Science and Public Policy Institute

This article is part of the Climate project of Spinwatch.

Background

The Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) is a think tank based in the U.S. which promotes the views of global warming sceptics.

In its mission statement on its website, the SPPI's claims that it is a

nonprofit institute of research and education dedicated to sound public policy based on sound science. Free from affiliation to any corporation or political party, we support the advancement of sensible public policies for energy and the environment rooted in rational science and economics. Only through science and factual information, separating reality from rhetoric, can legislators develop beneficial policies without unintended consequences that might threaten the life, liberty, and prosperity of the citizenry[original italics].

The SPPI claims to be free from affiliation from any corporation. However, its President Robert Ferguson heads the Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP) which receives funding from oil company Exxon Mobil. According to its website, the CSPP is a project of Frontiers of Freedom, a right wing think tank with principles based on individual freedom, free enterprise and a limited government. The Frontiers of Freedom have received a staggering $1,037,000 from ExxonMobil between 2001 and 2006 . The CSPP is also a think tank working to dismiss the issues of global warming. Sourcewatch claims that the SPPI was formerly the CSPP. Both the SPPI and the CSPP continue to operate, with the two organisations using separate websites. They both operate from units at 209 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington D.C. , with Robert Ferguson as President with the SPPI and Executive Director with the CSPP and Willie Soon as Chief Science Researcher of both organisations .

Chief Policy Advisor for the SPPI, Christopher Monckton also has connections with the CSPP where he wrote the 'IPCC Fourth Assessment Report 2007: Analysis and Summary' for the Center. SPPI's Science Advisor, William Kininmonth also has connections with the CSPP publishing his book, 'Unmasking “An Inconvenient Truth'. The connections between the two organisations are not easy to uncover. The CSPP does not advertise its Board or staff and the information to be found is scant and scattered. Could it be that the organisations are indeed one and the same? What is clear is that at the very least they are tightly connected to each other through being located in the same building and sharing of key personnel.

Campaign to undermine scientific consensus on climate change

An Inconvenient truth

In 2007, The Sunday Times reported that The SPPI had funded Christopher Monckton in the making of a film Apocalypse No, to be distributed to schools which 'attacked' the scientific consensus on climate change by denying that human impact was an issue. Monckton also funded the distribution of the film The Great Global Warming Swindle which too aimed to dispel the evidence of human impact. The making of such films was in reponse to Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth, which won two Oscars and saw Gore receiving a joint Nobel prize.

Gore's film had been distributed to schools in England. Monckton then backed Stewart Dimmock, who took the government to court for sending copies of Gore’s film to schools. The court ruled that Gore's film contained nine errors, but that it was 'broadly correct'. This is in contrast to the SPPI's report which claims 35 errors. Monckton and Dimmock are connected through the right wing New Party, which advocates liberalism and free trade as amoungst its aims.

Complaints have been made by the scientists interviewed for the The Great Global Warming Swindle, which was created by Martin Durkin. The Times reports that 'two of the scientists who took part have complained that the editing gave a misleading impression of critical data and their own viewpoints'. Ofcom, which regulates broadcast media, is also reported to be examining other complaints from scientists in relation to this film.

Deliberate campaign of deception?

Former Boston Globe reporter Ross Gelbspan (who in 1997 wrote the book, The Heat is On, which details industry efforts to discredit climate change science), is reported to have said that the "conclusions that greenhouse gases are causing the planet to heat up are the result of the "most rigorously peer-reviewed scientific collaboration in history". He continues, "The contradictory statements of a tiny handful of discredited scientists, funded by big coal and big oil, represent a deliberate -- and extremely reckless -- campaign of deception and disinformation."

Climate Institute President John Topping shed further light on the situation when he argued that 'By relying on the news media's inclination to include both sides of a story, the industries were able to create the impression that scientists were deeply divided over climate change' adding that "It was all very shrewdly done,".

In an article covering the launch of a book by SPPI's Kininmonth, Fyfe reports that 'Climate change is about science, but not just about science. It's about business and politics and wielding influence'. It is also reported that there is concern amongst climate experts that 'sceptics will delay action on climate change for another decade, using the same tools of hired guns and questionable scientific evidence as the tobacco industry wielded to deny cancer links in the 1970s and 1980s'.

According to the SPPI, the 'real problem' facing humankind is not global warming (which they argue is normal with human impact being of little significance), but that 'Primary energy sources, particularly fossil fuels, are becoming scarce and expensive, and are increasingly in the hands of unstable regimes that are unfriendly to the West'

Corporate Connections

Willie Soon and Energy Industry corporate connections

SPPI's Chief Scientific Advisor, Willie Soon, has clear corporate connections with the energy industry. In 2003, He authored a study alongside Sallie Baliunas and three others, which dismissed concerns regarding climate change. The study, called Reconstructing Climatic and Environmental Changes of the Past 1,000 Years: A Reappraisal, was published in the British scientific journal, Energy and Environment. According to a report in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, The research was underwritten by the American Petroleum Institute, the trade association of the world's largest oil companies. They also reported that 'two of the five authors are scientists who have been linked to the coal industry and have received support from the ExxonMobil Foundation', whilst a further two of the authors are affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and are 'senior scientists' with Washington-based organization the George C Marshall Institute, which received support from ExxonMobil Corp. It is also worth noting that the Marshall Institute's President is William O'Keefe, a former executive of the American Petroleum Institute and President of 'the Global Climate Coalition, a now-defunct organization created by oil and coal interests to lobby against U.S. participation in climate treaties, such as the Kyoto Protocol'.

Soon has close links with the George C Marshall Institute, having served on the Institute’s Science Advisory Board. According to Greenpeace project 'Exxon Secrets', the Marshall Institute received $715,000 in funding from Exxon Mobil between 1998 and 2006.

Both the SPPI and the Marshall Institute puts vast amounts of energy and resources into denying human involvement in climate change. One publication, called Shattered Consensus sums up what they are about in its description which states that 'Shattered Consensus will also shatter commonly held opinions about global warming and leave the reader with serious doubts about whether policies to "fight" climate change are warranted at all'.. This implies business as usual for the industry which finances the Institute and frees them from any responsibility towards finding the solutions.

A further connection Soon has to Exxon, is through his involvement with the Frontiers of Freedom who have received substantial funding from the oil company. In 2004, Soon was paid $60,000 as the Frontier of Freedom's highest paid independent contractor for professional services

The News Journal reports criticism from the Union of Concerned Scientists in 2007, which accuses ExxonMobil "of funneling $16 million to advocacy groups over a seven-year period in an effort to 'confuse the public on global warming science'". ExxonMobil reponded to such claims as being "deeply offensive and wrong," and described its position on climate change as "misunderstood".

In 2006, Britain's 'premier scientific academy', the Royal Society is reported to have written to ESSO (The UK arm of ExxonMobil) demanding 'that the company withdraws support for dozens of groups that have "misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence".' The Royal Society conducted a survey which found that ExxonMobil had distributed $2.9m to 39 groups in 2005 alone: groups that the Society identifies as misrepresenting the science of climate change. These groups also include the International Policy Network and the George C Marshall Institute, which in 2004, published a report jointly with the UK group the Scientific Alliance claiming 'that global temperature rises were not related to rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere'.

Willie Soon, James O'Brien and Corporate PR Connections

Willie Soon is also Science Director for Tech Central Station (TCS) and SPPI's Science Advisor James O'Brien is reported as being one of its writers. The TCS is published by prominent Washington "public affairs" firm, the DCI Group. According to the Washington Monthly, DCI specialises in 'P.R., lobbying, and so-called "Astroturf" organizing, generally on behalf of corporations...'. TCS was set up in 2000 by James K Glassman (who has been a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute since 1996) and 'public relations maestro' Charles Francis. The report states that both TCS and DCI 'share most of the same owners, some staff, and even the same suite of offices in downtown Washington, a block off K Street. As it happens, many of DCI's clients are also "sponsors" of the site it houses. TCS not only runs the sponsors' banner ads; its contributors aggressively defend those firms' policy positions, on TCS and elsewhere'. The report continues:

Lobbying firms that once specialized in gaining person-to-person access to key decision-makers have branched out. The new game is to dominate the entire intellectual environment in which officials make policy decisions, which means funding everything from think tanks to issue ads to phony grassroots pressure groups. But the institution that most affects the intellectual atmosphere in Washington, the media, has also proven the hardest for K Street to influence--until now.

As The Washington Monthly states, at first glance, TCS resembles a 'think tank-cum-opinion magazine', but unlike traditional think tanks, Tech Central Station is a limited liability corporation, which means it is a for-profit business. 'As an LLC, there is little Tech Central Station must publicly disclose about itself save for the names and addresses of its owners, and there is no presumption, legal or otherwise, that it exists to serve the public interest'. 'On closer inspection', the report continues, 'Tech Central Station looks less like a think-tank-cum-magazine than a kind of lobbying practice'. 4 (out of 5) of the TCS's owners also co-own the DCI and the 5th owner is a senior lobbyist with DCI. several of TCS's sponsors are also clients of DCI who cater for their lobbying needs. These sponsors are AT&T, General Motors and PhRMA. Other sponsors are reported to include Intel, McDonalds, NASDAQ, National Semiconductor and Qualcomm, with 'earlier' sponsors listed as including ExxonMobil and Microsoft.

In its disclaimer, it is reported that TCS claims that "the opinions expressed on these pages are solely those of the writers and not necessarily those of any corporation or other organization." But as the report highlights, 'it is startling how often the opinions of TCS's writers and sponsors converge'. One such 'convergence' is described as occuring shortly after ExxonMobil became a sponsor, when the TCS site 'published a flurry of content attacking both the Kyoto accord to limit greenhouse gasses and the science of global warming'. At the time these where among ExxonMobil's chief policy concerns in Washington. other convergences reported in the article relate to PhRMA, Microsoft and AT&T. As The Washington Monthly reports, 'TCS's coverage of particular issues has had the appearance of a well-aimed P.R. blitz'.

In a telephone interview, Glassman is reported as responding to the question of whether TCS would ever run a story which contradicted the views of their sponsors, by saying that "Frankly, we think that other points of view are well represented everywhere else," he responded cheerfully. "To have one point of view on an issue like telecom is something that we don't have a problem with." He added, "We're an advocacy group. There's no doubt about that. I don't think we ever had pretenses of being an academic think tank."

Craig Idso and Energy Industry corporate connections

SPPI's Science Advisor Craig Idso also has connections with the corporate energy industry. Idso is former Director of Environmental Science with Peabody Energy, which describes itself as the 'world's largest private-sector coal company, with 2007 sales of 238 million tons and $4.6 billion in revenues'. Peabody's coal products are reported to fuel approximately 10% of all U.S. electricity generation and 2% of worldwide electricity.

Idso is also Chairman for the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, another think tank critical of global warming issues with a stance of arguing that 'there is no compelling reason to believe that the rise in temperature was caused by the rise in CO2'. This organisation too is funded my Exxon Mobil. Greenpeace project 'Exxon Secrets' reports that the Centre received $100,000 from Exxon between 1998 to 2006. In response to criticism at such funding by industry, the Centre released a statement in which they refused to discuss their funding, describing it as irrelevant to their work and dismissing any conflict of interests. They did acknowledge having received funds from Exxon, describing it simply as 'some donations... a few times in the past'. According to Greenpeace, these 'few' times were $10,000 in 1998, $15,000 in 2000, $40,000 in 2003, $25,000 in 2005 and £10,000 in 2006

Accoding to Greepeace project ExxonSecrets, in 1998 Idso co-authored (with his brother Keith Idso) a report, "The Greening of Planet Earth:Its Progression from Hypothesis to Theory," for the Western Fuels Association. The report also states that Craig Idso is son to Sherwood Idso President of the Center for the Study of CO2 and Climate Change.

Robert Carter and the oil and tobacco industries

Robert Carter is reported to be on the research committee at the Institute of Public Affairs, which is described as 'a think tank that has received funding from oil and tobacco companies, and whose directors sit on the boards of companies in the fossil fuel sector'. In 2007, shortly after the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) strongly warned of the human impact of global warming, Carter stated that the IPCC 'had uncovered no evidence the warming of the planet was caused by human activity'. In the report, Carter is said to have argued that 'whether or not a scientist had been funded by the fossil fuel industry was irrelevant to the validity of research'. The report continues by stating Graeme Pearman of Monash University as saying that 'Carter was not a credible source on climate change. "If he has any evidence that [global warming over the past 100 years] is a natural variability he should publish through the peer review process," Dr Pearman said. "That is what the rest of us have to do."' According to Pearman, Carter 'was letting the fossil fuel industry off the hook'. According to the report, 'Carter, whose background is in marine geology, appears to have little, if any, standing in the Australian climate science community'.

Funding and finances

Whilst the exact nature of the connection between the Science and Public Policy Institute and the Centre for Science and Public Policy is not entirely clear, it has been claimed that they are one and the same. As both organisations operate from units in the same building and share the same key personnel , at the very least these two organisations are very closely and tightly connected. The SPPI do not advertise their funders, however donations to the CSPP are easier to identify. The CSPP is a project of the Frontiers of Freedom who have received $1,037,000 from ExxonMobil between 2001 and 2006. This breaks down as $40,000 in 2001 $232,000 in 2002, $195,000 in 2003, $250,000 in 2004, $140,000 in 2005 and $180,000 in 2006.

The SPPI claims to be 'a nonprofit institute of research and education dedicated to sound public policy based on sound science. Free from affiliation to any corporation or political party'. This statement, coupled with its connection to the CSPP and its shyness at disclosing its funders, could lead one to speculate that diversionary tactics are being used. Industry has been accused of misleading science and public policy and opinion through a 'deliberate -- and extremely reckless -- campaign of deception and disinformation'. Blurring the boundaries and presenting themselves as impartial, could give the Institute an air of credibility with their vested interests remaining hidden.

People

In 2009, SPPI list their Personnel as:

• Robert Ferguson - President. Ferguson has 26 years experience on Capitol Hill, working in both the House and Senate. This includes serving the House Republican Study Committee and the Senate Republican Policy Committee: as Chief of Staff to Congressman Jack Fields (R-TX) (1981-1997), to Congressman John E. Peterson (R-PA) (1997-2002) and to Congressman Rick Renzi (R-AZ) (2002). According to Greenpeace, Ferguson has been a Board member for the National Center for Public Policy Research

• Willie Soon - Chief Science Adviser. Soon is also a Senior Scientist with the George C Marshall Institute and a contributing writer with the Fraser Institute. Soon also writes for The Heartland Institute and is Science Director for Tech Central Station

• Christopher Monckton (Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley) - Chief Policy Adviser. Monckton previously served as Special Advisor to Margaret Thatcher (1982 to 1986)

• William Kininmonth - Science Adviser. Kininmonth is also a member of another group which denies the human impact of climate change, the Lavoisier Group. In 2007, he wrote a paper Unmasking “An Inconvenient Truth” for the Centre for Science and Public Policy under the auspices of Australasian Climate Research. Further inspection shows that Australasian Climate Research is the trading name of Kininmonth, listed with the Australian Government as an 'individual/sole trader' set up in 2003. Kininmonth was also part of the writing team for the Fraser Institute's publication called the 'Independent Summary for Policymakers: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report' along with fellow SPPI advisors James J O'Brien and Joe D'Aleo

• Robert M Carter - Science Adviser. Carter is reported to be part of the research committee at the Institute of Public Affairs, 'a think tank that has received funding from oil and tobacco companies, and whose directors sit on the boards of companies in the fossil fuel sector'.

• Craig Idso - Science Advisor. Idso is Chairman for the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, Arizona-Nevada Academy of Sciences, Association of American Geographers, Ecological Society of America, and The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. He formerly served as Director of Environmental Science with Peabody Energy

• James J O'Brien - Science Advisor. O'Brien is also listed as an expert with The George C Marshall Institute and as part of the writing team for the Fraser Institute's publication called the 'Independent Summary for Policymakers: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report' (along with fellow SPPI advisors William Kininmonth and Joe D'Aleo) and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

• Joe D'Aleo - Meteorology Advisor. D'Aleo is also connect to the Fraser Institute as part of the writing team for it's publication called the 'Independent Summary for Policymakers: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report' (along with fellow SPPI advisors William Kininmonth and James J O'Brien) and is executive director of the International Climate and Environmental Change Assessment Project (ICECAP)

Events

In March 2008, the SPPI co-sponsored an international conference on climate change in New York called 'Global Warming:Truth or Swindle? This was advertised as an event where '400 scientists, economists, and experts will meet in New York on March 2-4 to challenge the claim that global warming is a “crisis.”' and that there is 'no scientific consensus on the causes or likely consequences of global warming'

The other co-sponsers of this event where:

Alternate Solutions Institute, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform, Asociacion de Consumidores Libres, Association for Liberal Thinking, Business & Media Institute, Carbon Sense Coalition, Cascade Policy Institute, Cathay Institute for Public Affairs, Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, Center for the Dissemination of Economic Knowledge, Center of the American Experiment, Centro de Innovación y Desarrollo Humano, Centro de Investigaciones de Instituciones y Mercados de Argentina, Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Congress of Racial Equality, Discovery Institute, Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, Economic Thinking, European Center for Economic Growth, Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, Free Enterprise Action Fund, Free Market Foundation, Frontiers of Freedom Institute, Fundacion Atlas 1853, Hayek Institute, Idea Channel, Independent Institute, Institute of Public Affairs, Institut für Unternehmerische Freiheit, Instituto de Libre Empresa, [[Instituto Liberdade], International Climate Science Coalition, International Policy Network, Istituto Bruno Leoni, JunkScience.com, Liberty Institute, Lion Rock Institute, John Locke Foundation, George C Marshall Institute, Minimal Government Institute, National Center for Policy Analysis, New Zealand Business Roundtable, Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, Pacific Research Institute, Science and Environmental Policy Project and Sovereignty International.

Speakers at the event were advertised as including:

Václav Klaus, Roy Innis, John Stossel, Tim Ball, Robert Balling, David Bellamy, Bob Carter, Vincent Gray, David Henderson, Yuri A Izrael, David Legates, Patrick Michaels, Fred Michel, James J O’Brien, Tim Patterson, Benny Peiser, Andreas Prokoph, Roy Spencer, Frederick Seitz, S Fred Singer, George Taylor, Miklos Zagoni and the SPPI's own Chief Scientific Advisor Willie Soon.

Affiliations

• Heartland Institute - SPPI's Chief Science Advisor, Willie Soon, is also a writer for the Heartland Institute. SPPI's website also contains a direct link to the Heartland Institute from its site navigation section on its homepage.

• Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (Known as CO2 Science) website is also accessed directly from a link on the SPPI's homepage navigation section. SPPI's Science Advisor Craig Idso is also Chairman with the Centre.

Contact details, Resources, Notes

Contact

• Address:

Primary Address

Robert Ferguson

Science and Public Policy Institute

5501Merchants View Square

1. 209

Haymarket, VA 20169

Secondary Address

Robert Ferguson

SPPI

209 Pennsylvania Ave. SE

Suite 299

Washington, D.C. 20003

• Phone:

(202) 288-5699

• Fax:

• Email:

Primary: bferguson@sppinstitute.org

Secondary: ferguson3490@hotmail.com

• Website:

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org