Frontiers of Freedom

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Frontiers of Freedom was founded by ex-Republican Senator Malcolm Wallop in 1996, immediately after he retired from the Senate. The right-wing think tank describes itself as “a cutting-edge, forward-looking policy group advancing center-right principles in today's fast-paced news and information age. We work with grassroots activists throughout the country to protect private property rights, secure our national security, and promote sensible public policies critical to our country's liberty”[1].

Frontiers of Freedom calls itself the “antithesis” of the green movement. It is an often overlooked but key player in the current backlash.

Funding

Frontiers of Freedom receives money of tobacco and oil companies, including Philip Morris Co, ExxonMobil and RJ Reynolds Tobacco. According to the New York Times: “Frontiers of Freedom, which has about a $700,000 annual budget, received $230,000 from Exxon in 2002, up from $40,000 in 2001, according to Exxon documents”[2].

George Landrith, President of FoF told the New York Times: “They've determined that we are effective at what we do”, He said Exxon essentially took the attitude, “We like to make it possible to do more of that[3]”.

FoF has also received some $388,450 in 13 grants from the following five conservative foundations[4]:

Principals

Malcolm Wallop – The Founder of FOF. Republican Senator from 1977-1995. 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[5]. In the 2003 Senate lobbying records, Malcolm Wallop is a registered lobbyist for Sherritt International, receiving $60,000 for the first six-month lobbying period. Sherritt is a diversified Canadian natural resource company that operates in Canada, Cuba and internationally[6]. He also listed as the lobbyist (actually he is Chairman) for the Western Strategy Group, working for Belle Haven Consultants[7].

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[8]. In 1999, Western Strategy Group’s clients included Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, under attack about human rights abuses and lack of democracy[9].

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 Fee Enterprise. In 2001 FoF held another “Eco-Terror” conference with Ron Arnold.

George C. Landrith - President . Landrith was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's Fifth Congressional District.

Jason Wright - Vice President. Challenged Rep. Christopher Cannon for the GOP nomination for Congress in Utah's 3rd District.

Kerri Houston - Vice President of Policy Kimberly A. Martin - Director of Development Amanda E. Telford - Director of Operations

Paul Driessen - from Ron Arnold’s Center for defence of Free Enterprise is also an adjunct fellow at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and Frontiers of Freedom Institute[10].

Dr. S. Fred Singer - Adjunct Fellow. One of the world’s leading climate sceptics. President of the Science & Environmental Policy Project and member of ESEF (see below).

Christopher C. Horner - Senior Adjunct Fellow. Horner serves as Counsel to the climate sceptic coalition called the Cooler Heads Coalition, of which Frontiers of Freedom is an active member. He is also an adjunct policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

Issues

National Defence – Committed to a strong national defence and need for a missile defense system

Energy Policy – FOF “is committed to advancing the need for a sensible comprehensive energy policy that includes coal, gas, oil, hydro- and nuclear energies”.

Climate Change - FoF describes itself as an “international leader in combating the proliferation of politicized and sensationalized “science” about global climate change”. Leading opponent of the Kyoto Protocol and a member of the Cooler Heads Coalition (see CEI).

CAFÉ Standards – Against increasing fuel efficiency standards

Endangered Species Act – For reform of the ESA

Environment - Aggressively trying to undermine tax deductible status of Environmental NGOs (see below

Climate

Myron Ebell who is one of the US’s leading political climate sceptics at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, worked at FoF from early 1996-99. At the CEI Ebell chairs the Cooler Heads Coalition, of which FoF is a member. Frontiers of Freedom is also a joint signatory on CEI letters on climate along with many right wing and wise use groups. Christopher Horner, a Senior Fellow at FOF is also an adjunct policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

But FOF has a history of working on climate issues in its own right. In August 1997, FOF, organised a Countdown to Kyoto conference in Canberra in conjunction with the Australian APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation) Centre. According to Australian newspapers, its aim was to "bolster support" for the government's increasingly isolated position on global warming in preparation for Kyoto[11].

It was attended by, amongst others, the Australian Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer and Environment Minister Robert Hill, Wallop and Senator Chuck Hagel, the co-sponsor of a Senate resolution advising then President Bill Clinton that any agreement seen to harm United States economic interests should be abandoned and would not be supported by the Senate.

Also in attendance were John Dingell, D-Mich and the climate sceptics Professor Patrick Michaels, Professor John Christy and Cornell University professor Jeremy Rabkin who noted that it was Kyoto’s intention to “create a international super-agency that not only possesses police powers sufficiently strong to bring miscreant countries to heel, but also wisdom enough to run the world economy.”[12]

In 2002, FOF held a briefing at the National Press Club with the Cooler Heads Coalition, entitled: Experts Discuss Why United States Should Withdraw Its Signature From Kyoto; Whatever Happened To Global Warming Anyway. Wallop spoke, so did Fred Singer, John Daly, a climate sceptic from Australia, and Christopher. Horner, from the FoF / CEI[13]. The year before the FOF had held another symposium that argued that "there is no significant man-induced global warming[14].”

Contact

  • Address:
  • 12011 Lee Jackson Memorial Highway
  • 3rd Floor (Suite 310)
  • Fairfax, Virginia 22033

References

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