Science and Public Policy Institute

Background

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

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 headed the Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP) in 2003 which received funding from oil company Exxon Mobil to the tune of $40,000 in 2001 and $230,000 in 2002. The CSPP is also a think tank working to dismiss the issues of global warming. 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. Sourcewatch claims that the SPPI was formerly the CSPP (on first inspection this connection is unclear and requires clarification) which would certainly not make it free from vested corporate interests.

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.

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According to 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."

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.

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).

• Willie Soon - Chief Science Adviser

• 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

• Robert M Carter - Science Adviser

• Craig Idso - Science Advisor

• James J O'Brien - Science Advisor

• Joe D'Aleo - Meteorology Advisor

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.

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