is taking to climate change policy in a joint letter to House International Relations Committee Chairman [[Henry Hyde]]" (R-IL).
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In a letter, the groups "explain the flaws with alarmist statements about climate change and science contained in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's State Department authorization bill, urging the House committee not take the same path. The Senate committee findings include exaggerations, misleading statements, out-of-context citations, and reliance on discredited sources. The Committee adopted resolutions based on these flawed premises."
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"In our view, the resolutions are even more flawed than the findings," wrote Myron Ebell, Director of Global Warming Policy at CEI. "The first two resolutions recommend that the US adopt Kyoto-style policies to limit energy use by American consumers. The third resolution urges the US to extend the Kyoto Protocol by negotiating a second round of binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions."
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The letter continued: "The Kyoto Protocol is a dead end... and so too are all similar approaches based on forcing cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. Adopting Kyoto-style policies would have enormous economic costs without making significant reductions in greenhouse gas levels. Just at the moment that the Kyoto Protocol is collapsing and other industrialized countries that have ratified the Protocol are discovering that they cannot meet their targets is not the time to jump back on the Kyoto bandwagon."
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Signed by:
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*[[Fred L. Smith]] and [[Myron Ebell]] - Competitive Enterprise Institute
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*[[Paul M. Weyrich]] - [[Coalitions for America]]
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*[[Grover Norquist]] - [[Americans for Tax Reform]]
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*[[Paul Beckner]] - [[Citizens for a Sound Economy]]
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*[[David Keene]] - [[American Conservative Union]]
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*[[Malcolm Wallop]] - [[Frontiers of Freedom]]
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*[[Duane Parde]] - [[American Legislative Exchange Council]]
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*[[James L. Martin]] - [[60 Plus Association]]
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*[[Tom Schatz]] - President, [[Citizens Against Government Waste]]
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*[[Amy Ridenour]] - [[National Center for Public Policy Research]]
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*[[Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.]] - [[Center for Security Policy]]
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*[[Karen Kerrigan]] - [[Small Business Survival Committee]]
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*[[Tom DeWeese]] - [[American Policy Center]]
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*[[Joseph L. Bast]] - [[The Heartland Institute]]
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*[[Paul Driessen]] - [[Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow]]
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*[[Steven Milloy]] - [[Citizens for the Integrity of Science]]
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*[[Lori Waters]] - [[Eagle Forum]]
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*[[Richard Lessner]] - [[American Renewal]]
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*[[Terrence Scanlon]] - [[Capital Research Center]]
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*[[Dennis T. Avery]] - Center for Global Food Issues, [[Hudson Institute]]
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*[[Leroy Watson]] - [[The National Grange]]
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*[[Kevin L. Kearns]] - [[US Business and Industry Council]]
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*[[Bonner Cohen]] - [[Lexington Institute]]
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*[[Michael Hardiman]] - [[American Land Rights Association]]
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*[[C. Preston Noell, III]] - [[Tradition, Family, Property]], Inc.
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*[[Ron Pearson]] - [[Council for America]]
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*[[Jeffrey B. Gayner]] - [[Americans for Sovereignty]]
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*[[Chuck Muth]] - [[Citizen Outreach]]
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*[[Benjamin C. Works]] - [[SIRIUS]]
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*[[Allan Parker]] - [[Texas Justice Foundation]]
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*[[Alan Caruba]] - The [[National Anxiety Center]]
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*[[Mark Q. Rhoads]] - [[US Internet Council]]
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*[[Patrick Michaels]] - [[University of Virginia]]
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*[[Robert Ferguson]] - [[Center for Science and Public Policy]] {{ref|71}}
  
AEI has some fifty resident scholars and fellows augmented by a network of more than a hundred adjunct scholars. Among its scholars are [[Roger Bate]], Newt Gingrich, James Glassman (of Tech Central Station) and Richard Perle.  
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The CEI has also filed other lawsuits and challenges against other government agencies who have issued reports on climate change, such as the [[EPA]] and the [[National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration]], calling their work unscientific. {{ref|72}}
  
In June 2003 AEI held a day-long seminar on 'NGO influence and accountability', entitled [http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.329,filter./event_detail.asp Nongovernmental Organizations: The Growing Power of an Unelected Few]. Among the speakers at the Washington seminar was Gary Johns of the Institute of Public Affairs which had launched a corporate newsletter called NGO Watch two years earlier. Other contributors included Fred Smith of the [[Competitive Enterprise Institute]] (CEI) and [[Roger Bate]] of [http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=256&page=A AEI], IEA, ESEF, IPN, SDN etc. According to Bate, ' NGOs definitely provide benefits in the short run. But I would argue in the long run their influence is nearly always malign, either through their own political acts directly or via aid agencies.' Some commentators saw a profound irony in that fact that AEI is itself an 'unelected' NGO with a truly remarkable degree of influence.  
+
In 2003, the CEI attacked the US domestic [[Lieberman-McCain Bill]] on climate that would have regulated carbon dioxide emissions. Myron Ebell called it "pointless political grandstanding and a shameless con game". {{ref|73}} Christopher C. Horner, another fellow, said it would cripple "America's economy in the name of a hysterical and spectacularly debunked theory". {{ref|74}} 
  
Following on from the seminar, AEI and the Federalist Society launched [http://www.ngowatch.org/ NGOWATCH.ORG] - 'an effort to bring clarity and accountability to the burgeoning world of NGOs'. The writer Melanie Klein describes it as in truth, 'a McCarthyite blacklist, telling tales on any NGO that dares speak against Bush administration policies or in support of international treaties opposed by the White House.' Its launch, Klein noted, coincided with a push by the Bush administration to get NGOs 'to do a better job of linking their humanitarian assistance to U.S. foreign policy' - an effort overseen by [[USAID]] and its director [[Andrew Natsios]].  
+
In November the CEI claimed a "victory" after they dropped their lawsuit against the Bush administration and its top scientific advisor, in exchange for the admission that a climate policy document written under the Clinton administration had not been subject to federal data quality guidelines. The Bush administration added two sentences to the [[US Global Change Research Program]]'s (USGCRP) website explaining that a government report on climate change included third party information not produced by federal institutions, which were therefore not bound by the federal Data Quality Act. The CEI had taken issue with the 2000 report as it stated that global warming was likely to lead to hotter summers, warmer winters, and more extreme weather, including flood and drought. {{ref|75}}
  
Bush to NGOs: Watch Your Mouths
+
In December 2003 two of the US government's top atmospheric scientists argued in a paper in ''Science'' that that there was no doubt that human activity was already having a measurable impact on global climate. In response [[Myron Ebell]] argued that climate change was "nothing new" and "It isn't much to worry about." {{ref|76}}
  
AEI also produces The American Enterprise, 'an influential policy magazine' which, like other AEI publications, is 'distributed widely to government officials and legislators, business executives, journalists, and academics; its conferences, seminars, and lectures are regularly covered by national television.'
+
The following month, the CEI's anti-climate work continued unabated as an article published in ''Nature'' magazine concluded that one million species might become extinct because of climate change, {{ref|77}} and that the UK's Chief scientist warned that climate change was a more serious threat to the world than terrorism. {{ref|78}} The same week Myron Ebell was quoted in the US press as saying, "I don't think man-made climate change is an important issue." {{ref|79}}
  
In June 2003 AEI hosted a conference Biotechnology, the Media and Public Policy, which brought together probably the largest gathering of leading GM lobbyists assembled outside of the Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual conventions.
+
[[Ian Murray]] wrote an op-ed piece for [[Tech Central Station]] that attacked the article in [[Nature]]. Murray called the story "flimsy", arguing it should be "laughed out of the court of public opinion." {{ref|80}} The month before, Murray had attacked "environmental alarmists" and "statist environmentalists" for their position on climate change. He also remarked that, "we should remember 2003 as the year that saw the death of the most economically damaging idea ever to come out of the United Nations, the Kyoto Protocol on climate change." {{ref|81}}
June 12 2003
+
 
Biotechnology, the Media and Public Policy 
+
On the 12 January, the CEI and ten other right-wing think tanks and front groups wrote to the [[Department of Energy]], urging them not to establish "a system of emissions credits as part of its greenhouse gases reporting program." It was joined by the [[American Conservative Union]], [[Americans for Tax Reform]], [[American Legislative Exchange Council]], [[Citizens Against Government Waste]], [[Citizens for a Sound Economy]], [[Consumer Alert]], [[Frontiers of Freedom]], [[National Taxpayers Union]], [[60 Plus Association]], and the [[Small Business Survival Committee]]. According to the CEI, a "credit program would mobilize lobbying for energy rationing schemes such as the Kyoto Protocol, Senator [[Jim Jeffords]]' Clean Power Act, and the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act." {{ref|82}}
 +
 
 +
==People==
 +
===Principals===
 +
 
 +
*[[Jack Kemp]] The CEI's "Distinguished Fellow" served four years as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and as the US Representative from New York state (18 years). In 1996, he was nominated by then Senator [[Bob Dole]] as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate.  
 +
 
 +
*[[Fred L. Smith, Jr]] President and Founder, Competitive Enterprise Institute.
 
   
 
   
 +
*[[Jody Clarke]] Vice President for Communications.
 +
 +
*[[Gregory Conko]] Director of Food Safety Policy. Mr. Conko is also the Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors of the [[AgBioWorld Foundation]]. Writes for [[Tech Central Station]].
 +
 +
*[[Myron Ebell]] Director of [[Global Warming and International Environmental Policy]]. Oversees all global warming and international environmental work at CEI. He also chairs the [[Cooler Heads Coalition]], the subgroup of the [[National Consumers Coalition]] that works to debunk climate change. Prior to coming to CEI, [[Ebell]] was policy director at [[Frontiers of Freedom]] and the Washington representative of the [[Wise Use Movement|Wise Use]] group, the American Land Rights Association run by Chuck Cushman. Ebell's financial file is separate.
 +
 +
*[[Christopher C. Horner]] Counsel, [[Cooler Heads Coalition]] and Senior Fellow, CEI. Another [[Tech Central Station]] contributor. {{ref|7}}
 +
 +
*[[Ben Lieberman]] Director of [[Clean Air Policy]]. Also writes for [[Tech Central Station]]. {{ref|8}}
 +
 +
*[[Angela Logomasini]] Director of Risk and Environmental Policy. Was Legislative Assistant to Senator [[Sam Brownback]] from 1996-1998. From 1989 to 1994, Logomasini worked for the front group [[Citizens for a Sound Economy]] (CSE), serving as Director of Solid Waste Policy for its affiliate, [[Citizens for the Environment]]. {{ref|9}}
 +
 +
*[[Iain Murray]] Senior Fellow at CEI, specializing in global climate change and environmental science. Murray edits [[Cooler Heads]], the biweekly newsletter of the [[Cooler Heads Coalition]]. He regularly writes on climate and other issues for [[Tech Central Station]]. {{ref|10}}
 +
 +
===Scholars/Fellows===
 +
 +
*[[Ronald Bailey]] Editor, Earth Report 2000. Is the science correspondent for [[Reason Magazine]] and, most recently, the editor of the Competitive Enterprise Institute book ''Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths'' {{ref|11}} published by [[Prima Publishing]]. He is also the author of ''ECO-SCAM: The False Prophets of the Ecological Apocalypse''.
 +
 +
*[[Roger Bate]] Adjunct Fellow. See listing under the [[American Enterprise Institute]].
 +
 +
*[[Robert L. Bradley Jr.]] Adjunct scholar of the [[Cato Institute]].
 +
 +
*[[Paul Georgia]] An environmental policy analyst at CEI. He specializes in global-warming issues and also edits the biweekly coalition [[Cooler Heads]] newsletter. Also writes for [[Tech Central Station]].
 +
 +
*[[Michael S. Greve]] Board Member and Adjunct Scholar. Greve is also a resident scholar at the [[American Enterprise Institute]].
 +
 +
*[[Kay Jones]] Head of [[Zephyr Consulting]], a Seattle-based environmental consulting firm, an "expert" with the CEI and adjunct fellow at the [[Cato Institute]].
 +
 +
*[[Marlo Lewis, Jr.]] A Senior Fellow on global warming, general environmental and regulatory reform. Ex-Director of External Relations at the [[Reason Foundation]] in Los Angeles. Another contributor to [[Tech Central Station]]. {{ref|12}}
 +
 +
*[[Henry I. Miller]] Research Fellow at the [[Hoover Institution]]. Miller is also a director of [[Consumer Alert]], a director of the [[American Council on Science and Health]] and a scientific advisor to the [[George C. Marshall Institute]] and adjunct fellow at the CEI. {{ref|13}}
 +
 +
*[[Cassandra C. Moore]] Adjunct Scholar with the [[Cato Institute]].
 +
 +
*[[Robert H. Nelson]] Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies.
 +
 +
*[[William O'Keefe]] - Board Member and Adjunct Scholar. President and founder of [[Solutions Consulting]]. Ex–executive Vice President and CEO of the [[American Petroleum Institute]] and Chairman Emeritus of the [[Global Climate Coalition]]. He is also President of the [[George C. Marshall Institute]].
 +
 +
*[[C.S. Prakash]] Is professor of plant genetics at Tuskeegee University in Alabama, and a co-founder of the [[AgBioWorld Foundation]] and [[AgBioWorld]] website (see below).
 +
 +
*[[Fran Smith]] Member, Board of Directors. Executive director of the [[Wise Use]] group [[Consumer Alert]] and wise of [[Fred Smith]], the President of CEI.
 +
 +
*[[Robert J. Smith]] Senior Environmental Scholar.
 +
 +
===Board===
 +
 +
*[[William Dunn]] President, [[Dunn Capital Management]]. On the board of [[PERC]] and [[Reason Foundation]]
 +
 +
*[[Scott Fallon]] – [[BAE Systems]], Inc.
 +
 +
*[[Michael S. Greve]] Resident Scholar, [[American Enterprise Institute]]
  
+
*[[Leonard Liggio]] Vice President, [[Atlas Economic Research Foundation]]
Speakers
+
 
+
*[[Thomas Gale Moore]] Senior Fellow, [[Hoover Institution]]
9:00
+
 
Introduction:
+
*[[William O'Keefe]] President and Founder, [[Solutions Consulting]]
Jon Entine, AEI
+
 
+
*[[Frances Smith]] Executive Director, [[Consumer Alert]]
9:05
+
 
Opening Address:
+
*[[Fred L. Smith, Jr.]] President and Founder, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Lester Crawford, Food and Drug Administration
 
 
9:45
 
Panel I: Biodiplomacy and Public Perception
 
 
 
Moderator:
 
Tim Friend, USA Today
 
 
 
Panelists:
 
Vivian Moses, CropGen
 
 
 
 
 
Robert Paarlberg, Wellesley College
 
 
 
 
 
C. S. Prakash, AgBioWorld
 
 
 
 
 
Javier Verastegui, CamBio Tec-Canada
 
 
Noon
 
Luncheon
 
 
 
 
12:20 p.m.
 
Keynote Speaker:
 
Andrew S. Natsios, USAID
 
 
1:30 Panel II: Emerging Challenges for Commercializing Biotechnology
 
  Moderator: Justin Gillis, Washington Post
 
  Panelists: Rob Horsch, Monsanto
 
    Joseph McGonigle, Aqua Bounty 
 
    Patrick Moore, Greenspirit
 
    Martina Newell-McGloughlin, University of California
 
3:15 Panel III: GMOs and Communications Issues
 
  Moderator: Jon Entine, AEI
 
  Panelists: Jay Byrne, v-Fluence, Inc.
 
    Carol Tucker Foreman, Consumer Federation of America’s Food Policy Institute  
 
    Tony Gilland, Institute of Ideas
 
    Thomas Hoban, North Carolina State University
 
    Doug Powell, Agnet
 
  
 +
==Funding==
  
 +
The CEI does not publish a list of its institutional donors, but the following companies and foundations are known to have given $10,000 or more:
 +
*[[Aequus Institute]]
 +
*[[Amoco Foundation]]
 +
*[[Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation]]
 +
*[[Carthage Foundation]]
 +
*[[Scaife Foundations]]
 +
*[[Coca-Cola]] Company
 +
*[[E.L. Craig Foundation]]
 +
*[[CSX Corporation]]
 +
*[[Earhart Foundation]]
 +
*[[Fieldstead and Co]]
 +
*[[FMC Foundation]]
 +
*[[Ford Motor Company Fund]]
 +
*[[Gilder Foundation]]
 +
*[[Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation]]
 +
*[[David H. Koch Charitable Foundation]]
 +
*[[Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation]]
 +
*[[Philip M. McKenna Foundation]], Inc
 +
*[[Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation]]
 +
*[[Philip Morris]] Companies, Inc 
 +
*[[Pfizer]]
 +
*[[Precision Valve Corporation]]
 +
*[[Prince Foundation]]
 +
*[[Rodney Fund]]
 +
*[[Sheldon Rose]]
 +
*[[Sarah Scaife Foundation]]
 +
*[[Texaco]], Texaco Foundation
 +
*[[Donors Trust]]: $1,193,850 in 2014, $1,981,750 in 2013 <ref> Donors Trust, 990 Form, 2014 </ref><ref> Donors Trust, 990 Form, 2013 </ref>
  
Papers developed out of several of the contributions to the conference were subsequently published in The American Enterprise (March 2004) under the heading BIOTECH BOUNTY. These half a dozen articles included:
+
Other known CEI funders include:
 +
*[[American Petroleum Institute]]
 +
*[[ARCO Foundation]]
 +
*[[Armstrong Foundation]]
 +
*[[Burlington Northern Railroad]] Co
 +
*[[Cigna Corporation]]
 +
*[[Detroit Farming]] Inc
 +
*[[Dow Chemical]]
 +
*[[EBCO]] Corp
 +
*[[General Motors]]
 +
*[[IBM]]
 +
*[[Jacqueline Hume Foundation]]
 +
*[[JM Foundation]]
 +
*[[Vernon K. Krieble Foundation]] 
 +
*[[John William Pope Foundation]]
 +
*[[Smith Richardson Foundation]]
 +
*[[Roe Foundation]] 
 +
*[[Alex C. Walker Foundation]] {{ref|4}}
 +
 +
[[Exxon]] has donated $1 million to the CEI since 1998. {{ref|5}}
  
Let Them Eat Precaution
+
According to an article by Bob Burton for IPS, [[Monsanto]] has also been amongst CEI's funders.<ref>Bob Burton, "[http://www.biosafety-info.net/bioart.php?bid=170&ac=st US struggles in rearguard campaign for GE crops]", IPS-Inter Press Service, 1 April 2004, accessed 11 May 2009</ref>
By Jon Entine, an AEI fellow who tells his readers that 'It's high time genetically modified products got their fair shot in the marketplace.'
 
  
Reaping the Biotech Harvest
+
==Contact==
By Lester Crawford, head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA regulates GM foods in  the US although, in reality, it is currently largely a voluntary process.
 
  
How Much Should We Worry about Biotech?
+
*'''Address''' Competitive Enterprise Institute, 1001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1250, Washington, D.C. 20036
By Tony Gilland and Carol Foreman
+
*'''Internet''' http://www.cei.org/pages/contact.cfm
Gilland is part of the notorious LM-network. His piece trots out the standard LM line about 'the worrying European trend of emotional and psychological, rather than rational, responses to concerns about biotechnology'. Carol Foreman 'encourages us to love not fear biotech products'. The author was an outspoken lobbyist on behalf of Monsanto's genetically engineered cattle drug rBGH before returning to the Consumer Federation of America (CFA)!
 
  
Battle for Biotech Progress
+
==References==
By Patrick Moore – 'A Green activist warns that the anti-science, anti-human obstructions of environmentalists must be resisted.' Not everyone would recognise someone who helps front a Canadian logging industry financed group as the AEI's 'a green activist' but the article typically trades on Moore's previous connection with Greenpeace, even though it ended nearly two decades ago. Moore writes, 'Imagine an advertising campaign that showed graphic images of blind children in Africa, explained Vitamin A deficiency, introduced Golden Rice, and demonstrated how Greenpeace's actions are preventing the delivery of this cure. Imagine another ad that showed impoverished Indian cotton farmers, explained Bt cotton, and presented the statistics for increased yield, reduced pesticide use, and better lives for farmers - followed by the clear statement that activists are to blame for the delayed adoption of the technology.'
 
  
Technology That Will Save Billions From Starvation
+
#{{note|1}} http://www.cei.org/pages/about.cfm
By C. S. Prakash and Gregory Conko. Prakash and Conko founded the AgBioWorld campaign. Conko works for AEI's young cousin the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) which has Dow Chemical among its funders. AgBioWorld has had links to Monsanto's PR operations, particularly its Internet PR firm Bivings Group. Aaron deGrassi, at the Institute of Development Studies, exposed in a report on GM and Africa how Prakash had promoted the benefits of Monsanto's GM sweet potato project in Kenya when he had no actual knowledge of the data. The recent publication of that data has shown the project has been a complete failure with the GM sweet potato outperformed by the conventional sweet potato which it was supposed to be replacing beacause of its 'miserable' performance.  
+
#{{note|2}} http://www.prwatch.org/improp/cei.html
 +
#{{note|3}} http://www.clearproject.org/reports_afa.html
 +
#{{note|4}} http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Competitive_Enterprise_Institute
 +
#{{note|5}} Source Greenpeace  - data from company reports for  98, 00, 01, 02 – data not available for 99 and pre-98.
 +
#{{note|6}} http://www.biosafety-info.net/bioart.php?bid=170&ac=st
 +
#{{note|7}} http://www2.TechCentralStation.com/1051/searchauthor.jsp?Bioid=BIOHORNERCHRISTOPHER
 +
#{{note|8}} http://www2.TechCentralStation.com/1051/searchauthor.jsp?Bioid=BIOLIEBERMANBEN
 +
#{{note|9}} http://www.cei.org/dyn/view_bio.cfm/31
 +
#{{note|10}} http://www2.TechCentralStation.com/1051/searchauthor.jsp?Bioid=BIOMURRAYIAIN
 +
#{{note|11}} http://www.cei.org/gencon/026,03198.cfm
 +
#{{note|12}} http://www.TechCentralStation.com/biolewismarlo.html
 +
#{{note|13}} http://www.TechCentralStation.com/biomillerhenry.html
 +
#{{note|14}} http://www.cei.org/pages/projects.cfm; http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Competitive_Enterprise_Institute
 +
#{{note|15}} http://www.AgBioWorld.org/biotech_info/articles/prakash/prakashart/prakash_bio.html
 +
#{{note|16}} http://www.AgBioWorld.org/biotech_info/articles/prakash/prakashart/prakash_bio.html
 +
#{{note|17}} http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=106
 +
#{{note|18}} For more information see A. Rowell (2003) Don’t Worry  - It’s Safe to Eat – The True Story of GM Food, BSE  and Foot and Mouth, Earthscan, p154-160 and http://www.gmwatch.org/
 +
#{{note|19}} For more information see A. Rowell (2003) Don’t Worry  - It’s Safe to Eat – The True Story of GM Food, BSE  and Foot and Mouth, Earthscan, p154-160 and http://www.gmwatch.org/
 +
#{{note|20}} http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/2003/05/0156.htm
 +
#{{note|21}} http://www.cei.org/gencon/003,03471.cfm; http://www.cei.org/gencon/028,03470.cfm
 +
#{{note|22}} http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=184
 +
#{{note|23}} http://www.cei.org/gencon/003,03471.cfm
 +
#{{note|24}} http://www.gene.ch/info4action/2000/May/msg00003.html
 +
#{{note|25}} http://ngin.tripod.com/266.htm
 +
#{{note|26}} http://www.cei.org/utils/printer.cfm?AID=2484; http://www.cei.org/gencon/005,02040.cfm
 +
#{{note|27}} http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/miller-conko200310060916.asp
 +
#{{note|28}} http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,01806.cfm
 +
#{{note|29}} http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=31
 +
#{{note|30}} http://www.policynetwork.net/events/labelling_3march2003.htm
 +
#{{note|31}} http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=31
 +
#{{note|32}} http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q4/warming.html
 +
#{{note|33}} S.  Brostoff (1997) “Insurer Motives Questioned In Global Warming Debate”, National Underwriter, 10 February 10, p2
 +
#{{note|37}} http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q4/warming.html
 +
#{{note|38}} W. Beckerman (1995) Small is Stupid – Blowing the Whistle on the Greens, Duckworth, p102
 +
#{{note|39}} http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q4/warming.html
 +
#{{note|40}} PR Newswire (1997) “Heartland Institute to Release Global Warming Policy Study Prior to EPA Region 5 Conference in Chicago”, 5 September
 +
#{{note|41}} R. Lloyd Parry (1997) “Kyoto Summit: Greenhouse Optimist Takes The Stage With Lunatic Fringe”,  The Independent, 10 December; p 8
 +
#{{note|42}} R. Brunet (1997) “It Just Ain't So, Say These Reputable Scientists”, Alberta Report, 10 November, v.24(48) N 10'97 p20-21; P. Brown & J. Vidal (1997) ”Environment: Who Killed Kyoto?”, The Guardian, 29 October
 +
#{{note|43}} Inside Energy (1997) “Hagel Warns Clinton Climate Plan Risks ‘Economic Disaster' For US”, 3 November, p4 
 +
#{{note|44}} J. Adler (1997) “Measuring the White House Effect”, Washington Times, 5 October, pB1
 +
#{{note|45}} M. Lewis (1999) Kyoto Lobby Kills Small Businesses, The Washington Times, 4 March, pA19
 +
#{{note|46}} U.S. Newswire (1999) “Where's the Warming? Unusual Weather Does Not Equal Climate Change, Says CEI”, 14 April
 +
#{{note|47}} H. J. Hebert (1999) “New Rules For Parks Air Quality”, The Record (Bergen County, NJ), 22 April, pA19
 +
#{{note|48}} Greenwire (2000) “Lawmakers, Groups Sue Over National Assessment On Climate Change”, 5 October,
 +
#{{note|49}} D. Knight (2001) “Environment: Report Says Global Warming Measures Can't Wait”, Inter Press Service, 23 January.
 +
#{{note|50}} Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio) (2001) “Energy Costs Behind Reversal, Bush Says Price Worries, Not Pressure From Lobbyists, Made About-Face On Emissions Necessary, President Says”, 15 March, D. Samuelsohn & C. Luccioli (2001) “Congress' Response Swift As Bush Reverses Co2 Policy”, Environment and Energy Daily, 15 March, Vol. 10, No. 9
 +
#{{note|51}} J. Lowy (2001) “Bush Faulted On Climate Reversal”,  Scripps Howard News Service, 14 March, E. Pianin (2002) “'Big Coal' Swayed Bush;  Industry Lobbied Against Pledge to Reduce Emissions”, The Washington Post, 23 May, p A04.
 +
#{{note|52}} J. Kemp (2001) “Yet Another Attack On The Economy”, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 March.
 +
#{{note|53}} Tim Cornwell (2001) “Being The President Can Be A Dirty Job”, The Scotsman, 30 March, p9
 +
#{{note|54}} U.S. Newswire (2001) “Experts Available For Comment On The Demise Of The Kyoto Protocol”, 29 March.
 +
#{{note|55}} E. Nakashima (2001) “Clinton 'Holdovers' Targeted; Conservatives Fault Bush Transition Pace”, The Washington Post, 23 March, pA23
 +
#{{note|56}} Jeff Ostrowski (2001) “Global Warming no Threat, Fla. Insurers Say”,  Cox News Service, 30 May; National Public Radio (2001) “National Academy Of Sciences Releases Study Of UN Climate Change Report”, 7 June
 +
#{{note|57}} Investors Business Daily (2002) “Politics Or Principle?” 19 February, p 19; D. Samuelsohn, & J.L. Laws (2002) “White House Plan Marks Turf Amid Already-Contentious Debate”, Environment and Energy Daily, 15 February.
 +
#{{note|58}} F. Pearce (2003) “US Court Case Challenges Climate Change Warning”, New Scientist, 11 October,
 +
#{{note|59}} G. Archibald (2002) “White House Defends U-Turn On Global Warming”, The Washington Times, 4 June, pA9
 +
#{{note|60}} C. Holly (2002) “Conservatives Howl - Bush Administration Report Changes Tune On Global Warming, Cites Fossil Fuel Link”, Energy Daily, 4 June: Volume 30, Number 106; C. Holly (2002) “Administration Changes Tune On Warming”, White House Weekly, 4 June.
 +
#{{note|61}} Ebell, M (2002)  Email to Phil Cooney, 3 June; P. Harris (2003) “Bush Covers Up Climate Research”, The Observer, 21 September
 +
#{{note|62}} G. Karey (2002) “Bush Rejects EPA Climate-Change Report”, Platt's Oilgram News, 5 June, Vol. 80, No. 107; Pg. 5
 +
#{{note|63}} K. Q. Seelye (2002) “President Distances Himself From Global Warming Report”, The New York Times, 5 June, p23
 +
#{{note|64}} D. Whipple (2002) “Analysis: Climate Report Marks Watershed”, United Press International, 8 June.
 +
#{{note|65}} F. Pearce (2003) “US Court Case Challenges Climate Change Warning”, New Scientist, 11 October,
 +
#{{note|66}} By M. Lewis (2002) “Multi-pollutant Madness”, The Washington Times, 12 June, PA17
 +
#{{note|67}} Africa News (2002) “Corporate-funded Lobbyists Aimed to Sabotage Johannesburg Summit”, 19 August
 +
#{{note|68}} Africa News (2002) “Corporate-funded Lobbyists Aimed to Sabotage Johannesburg Summit”, 19 August
 +
#{{note|69}} M. Ivins (2003) “When is up Down and Black White? When Bush Calls his Plan ‘Clear Skies’”, The Beacon Journal, 21 September.
 +
#{{note|70}} http://www.cei.org/gencon/027,03433.cfm
 +
#{{note|71}} http://www.cei.org/gencon/003,03465.cfm
 +
#{{note|72}} S. Leahy (2003) “Environment: Climate-Change Panel Ensnared In Politics”, Inter Press Service, 3 November.
 +
#{{note|73}} Oil & Gas Journal (2003) “US Senate Junks Mandatory Climate Change Emissions Plan”, 10 November, p34 10
 +
#{{note|74}} J. McCaslin (2003) “Just Say Nyet”, Washington Times, 7 October.
 +
#{{note|75}} D. Samuelsohn (2003) “Climate Change: CEI, White House Resolve Suit With New; Disclaimer Over Data Quality”, Greenwire, 7 November.
 +
#{{note|76}} J. Lowy (2003) “Govt.: 2003 Likely Third-Warmest Year on Record”, Scripps Howard News Service, 16 December
 +
#{{note|77}} P. Brown (2004) “An Unnatural Disaster, The Guardian, 8 January; http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1118244,00.html
 +
#{{note|78}} P. Brown & M. Oliver (2004) “Top Scientist Attacks Us Over Global Warming”, The Guardian, 9 January; http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1119070,00.html
 +
#{{note|79}} A. Freedman (2004) “Climate Change: Weather Channel Tunes To Changing Climate”, Greenwire, 5 January, Vol. 10, No. 9
 +
#{{note|80}} http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,03797.cfm
 +
#{{note|81}} http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,03790.cfm
 +
#{{note|82}} http://www.cei.org/gencon/003,03805.cfm
  
The timing of the AEI's conference and of BIOTECH BOUNTY fits perfectly into the Bush administration's trade agenda and its WTO case on GMOs - a case that it could not get one African country to support (Egypt initially leant its name then withdrew), even though it was launched in the name of Africa. The principal orator at the launch was CS Prakash.
+
==Notes==
 +
<references/>
 +
[[Category:Far-Right Think-Tanks (GM)]][[Category:GM]][[Category:Corporate Science (GM)]][[Category:GM Lobby Groups]]
 +
[[Category:Think Tanks]]
 +
[[Category:Climate Change Sceptics]]
 +
[[Category:Climate]]

Latest revision as of 09:45, 14 October 2016

Global warming.jpg This article is part of the Climate project of Spinwatch.

Competitive Enterprise Institute, founded in 1984, says it "has grown into a $3,000,000 institution with a team of nearly 40 policy experts and other staff".[1]

One of the most important and vociferous anti-environmental think tanks in Washington, it is the main climate change-sceptical organisation in Washington as well as promoting "Sound Science" and denigrating environmentalists.

It is described by PR Watch as "an ideologically-driven, well-funded front for corporations opposed to safety and environmental regulations that affect the way they do business".[2]

It has close working relationship with other right wing think tanks as well as the Wise Use Movement. It is a member of the Wise Use umbrella organisation, the Alliance for America. [1]


Projects/Issues

CEI belongs to various conservative alliances, including the Alliance for America, Get Government Off Our Backs, the National Consumer Coalition (a pro-corporate front group headed by Frances Smith, the wife of CEI founder Fred Smith), and the Environmental Education Working Group (EEWG), a national umbrella group for organizations working to undermine environmental education in schools. It also sponsors several other subsidiary organizations, including:

Conko and Prakash – Pro-Biotech

CEI affiliates Gregory Conko and C.S. Prakash are two of the most vociferous proponents of biotech in the US. Prakash is professor of plant genetics at Tuskeegee University in Alabama, and a co-founder of the AgBioWorld Foundation along with Conko. According to his biography, "Dr. Prakash has also been actively involved in enhancing the societal awareness of food biotechnology issues around the world. His Internet website http://www.AgBioWorld.org has become an important portal, disseminating information and promoting discussion on this subject among stakeholders such as scientists, policy makers, activists and journalists. He recently served on the USDA's Agricultural Biotechnology Advisory Committee and continues to serve on the Advisory Committee for the Department of Biotechnology for the government of India". [3]

Prakash claims that his newsletter 'AgBioView' is read by more than 4,000 experts in 55 countries, and is "widely recognized as a premier news outlet on agbiotech issues because of its broad focus on technical, societal and ethical issues". [4]

But some of the material on AgBioView is highly suspect. According to GMWatch, "Prakash also shares the antipathy of the extreme right towards those with environmental concerns. Some of the material he has posted on his AgBioView list has accused critics of GM crops of fascism, communism, imperialism, nihilism, murder, corruption, terrorism, and even genocide; as well as of being worse than Hitler and on a par with the mass murderers who destroyed the World Trade Centre". [5]

Also the AgBioView list was central in undermining important research published by Nature that concluded that maize in Mexico had been contaminated. Some of the most virulent attacks against the research were on AgBioView discussion group. Prakash says that the AgBioWorld website "played a fairly important role in putting public pressure on Nature." [6]

The first attacks on the website were traced back to false e-mails linked to Monsanto’s PR company Bivings and Monsanto itself. There are also unresolved issues on whether AgBioWorld had also been set up by Bivings. [7]

Prakash was also at the announcement in May 2003 by US Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick and Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman that the United States - joined with Argentina, Canada, and Egypt - would file a World Trade Organization (WTO) case against the European Union (EU) over its "illegal five-year moratorium on approving agricultural biotech products".

Also at the announcement were T.J. Buthelezi, a farmer of biotech crops from South Africa; Dr. Diran Makinde, Dean of the School of Agriculture, University of Venda for Science and Technology, South Africa; and Dr. Ariel Alvarez-Morales, Center for Research and Advanced Studies, Irapuato, Mexico. [8] Conko was also at the press conference.

Later that day, all the above appeared at a CEI seminar in Washington "to speak out against the European Union's moratorium on trade in genetically engineered foods. Agricultural experts from around the world will discuss the negative impact of the EU moratorium on the developing world and urge the United States government to mount a World Trade Organization challenge".

The conference was addressed by Conko, Prakash and Nobel Prize winner and GM proponent Norman Borlaug, as well as Professor Makinde, Dr. Ariel Alvarez-Morales and TJ Buthelezi. [9] Buthelezi has been paid by Monsanto and the biotech industry. GM Watch notes that "with their assistance he has been brought to Washington, Brussels, Pretoria, St. Louis, London, Johannesburg, and Philadelphia to help promote GM foods". [10]

Conko used the conference to argue that, "The European Union's refusal to license new biotech crops is a clear and blatant violation of its obligations under trade treaties it has signed and ratified," said Competitive Enterprise Institute Director of Food Safety Policy Gregory Conko. "More importantly, it poses a genuine threat to the health and well-being of people throughout the developing world." [11]

Both Prakash and Conko work with other biotech proponents. Prakash has travelled overseas to speak at a number of events on behalf of the US State Department, including at the US embassy in London. He has also spoken at a debate staged by the right-wing Institute of Economic Affairs in London in 2000, [12] and at the Seeds of Opportunity conference chaired by British contrarian Philip Stott in 2001. Also attending were known GM proponents such as Phil Dale, from the John Innes Center, and Lord Dick Taverne from Sense About Science as well as leading members of the UK's Royal Society. [13]

Conko has also worked with other right-wing activists such as Kendra Okonski, who used to be at the CEI and who now works at the IPN on trade related issues, calling for "more open trade, lower subsidies and better protection of property rights". [14]

He has written articles with Henry I. Miller of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Hoover Institution, one of which argues that the "new biotechnology pose no inherent risks" despite evidence to the contrary. [15] Another article on biotechnology suggests that the UN Biosafety Protocol was based on "trade protectionism" and "anti-science fearmongering", [16] which was originally published on the European Science and Economic Forum website (see below). [17]

In March 2003 Conko took part in a debate on 'GM food: should labelling be mandatory?' which was organised by the ex-Living Marxism organisation Spiked and the International Policy Network, at the London office of PR company Hill and Knowlton. [18] At the meeting Conko argued against any requirement to label GM foods. [19]

Climate

The CEI has a long-standing opposition to Kyoto and a commitment to debunking climate science. In 1996, RJ Smith said that "after the US State Department announced they were going to call for mandatory controls in Kyoto, we said, 'What do we do? How do we stop this?'" At a strategy meeting held in November 1996, participants included Ray Evans from Australia's Western Mining Corporation, along with a senior world vice-president for Ford Motors, the then American Petroleum Institute Executive Director William O'Keefe, and Dick Lawson, the executive director of the US National Mining Association. [20]

In February, Fred Smith warned that the insurance industry may use climate change as a way of off-loading liability onto taxpayers, comments that were dismissed by the insurance industry. [21]

In July 1997 the CEI held the first of its anti-Kyoto conferences in Washington. Entitled "The Costs of Kyoto", the speakers included Fran Smith from the Wise Use group Consumer Alert, Patrick Michaels from Cato Institute and British contrarian Wilfred Beckerman from Oxford University. There was also Australian Embassy Chief of Mission Paul O'Sullivan and Brian Fisher from the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE), whose funders include Rio Tinto, Texaco, Mobil Oil, Exxon, the Australian Coal Association, the Australian Aluminum Council and Statoil, the Norwegian oil company. [22] Beckerman is author of Small Is Stupid: Blowing the Whistle on the Greens which argues that global warming is "no cause for alarm". [23]

Next came a conference in Canberra, whose speakers included US Senator Malcolm Wallop, who chairs the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, who said: "This conference is the first shot across the bow of those who expect to champion the Kyoto Treaty".

Other speakers were Patrick Michaels from Cato again, along with US Senator Chuck Hagel (known sceptic), US Congressman John Dingell (known sceptic), and Richard Lawson, President and Chief Executive Officer of the US National Mining Association. [24] Later that year they worked with the Heartland Institute to expose "the junk science and flawed economics often used in the debate over global warming." [25]

In the run up to Kyoto, the CEI employed a double PR strategy of singing the benefits of climate change and also talking about the economic catastrophe that was Kyoto. Fred Smith argued there were four benefits of climate change: "The growth rate of plants would increase faster than anyone thinks possible. Agricultural growing regions would expand northward. There'd be a reduction in heating needs, which is more than the cost of cooling. And warm is healthy". [26]

CEI statements also argued that climate change would create "a milder, greener, more prosperous world" and that Kyoto was a "power grab based on deception and fear". [27] The CEI also organised a rally of the Cooler Heads Coalition, where leading climate sceptic Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska warned that Kyoto would create an "economic disaster" and hurt US national security. [28]

Jonathan Adler, then of the CEI, dismissed fears about climate change: "Indeed, the more that is known, the less it seems that humans have to fear from global warming. The indications are that a warmer world would be far more benign than previously imagined. One recent study found no indication that global warming would produce killer heat waves in urban areas, environmentalist claims notwithstanding. Another in the British journal Nature suggested that global warming poses little threat to polar ice caps. Indeed, the report suggested that some ice shelves should expand, not melt, if the Earth warms. So much for the greenhouse apocalypse". [29]

In 1999, similar or related claims were to follow. Kyoto would "kill small business". [30] The "unusual weather does not equal climate change." [31] GOP Contender Dan Quayle lambasted Al Gore at the CEI, accusing him of promoting a global warming policy based on findings that were "highly debatable" with "no scientific consensus." [32]

The CEI continued to work against Kyoto through 2000. In October they filed a lawsuit against the then President Bill Clinton, alleging he illegally expanded the scope of, and spending on, a report by the US Global Change Research Program on climate change for political reasons which would have assisted Vice President Gore's presidential campaign. "At this point, [the national assessment] is opinion and advocacy, not science," said Christopher Horner from CEI, adding, "That's not what Congress asked for." Co-plaintiffs included Reps. Joseph Knollenberg (R-Mich.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Consumer Alert, 60-Plus Association, and the Heartland Institute. [33]

In January 2001, with Clinton gone, the CEI attacked the IPCC's scientists who predicted that the Earth's temperature could rise by as much as 5.8 degrees Celsius over the coming century. Myron Ebell retorted that, "The summary's scary predictions of much faster warming are based on discredited global climate computer models." [34]

March 2001 signalled the true intent of the Bush administration and the CEI claimed to play an intricate part in helping formulate its position. Firstly, President Bush "stunned environmentalists" by reversing a campaign pledge that his administration would not regulate power plants' emissions of carbon dioxide as a pollutant. The CEI claimed a "great victory and everyone should congratulate themselves on the work they did to achieve this end." [35]

A letter from Adjunct Fellow Jack Kemp, who served for 18 years in the House of representatives as a Republican, praised the Bush Administration over its handling of climate change. His letter credited the CEI with providing Bush with the "intellectual support and political cover to 'do the right thing' on carbon dioxide emissions". Myron Ebell claimed that the Kyoto Protocol was now "a walking corpse. We want to keep that corpse walking as long as possible". [36] Kemp labelled Kyoto as "eco-extremism" based on "phony science" and "fear-mongering". [37]

Secondly, the Bush Administration rejected the Kyoto Protocol. "We had been working towards it," said Myron Ebell, "But it's so surprising because its a bold move, so decisive and so unlike his father, who would have fudged or have done something to paper it over." [38]

"Leading opponents of the Kyoto Protocol" put forward by the CEI included Myron Ebell, Christopher Horner, Frances Smith, the chairman of the National Consumers Coalition, Paul Georgia of the Cooler Heads newsletter, and John Carlisle from the National Center for Public Policy Research (subsequently the Capital Research Center). [39]

The CEI was also active in opposing any members of the Clinton administration left in post by the incoming Bush team, one of whom was Ian Bowles, in charge of international environmental issues at the National Security Council. "We thought the election was a break in policies," said Myron Ebell. "...[Bowles] is a zealot who believes that global warming is a problem and that Kyoto is the answer. It seems to me the administration would be better served by getting people who represented the Bush administration much more quickly." [40] It was no surprise therefore that Myron Ebell was named Villain of the Month by Clean Air Trust for his "ferocious lobbying charge to persuade President Bush to reverse his campaign pledge to control electric utility emissions of carbon dioxide."

Later that year Ebell was still talking about the "benign" effects of climate change and attacked the IPCC as "alarmist in order to support the global warming treaty. If they didn't do it, they would be out of a job." [41]

In early 2002, when Bush outlined his "Clean Skies" proposals for clean air and to tackle climate change, Myron Ebell called it "a misguided concession to environmental alarmism." Meanwhile the plan was attacked by environmentalists. Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, called the program a "Valentine's Day gift to corporate polluters" that "will do nothing to curb global warming." [42]

In May 2002, the US EPA, in consultation with other departments, published the Climate Action Report 2002, to be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention's Climate Change secretariat. The report warned that climate change was a clear and present threat to the US, based on predictions from modelling undertaken by the respected Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in the UK. [43] It stated: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing global mean surface air temperatures and subsurface ocean temperatures to rise." [44]

The Competitive Enterprise Institute was at the centre of overt and covert action to undermine the US EPA's report on climate change and change the Bush administration position.

Firstly the CEI claimed that the EPA report violated an agreement made in September 2001 between the White House, CEI and other groups and three members of Congress settling a lawsuit challenging a national climate change assessment report released in 2000 by the Clinton administration.

"For the EPA now to accept the National Assessment's findings as valid undermines and contradicts President Bush's global warming policies," said Ebell. "The EPA needs to be told that the Clinton Administration is gone and Al Gore did not win the election." According to the CEI, the Bush administration agreed to withdraw and repudiate the 2000 report after that document was challenged in a lawsuit brought by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Reps. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), as well as CEI and other right-wing groups, who claimed it was based on "junk science". [45]

A leaked e-mail from dated 3rd June 2002 from Myron Ebell to Phil Cooney, chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, started by saying "Thanks for calling and asking for our help." It then goes on to say, "I want to help you cool things down." The e-mail discusses possible tactics for playing down the report and getting rid of EPA officials, including its then head, Christine Whitman. "It seems to me that the folks at the EPA are the obvious fall guys and we would only hope that the fall guy (or gal) should be as high up as possible." [46]

Ebell advised Cooney that he was "willing and ready to help, but it won't be possible to do much without some sort of backtracking from the Administration."

Just two days later, Bush repudiated the EPA report as having been "put out by the bureaucracy," reiterating his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol. "The Kyoto treaty would severely damage the United States economy," he said. "And I don't accept that." [47]

Christopher C. Horner welcomed the move saying that Mr. Bush had distanced himself from the report "because of concern from the right that he was going to accept the European environmental world view, that he had changed his mind as the report indicated he had." [48]

The CEI also filed a petition with the administration "to prevent the distribution of a fatally flawed report on global warming", [49] accusing the EPA of publishing "knowingly fictional" science. [50]

It also publicly wrote to the Bush Administration attacking the EPA's line on climate change in a co-ordinated letter, whose signatories read like a long list of right-wing groups, Wise Use and known climate-change sceptics.

Later that month (June 2002), the CEI criticised the "Clean Power Act" [S. 556] proposed by Senator James Jeffords, Vermont Independent, and the "Clean Smokestacks Act" proposed by Henry Waxman [H.R. 1256], which would have established new controls on power plant emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury and carbon dioxide, as "Multi-pollutant madness". [51]

By August 2002 and the UN Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, the CEI was one of 31 conservative individuals and groups, including the American Enterprise Institute, Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, Capitol Research Center, Heartland Institute and National Center for Policy Analysis who wrote again to Bush to applaud his decision not to attend the WSSD and to keep climate change off the agenda:

"Even more than the Earth Summit in Rio (de Janeiro) in 1992, the Johannesburg Summit will provide a global media stage for many of the most irresponsible and destructive elements involved in critical international economic and environmental issues," said the letter. "Your presence would only help to publicize and make more credible their various anti-freedom, anti-people, anti-globalization, and anti-Western agendas." Bush declined the invitation to attend. [52]

The groups argued that "potential" global warming is "the least important global environmental issue" and the letter calls upon US negotiators attending the summit in Johannesburg to "keep it off the table and out of the spotlight." [53]

Two state attorney generals have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate because the memo "reveals great intimacy between CEI and [the administration] in their strategizing about ways to minimize the problem of global warming. It also suggests the CEQ may have been directly involved in efforts to undermine the United States' official report, as well as the authority of the EPA administrator." [54]

In April 2003 the CEI co-ordinated another letter, this time to The Honorable Mr. Pete Domenici, Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, on the subject of climate:

"The undersigned organizations write to share our views... Because we share your commitment to policies that will promote continuing abundant supplies of affordable energy to American consumers and producers, we were surprised to find that your committee's draft contains a climate change title. We believe that this title is ill considered and, if enacted in anything like its present form, its effects will in the long run overwhelm the many positive elements in the bill. It would in our view create the institutional and legal framework and the political incentives necessary eventually to force Kyoto-style energy rationing on the American people.
Even more disturbingly to us, it would set us on this path without engaging in a full national debate over its enormous consequences. Instead, including this climate title in comprehensive energy legislation seems to assume that the debate is over, even though that debate has never occurred. It seems to us that before we settle on the main provisions of this climate title, we would first have to agree that global warming alarmism is scientifically warranted, that there are benefits as wells as costs to these policies, and that it is inevitable we are soon going to be living in a carbon-constrained world...
Sincerely,
Fred Smith and Myron Ebell - Competitive Enterprise Institute
Paul M. Weyrich - Coalitions for America
Grover Norquist - Americans for Tax Reform
Malcolm Wallop - Frontiers of Freedom
David A. Keene - American Conservative Union
Paul Gessing - National Taxpayers Union
James L. Martin - 60 Plus Association
James P. Backlin - Christian Coalition of America
Amy Ridenour - National Center for Public Policy Research
Darrell McKigney - Small Business Survival Committee
Richard Lessner - American Renewal
Tom DeWeese - American Policy Center
Chuck Muth - Citizen Outreach
Steven Milloy - Citizens for the Integrity of Science
Ronald Pearson - Council for America
Kevin L. Kearns - US Business and Industry Council
Dennis Avery - Hudson Institute
Jim Boulet, Jr. - English First
Joan L. Hueter - American Council for Immigration Reform
C. Preston Noell, III - Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.
Benjamin C. Works - Strategic Issues Research Institute of the US (SIRIUS)" [55]

The following month The CEI and 32 other right-wing organisations raised "concerns about the approach Congress is taking to climate change policy in a joint letter to House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde" (R-IL).

In a letter, the groups "explain the flaws with alarmist statements about climate change and science contained in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's State Department authorization bill, urging the House committee not take the same path. The Senate committee findings include exaggerations, misleading statements, out-of-context citations, and reliance on discredited sources. The Committee adopted resolutions based on these flawed premises."

"In our view, the resolutions are even more flawed than the findings," wrote Myron Ebell, Director of Global Warming Policy at CEI. "The first two resolutions recommend that the US adopt Kyoto-style policies to limit energy use by American consumers. The third resolution urges the US to extend the Kyoto Protocol by negotiating a second round of binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions."

The letter continued: "The Kyoto Protocol is a dead end... and so too are all similar approaches based on forcing cuts in carbon dioxide emissions. Adopting Kyoto-style policies would have enormous economic costs without making significant reductions in greenhouse gas levels. Just at the moment that the Kyoto Protocol is collapsing and other industrialized countries that have ratified the Protocol are discovering that they cannot meet their targets is not the time to jump back on the Kyoto bandwagon."

Signed by:

The CEI has also filed other lawsuits and challenges against other government agencies who have issued reports on climate change, such as the EPA and the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, calling their work unscientific. [57]

In 2003, the CEI attacked the US domestic Lieberman-McCain Bill on climate that would have regulated carbon dioxide emissions. Myron Ebell called it "pointless political grandstanding and a shameless con game". [58] Christopher C. Horner, another fellow, said it would cripple "America's economy in the name of a hysterical and spectacularly debunked theory". [59]

In November the CEI claimed a "victory" after they dropped their lawsuit against the Bush administration and its top scientific advisor, in exchange for the admission that a climate policy document written under the Clinton administration had not been subject to federal data quality guidelines. The Bush administration added two sentences to the US Global Change Research Program's (USGCRP) website explaining that a government report on climate change included third party information not produced by federal institutions, which were therefore not bound by the federal Data Quality Act. The CEI had taken issue with the 2000 report as it stated that global warming was likely to lead to hotter summers, warmer winters, and more extreme weather, including flood and drought. [60]

In December 2003 two of the US government's top atmospheric scientists argued in a paper in Science that that there was no doubt that human activity was already having a measurable impact on global climate. In response Myron Ebell argued that climate change was "nothing new" and "It isn't much to worry about." [61]

The following month, the CEI's anti-climate work continued unabated as an article published in Nature magazine concluded that one million species might become extinct because of climate change, [62] and that the UK's Chief scientist warned that climate change was a more serious threat to the world than terrorism. [63] The same week Myron Ebell was quoted in the US press as saying, "I don't think man-made climate change is an important issue." [64]

Ian Murray wrote an op-ed piece for Tech Central Station that attacked the article in Nature. Murray called the story "flimsy", arguing it should be "laughed out of the court of public opinion." [65] The month before, Murray had attacked "environmental alarmists" and "statist environmentalists" for their position on climate change. He also remarked that, "we should remember 2003 as the year that saw the death of the most economically damaging idea ever to come out of the United Nations, the Kyoto Protocol on climate change." [66]

On the 12 January, the CEI and ten other right-wing think tanks and front groups wrote to the Department of Energy, urging them not to establish "a system of emissions credits as part of its greenhouse gases reporting program." It was joined by the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, American Legislative Exchange Council, Citizens Against Government Waste, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Consumer Alert, Frontiers of Freedom, National Taxpayers Union, 60 Plus Association, and the Small Business Survival Committee. According to the CEI, a "credit program would mobilize lobbying for energy rationing schemes such as the Kyoto Protocol, Senator Jim Jeffords' Clean Power Act, and the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act." [67]

People

Principals

  • Jack Kemp The CEI's "Distinguished Fellow" served four years as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and as the US Representative from New York state (18 years). In 1996, he was nominated by then Senator Bob Dole as the Republican Party's vice presidential candidate.

Scholars/Fellows

  • Ronald Bailey Editor, Earth Report 2000. Is the science correspondent for Reason Magazine and, most recently, the editor of the Competitive Enterprise Institute book Global Warming and Other Eco-Myths [72] published by Prima Publishing. He is also the author of ECO-SCAM: The False Prophets of the Ecological Apocalypse.

Board

Funding

The CEI does not publish a list of its institutional donors, but the following companies and foundations are known to have given $10,000 or more:

Other known CEI funders include:

Exxon has donated $1 million to the CEI since 1998. [76]

According to an article by Bob Burton for IPS, Monsanto has also been amongst CEI's funders.[5]

Contact

References

  1. ^ http://www.cei.org/pages/about.cfm
  2. ^ http://www.prwatch.org/improp/cei.html
  3. ^ http://www.clearproject.org/reports_afa.html
  4. ^ http://www.sourcewatch.org/wiki.phtml?title=Competitive_Enterprise_Institute
  5. ^ Source Greenpeace - data from company reports for 98, 00, 01, 02 – data not available for 99 and pre-98.
  6. ^ http://www.biosafety-info.net/bioart.php?bid=170&ac=st
  7. ^ http://www2.TechCentralStation.com/1051/searchauthor.jsp?Bioid=BIOHORNERCHRISTOPHER
  8. ^ http://www2.TechCentralStation.com/1051/searchauthor.jsp?Bioid=BIOLIEBERMANBEN
  9. ^ http://www.cei.org/dyn/view_bio.cfm/31
  10. ^ http://www2.TechCentralStation.com/1051/searchauthor.jsp?Bioid=BIOMURRAYIAIN
  11. ^ http://www.cei.org/gencon/026,03198.cfm
  12. ^ http://www.TechCentralStation.com/biolewismarlo.html
  13. ^ http://www.TechCentralStation.com/biomillerhenry.html
  14. ^ http://www.cei.org/pages/projects.cfm; http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Competitive_Enterprise_Institute
  15. ^ http://www.AgBioWorld.org/biotech_info/articles/prakash/prakashart/prakash_bio.html
  16. ^ http://www.AgBioWorld.org/biotech_info/articles/prakash/prakashart/prakash_bio.html
  17. ^ http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=106
  18. ^ For more information see A. Rowell (2003) Don’t Worry - It’s Safe to Eat – The True Story of GM Food, BSE and Foot and Mouth, Earthscan, p154-160 and http://www.gmwatch.org/
  19. ^ For more information see A. Rowell (2003) Don’t Worry - It’s Safe to Eat – The True Story of GM Food, BSE and Foot and Mouth, Earthscan, p154-160 and http://www.gmwatch.org/
  20. ^ http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/2003/05/0156.htm
  21. ^ http://www.cei.org/gencon/003,03471.cfm; http://www.cei.org/gencon/028,03470.cfm
  22. ^ http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=184
  23. ^ http://www.cei.org/gencon/003,03471.cfm
  24. ^ http://www.gene.ch/info4action/2000/May/msg00003.html
  25. ^ http://ngin.tripod.com/266.htm
  26. ^ http://www.cei.org/utils/printer.cfm?AID=2484; http://www.cei.org/gencon/005,02040.cfm
  27. ^ http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/miller-conko200310060916.asp
  28. ^ http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,01806.cfm
  29. ^ http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=31
  30. ^ http://www.policynetwork.net/events/labelling_3march2003.htm
  31. ^ http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=31
  32. ^ http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q4/warming.html
  33. ^ S. Brostoff (1997) “Insurer Motives Questioned In Global Warming Debate”, National Underwriter, 10 February 10, p2
  34. ^ http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q4/warming.html
  35. ^ W. Beckerman (1995) Small is Stupid – Blowing the Whistle on the Greens, Duckworth, p102
  36. ^ http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1997Q4/warming.html
  37. ^ PR Newswire (1997) “Heartland Institute to Release Global Warming Policy Study Prior to EPA Region 5 Conference in Chicago”, 5 September
  38. ^ R. Lloyd Parry (1997) “Kyoto Summit: Greenhouse Optimist Takes The Stage With Lunatic Fringe”, The Independent, 10 December; p 8
  39. ^ R. Brunet (1997) “It Just Ain't So, Say These Reputable Scientists”, Alberta Report, 10 November, v.24(48) N 10'97 p20-21; P. Brown & J. Vidal (1997) ”Environment: Who Killed Kyoto?”, The Guardian, 29 October
  40. ^ Inside Energy (1997) “Hagel Warns Clinton Climate Plan Risks ‘Economic Disaster' For US”, 3 November, p4
  41. ^ J. Adler (1997) “Measuring the White House Effect”, Washington Times, 5 October, pB1
  42. ^ M. Lewis (1999) Kyoto Lobby Kills Small Businesses, The Washington Times, 4 March, pA19
  43. ^ U.S. Newswire (1999) “Where's the Warming? Unusual Weather Does Not Equal Climate Change, Says CEI”, 14 April
  44. ^ H. J. Hebert (1999) “New Rules For Parks Air Quality”, The Record (Bergen County, NJ), 22 April, pA19
  45. ^ Greenwire (2000) “Lawmakers, Groups Sue Over National Assessment On Climate Change”, 5 October,
  46. ^ D. Knight (2001) “Environment: Report Says Global Warming Measures Can't Wait”, Inter Press Service, 23 January.
  47. ^ Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio) (2001) “Energy Costs Behind Reversal, Bush Says Price Worries, Not Pressure From Lobbyists, Made About-Face On Emissions Necessary, President Says”, 15 March, D. Samuelsohn & C. Luccioli (2001) “Congress' Response Swift As Bush Reverses Co2 Policy”, Environment and Energy Daily, 15 March, Vol. 10, No. 9
  48. ^ J. Lowy (2001) “Bush Faulted On Climate Reversal”, Scripps Howard News Service, 14 March, E. Pianin (2002) “'Big Coal' Swayed Bush; Industry Lobbied Against Pledge to Reduce Emissions”, The Washington Post, 23 May, p A04.
  49. ^ J. Kemp (2001) “Yet Another Attack On The Economy”, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 March.
  50. ^ Tim Cornwell (2001) “Being The President Can Be A Dirty Job”, The Scotsman, 30 March, p9
  51. ^ U.S. Newswire (2001) “Experts Available For Comment On The Demise Of The Kyoto Protocol”, 29 March.
  52. ^ E. Nakashima (2001) “Clinton 'Holdovers' Targeted; Conservatives Fault Bush Transition Pace”, The Washington Post, 23 March, pA23
  53. ^ Jeff Ostrowski (2001) “Global Warming no Threat, Fla. Insurers Say”, Cox News Service, 30 May; National Public Radio (2001) “National Academy Of Sciences Releases Study Of UN Climate Change Report”, 7 June
  54. ^ Investors Business Daily (2002) “Politics Or Principle?” 19 February, p 19; D. Samuelsohn, & J.L. Laws (2002) “White House Plan Marks Turf Amid Already-Contentious Debate”, Environment and Energy Daily, 15 February.
  55. ^ F. Pearce (2003) “US Court Case Challenges Climate Change Warning”, New Scientist, 11 October,
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Notes

  1. "About CEI", Competitive Enterprise Institute website, version placed in web archive January 27 2002, accessed in web archive April 27 2009
  2. "Impropaganda Review: Competitive Enterprise Institute", PR Watch, version placed in web archive 7 November 2001, accessed in web archive 27 April 2009
  3. Donors Trust, 990 Form, 2014
  4. Donors Trust, 990 Form, 2013
  5. Bob Burton, "US struggles in rearguard campaign for GE crops", IPS-Inter Press Service, 1 April 2004, accessed 11 May 2009