Competitive Enterprise Institute
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Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a libertarian think tank based in Washington DC.
It was founded by lobbyist Fred Smith, and has been funded by a laundry list of bogeymen, such as Koch Industries, the Scaife Foundations, Exxon, Philip Morris, etc. Like any of the Beltway think tanks that spews vulgar libertarianism, they take quite a consistent line against any government regulation of their financial backers.
CEI is a major proponent of global warming denial, second-hand smoke denial, and denial of any science establishing that industrial activity can cause environmental damage. One of their adjuncts is the noted denialist shyster, Steve Milloy.
Cooler Heads Coalition[edit]
The "Competitive Enterprise Institute" put together something called the "Cooler Heads Coalition," which is basically a committee that takes the output of the bullshit factory that comprises various denialist think tanks and funnels it into a single propaganda outlet (their website) and hypes denialist petitions. Cooler Heads try to obscure their connections to vested interests which stand to lose if fossil fuel use is regulated.[1] They're linked to CFACT, the Heartland Institute and the Marshal Institute. [2]
Their website appears superficially like a genuine consumer organization and it can be hard for online enquirers to sort out who is behind what they browse.[3]
Cooler Heads Coalition hosted lectures by "Climate Misinformer, Richard Lindzen" more than once. [4] Lindzen stands accused of ignoring vital parts of Scientific data that go against the Cooler Heads Coalition agenda. [5] Lindzen was also involved with The Great Global Warming Swindle which tries unreasonably to deny global warming.
Bureaucrash[edit]
They run an astroturf organization called Bureaucrash, which organizes libertarian "activists." Its communications director Lee Doren has a YouTube channel "HowTheWorldWorks," peddling laissez-faire talking points on the economy and environmental denialism.
Africa Fighting Malaria[edit]
CEI also has connections to the astroturf group Africa Fighting Malaria, which exists mainly to shill for DDT, spread anti-environmentalism, and pay out large sums of money to its "fellows."
See also[edit]
- Heartland Institute A similar body
- Roger Bate, founder of AFM
- S. Fred Singer, occasionally shills for them
- Cooler Heads members: Americans for Tax Reform, FreedomWorks, George C. Marshall Institute, Heritage Foundation
External links[edit]
- CEI site, Bureaucrash (Get some sweet Bureaucrash swag. Yay capitalism! What's your anti-gov?), Cooler Heads Coalition, Africa Fighting Malaria
- Sourcewatch entry, Bureaucrash entry, Cooler Heads Coalition entry, Africa Fighting Malaria entry
- Their tax returns (2007)
- Deep Climate's category
- Bug Girl: An Odd E-mail Campaign by Africa Fighting Malaria
- FactCheck: Scientist to CEI: "You used my research to confuse and mislead"
- Island of Doubt: CEI is still at it -- fighting reason
- Deltoid: Completely Evil Institute, CO2: We call it life, Al Gore: We call him fat, Rachel Carson smears, Rachel Carson telephone game, Africa Not Fighting Malaria, Africa Fighting Malaria's "Wedge Document"
References[edit]
- ↑ A Citizen's Guide to Politics in America
- ↑ Organised Climate Change Denial
- ↑ A Citizen's Guide to Politics in America This has slightly different information from the one above.
- ↑ [1] [2]
- ↑ Climate Misinformer: Richard Lindzen