Climate Change
Floor Speech
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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, it is an honor for me to follow Senator Markey, who has battled so long and so effectively in this struggle against such odds, and I think we both feel the tide has turned, things are going our way, but we have to hurry because nature is unforgiving. As the Pope said: God forgives, mankind forgives sometimes, but nature never forgives. You slap her and she will slap you back. And we have given nature one hell of a slap with climate change.
When I was here yesterday, I was pointing to the web of denial and pointing out that the web of denial has to mislead to be effective. That is what it is--a tool to mislead. I pointed out what a Koch brothers operative described as its goal when this whole web was being developed. This was the quote: ``It would be necessary [to] use ambiguous and misleading names, obscure the true agenda, and conceal the means of control.''
Well, if you are looking for ambiguous and misleading names that can obscure the true agenda and conceal the means of control, one tactic would be to exploit our Founding Fathers--to seize their names and use them to lend authority and gravitas to the deception, in the same way that using the names of Lord Acton, the famous historian, or George C. Marshall, the hero of World War II, accomplished that task. In this case, the names are Franklin, Madison, and Jefferson, and they are joined by the philosopher John Locke.
Let's start with the so-called Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which has a nice little silhouette of Ben Franklin on its logo. It was established in 2009. It says it ``supports and trains investigative journalists to advance transparency, accountability, and fiscal responsibility in local government, and to spotlight free- market, pro-liberty solutions to difficult policy challenges.''
According to ``DeSmogBlog,'' the Franklin Center was launched and funded by a conservative think tank that encouraged grassroots activism, which is the now defunct Sam Adams Alliance.
Oh no, another bogus organization exploiting the name of yet another Founding Father. There is a little pattern here.
Jeff Nesbitt, whom I spoke about yesterday, wrote this about the Franklin Center in his book ``Poison Tea: How Big Oil and Big Tobacco Invented the Tea Party and Captured the GOP.''
At the start of 2008, the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity had a budget of zero dollars. Its legal home was a taffy shop in Medora, North Dakota. By 2009, the Franklin Center's budget had jumped to $2.4 million, according to IRS tax records. That is a spectacular leap for a nonprofit, especially in Medora, North Dakota. It was almost as if someone wished to utilize the charter concept of the Franklin Center, developing individual but interlinked news centers across the United States that would all promote the same messages--for other purposes and therefore infused it with a mountain of funding and network support.
Let's dig into the Franklin Center's connections to groups and funders in this web of denial.
According to ``DeSmogBlog,'' the Franklin Center's director of donor development comes out of the Charles G. Koch Foundation--wow. Its senior vice president in charge of strategic initiatives comes out of the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity. The founding board member who set it up helped run, oh, Americans for Prosperity in North Dakota. According to Media Matters for America, the Franklin Center's coalitions coordinator and its chief of staff also came out of, oh, Americans for Prosperity. Not surprisingly, the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism ranked the Franklin Center Watchdog.org group as ``highly ideological.'' It is clear they have a bias at the Franklin Center to sow doubt regarding human-caused climate change. It is no surprise, considering where their staff and money comes from.
Here is the stuff they say. In 2015, a vice president for research and resident scholar at the John Locke Foundation--more on them shortly--wrote in the Franklin Center-affiliated Carolina Journal that ``global warming is not about data points'' so much as it has been ``a trick pulled by global warming alarmists over the last decade.'' There is a responsible view.
In 2014, a staff reporter for the Franklin Center's Watchdog.org, wrote: ``I continue to contend that `climate change' is a meaningless phrase because the climate obviously changes . . . [but] is useful for political activism. . . . ''
In 2011, its outlet, the Hawaii Reporter, wrote: ``Hard-nosed physical evidence of man-made global warming has yet to be provided by the promoters of warming, even after a nominal $80 billion have been spent in the attempt to do so.''
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard has looked at the Franklin Center and describes it as ``at the forefront of an effort to blur the distinction between statehouse reporting and political advocacy.'' A former Reuters chief White House correspondent describes the Franklin Center's state Watchdog.org as ``delivering political propaganda dressed up as journalism.''
Let's follow the money. The Franklin Center's top donor in 2011, as reported by the nonprofit Media Matters for America and the Center for Public Integrity, was, guess what, the rightwing's ``dark money ATM,'' DonorsTrust. It was set up by whom? Oh, right, the Koch brothers. Over $6 million, or roughly 95 percent of the Franklin Center's revenue that year came through this organization, whose sole purpose is to hide the identity of the real donors. That is why it exists. According to data collected by the Conservative Transparency Project, between 2009 and 2014, the Franklin Center received over $31 million from DonorsTrust and its related Donors Capital Fund. We don't know who the hidden donors are because that is why they set up the DonorsTrust thing, but a clue of who they might be comes from the reported donors--like the rightwing Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, founded, according to the Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch, by ``one of the original charter members of the far rightwing John Birch Society.'' Another John Birch Society board member was Fred Koch, the father of Charles and David Koch. Dr. Brulle's research indicates that the Bradley Foundation between 2003 and 2010 gave almost $30 million to these organizations that he tracks in this web of denial--$30 million.
Then there is the Dunn's Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking, a Florida-based grant-making foundation that Dr. Brulle's research again shows between 2003 and 2010 gave $13.7 million into this web of denial organizations.
Then there is the Searle Freedom Trust, which, according to the Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch, has also funded Americans for Prosperity--guess what; the Koch group--the American Enterprise Institute, ALEC--the front group--the Heartland Institute--those classics who compared climate change believers to the Unabomber--and the State Policy Network. Dr. Brulle's research, again, indicates that Searle gave $21.7 million to this web of denial groups that he tracks.
Another donor, of course, to the Franklin Institute is the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. That one is self-explanatory. So if we look at what is going on at the Franklin Center, we will see Koch people, Koch money, and Koch buddies.
Then there is the so-called James Madison Institute, a libertarian think tank with a long history of trying to undermine climate science and renewable energy policy. Yale Professor Justin Farrell lists the James Madison Institute among the organizations he tracks contributing to the polarization of climate change debate. The Heartland Institute's--yes, that wonderful Unabomber group--senior fellow for environmental policy is on the James Madison Institute's research advisory council. It is such a web of connections.
According to research by the American Bridge Project, the Madison Institute received over $1.4 million in direct donations from Koch- affiliated groups. Between 2003 and 2013, they received funding from the John Templeton Foundation, which ``tries to encourage the integration of religious beliefs and free-market principles into the classroom,'' according to the Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch. Mother Jones reported in 2011 that Charles Koch recognized the Templeton Foundation for having donated over $1 million to Koch-related causes, and Dr. Brulle's research shows that Templeton gave more than $20 million to this web of denial organization he tracks.
Dunn's Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking turns up again--Franklin, now Madison. The same foundation that gave $13.7 million to these climate change countermovement organizations also gave to the Madison one.
Of course, again, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation gave to the Franklin Center and gave to the Madison Center to the tune of almost $30 million into the climate denial web.
The James Madison Institute is also a member of the State Policy Network. The State Policy Network, according to the Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch, is an ``$83 million right-wing empire'' that has received money from a Koch family foundation, and, of course, the identity-scrubbing DonorsTrust and Donors Capital--which, by the way, are the big green diamond here at the center of this web.
According to the ``DeSmogBlog'' examination of the Madison Institute, it opposed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade legislation, and in 2009 issued a plea to policymakers in Florida--the State that is going fastest under water because of sea level rise--to stop any action on climate change following the so-called Climategate scandal. After six thorough investigations looked at Climategate, true, there was no scandal at all, but it would appear that the Institute neither rescinded its plea nor set the record straight.
This institute actively fights renewable energy policies in Florida. An institute report co-written by a senior fellow at the Heartland Institute--again, the connection, Madison Institute to Heartland Institute and Heartland Institute to the billboard that compared climate scientists to the Unabomber--opposed a proposed solar constitutional amendment. Well, they weren't alone. According to news reports, Florida's power companies were contributing big money to a political committee fighting that solar amendment, including over $1 million from Florida Power and Light, $1 million from Duke Energy, over $800,000 from Tampa Electric Company, and $640,000 from Gulf Power. Well, guess what. The president and CEO of Gulf Power was then on the board of, oh, the James Madison Institute.
Then we move on to John Locke, who gives us a twofer. First, there is the Locke Institute. It is named for the philosopher John Locke, who, with Montesquieu, are the two major philosophical influences of the Founding Fathers. It is listed as one of Dr. Justin Farrell's organizations contributing to the polarization of climate change debate and ``overtly producing and promoting skepticism and doubt about scientific consensus on climate change.''
The institute has been involved in defending the tobacco industry and has on its academic advisory council a political scientist from the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a high-profile UK climate denier group.
There is also a John Locke Foundation, which describes itself as ``an independent, non-profit think tank that would work for truth, for freedom, and for the future of North Carolina.'' It is one of the blue dots here on Professor Brulle's denial web diagram. Dr. Farrell, too, has the foundation on his list of climate change denier and countermovement organizations. Yes, it is a member of the Koch-funded State Policy Network, of course, and it is funded significantly by a North Carolina billionaire by the name of Art Pope, who, according to Indy Week, is ``one of the most trusted members of the Koch's elite circle: He has been a regular invitee to the Koch's secretive, semiannual gathering of the major right-wing donors and activists,'' and he is a ``valuable junior partner in many key Koch operations.''
The foundation center database shows that between 2003 and 2013, the John Locke Foundation received over $21 million from the John William Pope Foundation--which is named after Art Pope's father--and over $60,000 from the Charles Koch Foundation. It gets so cozy between everyone here. According to a 2014 Washington Post profile of Art Pope, he has poured over $30 million through his family's foundation into the Koch front group Americans for Prosperity--all of whose members, you remember, went over to the Franklin Institute. Professor Brulle has put the John William Pope Foundation at over $20 million of total foundation funding to this climate change denial web. Dr. Brulle cites the John Locke Foundation as having received 3 percent of the total income distributed within the climate change countermovement between 2003 and 2010.
An article in Facing South calls the John Locke Foundation ``one of the most outspoken voices of climate denial in North Carolina, claiming that global warming is a `pseudoscientific fraud.''' According to research done by Greenpeace, the foundation stated in a 2005 policy brief that ``a greenhouse gas reduction policy would have only costs and no benefits.'' In 2005, the foundation released a public policy statement entitled ``Global Warming Policy: NC Should Do Nothing,'' whose author wrote similar climate denial pieces in the Franklin Center-affiliated Carolina Journal. It is hard to keep track of all these crisscrossings.
In 2007, the foundation released a policy report entitled ``A North Carolina Citizen's Guide to Global Warming,'' whose author, according to Facing South, was a visiting scholar at the, yes, Koch-backed American Enterprise Institute. This report falsely declared that consensus on climate change does not exist, and declared: ``The greatest threat we face from climate change is the danger of rushing into foolish and costly policies driven by ill-founded climate change hysteria.''
Art Pope figures in Jane Mayer's book ``Dark Money'' as ``a charter member of the Koch network'' and a ``longtime friend and ally, [who] shared Charles [Koch's] passion for free-market philosophy.'' Mayer writes that Pope was a regular at the Kochs' secret planning summits and ``served on the board of the Koch's main public advocacy group''-- wait for it--``Americans for Prosperity, as he had on its predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy.'' Mayer adds: ``Pope's role in his home state of North Carolina was in many respects a state-sized version of the Kochs' role nationally.''
Other Locke Foundation funders identified by Conservative Transparency Project between 1995 and 2014 include the Searle Freedom Trust, which, according to Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch, has also funded, yes, Americans for Prosperity, and the American Enterprise Institute, and ALEC--which we have talked about and sponsors the State Policy Network--and, of course, we can't go without the Heartland Institute, with their wonderful Unabomber billboard.
Dr. Brulle's research indicates that the Searle Trust gave over $20 million to these groups between 2003 and 2010. Donors Capital Fund-- this big spider at the center of the web here--is a donor to the John Locke Foundation, and, of course, the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. The John Locke Foundation is a member of the State Policy Network, that ``$83 million right-wing empire'' funded by a Koch family foundation and the identity-launderers Donors Trust and Donors Capital.
That brings us to the so-called Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. By the way, it is fair to say that yet again when we move from Franklin to Madison, these foundations end up showing Koch people, Koch money, and Koch buddies. The Thomas Jefferson Institute is a public policy foundation and, yes, another member of the State Policy Network, the $83 million rightwing empire.
By the way, the Center for Media and Democracy's in-depth investigation of the State Policy Network shows how the network and its member think tanks are all interconnected to ALEC and to the Koch brothers. But that is for another speech.
According to ``DeSmogBlog,'' many of the Jefferson Institute studies are authored by an operative of the Heritage Foundation, the group that Senator Franken spoke about earlier this evening, and the Energy and Environment Legal Institute--two groups that are both on this web.
The Thomas Jefferson Institute prominently displays a statue of Jefferson on its Web page and claims to be a nonpartisan supporter of ``environmental stewardship,'' but the institute is an outspoken critic of the President's Clean Power Plan and renewable sources of energy and actively sows doubt about climate science. The institute is right here on Professor Brulle's web of climate change countermovement organizations.
According to data compiled by the Conservative Transparency project between 1998 and 2014, the Jefferson Institute received funding from the following entities in the denial web: first, of course, is the identity-laundering Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund. Then there is the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, which, as we recall, also supported the Franklin Center and the Madison Institute and links to the Koch brothers through the far-rightwing John Birch Society. Remember, they were at almost $30 million into climate denial organizations in those years between 2003 and 2010. And then there is the William E. Simon Foundation, whose current president is also a senior fellow at the rightwing Manhattan Institute, a member of the Grant Advisory Committee of the Searle Freedom Trust, and a past member of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution. It is quite a web indeed.
The Jefferson Institute's director was quoted in 2007 as saying: ``When it comes to global warming, I'm a skeptic because the conclusions about the cause of the apparent warming stand on the shoulders of incredibly uncertain data and models.'' Tell that to NOAA and NASA and every single one of our National Labs and see how far you get. Tell that to your home State university and see how far you get.
In 2008, he wrote about climate change for the Jefferson Journal, a commentary forum of the Jefferson Institute, that ``greenhouse gas reduction goals . . . are both unachievable and irrelevant'' and assured ``there will be no climate catastrophe due to CO
In 2011, he wrote two pieces for the Jefferson Journal opposing wind power, contending that--you are not going to believe this, but here is the quote--``wind is not affordable and it is not clean'' and that wind power ``has no sensible place in a 21st century civilization.'' Tell that to our friend Senator Grassley, whose State gets a third of its power from wind energy.
Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Locke--these are great names put on the front of very shady Koch-funded front groups in the web of denial, and the organizations share several common features: First, they all propagate what by any reasonable standard is preposterous nonsense and masquerade it as science and independent opinion. Second, they all get massive funding from fossil fuel interests and always line up obediently with those interests. Third, they interlock. The interlocking is almost too complicated to track--in staff, in board members, in funding sources--but it all traces back to fossil fuel money. And, of course, they all mask themselves behind the names of great men from history who would recoil to discover their names and reputations being put to such discreditable use. Who needs to hide behind names like that? I submit it is people who are up to no good and don't want to be caught out for who they really are.
Let me conclude by thanking the many Senators who have participated in this effort to put a little bit of a spotlight on a very phony web of denial that is operating actively in our democracy to distort and disturb its proper operation and to sabotage America's ability to respond in a responsible way to the climate crisis. They include our leader Harry Reid, Ben Cardin, Chris Coons, Tim Kaine, Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, Tom Udall, Jeff Merkley, Barbara Boxer, Dick Durbin, Brian Schatz, Al Franken, Martin Heinrich, my senior Senator Jack Reed, Jeanne Shaheen, Gary Peters, Dick Blumenthal, and Ed Markey. I am honored to participate in this effort with them.
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