Malcolm Wallop

Malcolm Wallop is the founder of Frontiers of Freedom, and was a Republican Senator from 1977-1995. Prior to this he was amember of the Wyoming house of representatives 1969-1972 and a member of Wyoming senate 1973-1976 ^[1]. Wallop continues to have close connections to the current Republican Administration. He is seen as a friend of current Vice-president Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld has spoken at FoF conferences. Freedom staff have been invited to private briefings with President Bush on issues such as Kyoto.

Wallop himself is an ultra conservative rancher from Wyoming, who works on tax reform, federal deregulation, energy policy, private property rights, and national defense. He is also a die-hard opponent of gun control. One of his nicknames amongst green activists is “strip-mine”.

Wallop sits on the boards of Hubbell, Inc, El Paso Energy Company, and Sheridan State Bank ^[2]. In the 2006 Senate lobbying records, Malcolm Wallop is a registered lobbyist for Sherritt International, receiving $72,000 in lobbying income. Sherritt is a diversified Canadian natural resource company that operates in Canada, Cuba and internationally. He also listed as the lobbyist (in fact he is Chairman) for the Western Strategy Group, working for Belle Haven Consultants^[3].

The Western Strategy Group is a New York- and Washington, D.C.-based public relations and government affairs firm. In 2002, Western Strategy undertook a due diligence exercise on behalf of the Itera Group of Companies, which are a privately held conglomerate with 80 percent of its principal activity in natural gas production, transportation and marketing. The company controls natural gas reserves half the size of ExxonMobil’s ^[4]. In 1999, Western Strategy Group’s clients included Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, under attack about human rights abuses and lack of democracy.

Wallop spoke at the 1997 Wise Use Fly-in for Freedom along with Republican Richard Pombo. Also that year, Ebell is given as the press contact at Frontiers of Freedom for the launch of Ron Arnold’s book “Ecoterror – the Violent Agenda to Save Nature”, issued by the Centre for the Defence of Free Enterprise. In 2001 FoF held another “Eco-Terror” conference with Ron Arnold.

Affiliations

• Heritage Foundation
• Frontiers of Freedom Institute
• Center for Security Policy
• Tech Central Science Foundation
• Western Strategy Group

References

1. ^ US Congress Malcolm Wallop Biography, Accessed 21st August 2007.
2. ^ ExxonSecrets Malcolm Wallop Biography, Accessed 21st August 2007.
3. ^ OpenSecrets Lobbyists, Malcolm Wallop, Accessed 21st August 2007.
4. ^ PR NewsWire Western strategy group announces completion of due diligence investigation for ITERA executives, Accessed 21st August 2007.