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Property & Env Res Ctr PERC

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see also PERC

note several orgs with same acronym or name change?

no MERRI

FAIL: Anderson was an expert witness for the State of Montana in the youth climate change lawsuit Held v. Montana. His testimony was rejected by the judge, who wrote that Anderson's data "was not well-supported, contained errors, and was not given weight by the Court."[12]

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Montana’s Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy failed to disclose to the U.S. Senate that he was a board member of the Property and Environment Research Center, a “free market environmentalism” nonprofit think-tank based in Bozeman, prior to his run for office.

The omission by Sheehy in the two reports he has filed so far for 2023 and 2024 is technically a violation of Senate ethics rules, which require candidates to report any position held during the previous two years. He did report being a board member of two other nonprofits.

HuffPost first reported on Sheehy’s failure to disclose the position on Wednesday.

Sheehy’s campaign did not respond by a provided deadline Thursday to questions about the omission, his time on the board, and his stance on several public lands policies. His campaign told HuffPost the omission was an oversight and that it would amend the campaign report.

The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) reported in its 2022 IRS Form 990 that Sheehy was a member of its board of directors who received no compensation. Up through last week, according to web archives, the organization’s website also listed him as a board member.

Kat Dwyer, a spokesperson for PERC, said Sheehy was elected to the board in the fall of 2022 and left once he announced his run for office last June.

“Tim was elected to the board due to his relevant background as a successful local entrepreneur in the areas of forest health, wildfires, and ranching, all conservation issues we are engaged in,” Dwyer said.

PERC was founded in 1980 as a self-described property rights and environmental organization and focuses on what it calls “free market environmentalism.”

“Rather than filing lawsuits or advocating for regulations that make conservation a liability, we advance legal and policy reforms that respect property rights, expand incentives for voluntary stewardship, and empower people to advance conservation through markets,” the organization’s website says.

Some of the organization’s more recent work includes pushing for conservation leases on federal land. A Bureau of Land Management final rule will allow for restoration and mitigation leases.

The organization has also pushed for changes to the National Environmental Policy Act to try to cut down on review times for proposed fuel reduction projects, and for changes to how conservation projects and protections for federal public lands are funded.

“PERC believes conservation is most effective and lasting when it is voluntary, cooperative, and makes economic sense — when there are incentives to make conservation an asset, not a liability,” Dwyer said in describing the company’s “free market environmental” ethos.

In 1999, the organization’s former executive director wrote that he wanted to auction off “all public lands over 20 to 40 years.” In 2016, PERC advocated for having each national park run as its own standalone business, Outside Magazine reported.

It has also in the past pressed for surcharges at national parks for international visitors and stopping the expansion of the national park system.

Other reports published by PERC over the past two decades questioned how much humans were contributing to global climate change and whether predictions from the International Panel on Climate Change were sound.The IPCC is a United Nations body that includes 95 member countries and thousands of scientists and other experts on climate change that compile assessments of climate change, its impacts and future risks.

Former PERC executive director Terry Anderson was one of the State of Montana’s expert witnesses at the Held v. Montana trial and presented himself as the founder of “free market environmentalism.”

He presented data about greenhouse gas emissions that the judge in the case wrote “was not well-supported, contained errors, and was not given weight by the Court.”

In response to questions about some of those papers and stances from the past, Dwyer said many were more than 20 years old and written by people no longer affiliated with the organization.

“They do not reflect PERC’s thinking,” Dwyer said. She added that PERC “firmly believes that public lands should stay in public hands” and pointed to several of its more recent policy pushes as representing its current stances.

The group has ties to Donors Trust, which Mother Jones previously reported sent significant money to climate change denial groups. PERC board member Kimberly Dennis was a co-founder of Donors Trust. But PERC has also worked with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Yellowstone National Park, the Interior Department, Trout Unlimited and other conservation groups on projects, according to the organization.

Dwyer said the company rejects being labeled a “right-wing” think tank by HuffPost and some other organizations.

“PERC is a non-partisan conservation organization dedicated to conserving land, water, and wildlife through innovate market and incentive-based solutions,” Dwyer said. “PERC proudly works with policymakers across the political spectrum, including with the Biden administration on issues like forest restoration, wild horse adoption incentives, migration corridor conservation, and virtual fencing technology.”

Sheehy, who runs aerial firefighting company Bridger Aerospace, shares similar ideas as PERC when it comes to litigation delaying or halting forest management projects. On his website, he says, “We also need to stand strong against the radical environmentalists who are suing and shutting down timber projects with frivolous litigation.”

Sheehy has also decried as a candidate what he calls the “climate cult” despite Bridger Aerospace previously marketing itself as fighting climate change before Sheehy started his campaign.

HuffPost first reported last year that Sheehy in October talked about giving control of some federal public lands to the state or local governments.

But his website says, and his campaign has reiterated, that Sheehy “believes public lands must stay in public hands.”

“Tim believes Montanans know best how to manage our land, not the Washington bureaucrats. Tim believes it’s important we listen to the voices of local communities when considering public lands policy. Tim opposes a federal transfer of our public lands. Tim opposes the sale of our public lands. Tim supports better stewardship of our public lands, including through active forest management,” the website says.

In May, NBC News reported Sheehy’s cattle ranch does not participate in Montana’s Block Management Program that allows hunters access to private land adjacent to public lands.

Public lands and access to them are overwhelmingly important to Montanans. The 2024 Public Lands Survey from the University of Montana’s Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Initiative found 83% of respondents said federal public lands benefitted Montana’s economy, and nearly half said conservation issues were “very important” in deciding which candidates to support politically.

But across the political spectrum, Montanans said conservation issues were an important part of backing a candidate, including 98% of Democrats, 84% of independents, and 71% of Republicans.

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SW 6 26

erry L. Anderson is director of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) and a senior fellow at the rightwing Hoover Institution. [1]

Anderson landed in the consciousness of environmentalists in 1999 as lead author of an alarming policy paper published by the Cato Institute, "How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands".

The paper, in which public ownership was painted "red" by being identified as a "failure of socialism", was based on four assumptions: That a given piece of land be "allocated to highest-valued use", that transition costs (to private ownership) be kept to a minimum, that there be "broad participation" in the divestiture, and that "squatter's rights" be protected. The plan advanced was to allocate to each citizen "shares" in what are now public lands. But shares would be "freely transferred", i.e., sold on the open market.

With 280 million citizens, what would an individual's shares be worth? $5,000? $50,000? Whatever the value on the open market, the poorer a citizen, the greater the inducement to sell quickly. But even the middle classes, bombarded with college tuition, mortgages, medical bills and the like, in time would be needing the cash their "shares" represented. In the wings, corporations and the very rich would be waiting to vacuum shares up. Within a generation or two what is now the priceless heritage of all U.S. citizens would gravitate into the ownership of the wealthy.

Anderson became George W. Bush's adviser on public lands issues. In May of 1999, as reported by Mark Hertsgaard in The NationAnderson was one of a group that met with Bush at the Texas Governor's mansion.

Bush was advised, as Anderson explained, to "devolve some responsibility for meeting environmental standards to local levels". Bush was also advised at that time to give private property rights precedence over public interests and to replace governmental law and regulation with the laissez-faire principles of the free market - exactly what the privatization lobby has worked toward lo these past four decades. [2]

Anderson has also endorsed the privatization of Indian reservations. "When you drive around Indian country, you can just tell which pieces of land are privately owned and which ones are held in trust ... The private lands are the ones that you can see being put to productive use," Anderson told the National Review. [3]

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DESMOG 6 26

Property and Environment Research Center - DeSmog

Property and Environment Research Center

Property and Environment Research Center (PERC)

Background

The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), formerly the Political Economy Research Center, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that promotes Free Market Environmentalism (FME), which it describes as “an approach to environmental problems that focuses on improving environmental quality using property rights and markets.”1

PERC was founded over 30 years ago in Bozeman, Montana, where it began as a think tank where “scholars documented how government regulation and bureaucracy often led to environmental degradation.” The organization’s latest development is the “PERC University” campus where “scholars, journalists, policy makers, and environmental practitioners can come together to share knowledge, refine their work, and engage in robust discussion” about free market environmentalism.2

Terry Anderson, former president of the PERC, was a previous member of George W. Bush’s presidential campaign environmental advisory staff, as was former PERC fellow Gale Norton. In 1998, Kathryn Ratte of PERC, addressed the Petroleum Association of America on how to get their message into public schools. She said that “politically correct environmentalism invaded U.S. public classrooms years ago, and is helping to hold the door shut on your message.”3

The PERC has long advocated for the privatization of America’s national parks, and recently (as of 2015) has pushed for no more national parks.4

PERC has received significantfunding from Koch Foundationsand related organizations, as well as from the fossil fuel industry and Donors Trust, a group that has been called the “dark-money ATM” of the conservative movement by Mother Jones.5

Stance on Climate Change

Former PERC President and Executive Director Terry Anderson has published a number of Op-Eds and articles putting forward his views on climate change. For example:

“Neanderthals survived many periods of abrupt climate change […] If they survived and adapted to abrupt climate change, surely modern man ought to be able to adapt to long-term changes, provided government climate policies don’t stifle human progress and economic growth.”6

The following is taken from a 2010 PERC Report titled “The Case Against the Hockey Stick” by Matt Ridley:

“Of course, there is other evidence for global warming, but none of it proves that the recent warming is unprecedented. Indeed, quite the reverse: surface temperatures, sea levels, tree lines, glacier retreats, summer sea ice extent in the Arctic, early spring flowers, bird migration, droughts, floods, storms—they all show change that is no different in speed or magnitude from other periods, like 1910–1940, at least as far as can be measured. There may be something unprecedented going on in temperature, but the only piece of empirical evidence that actually says so—yes, the only one—is the hockey stick. […] And the hockey stick is wrong.”7

Funding

The PERC website states that “We rely entirely on contributions from foundations, corporations, and private individuals. Currently, 90 percent of our funding comes from foundations, 8 percent from individuals and miscellaneous sources, and 2 percent from corporations.”8

The following data has been compiled by the Conservative Transparency project, based on public filings from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Note that not all funding data has been verified by DeSmog for accuracy. PERC currently runs as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization with EIN 81-0393444.

See the attached spreadsheet for additional information on theProperty and Environment Research Center’s funding by year (.xlsx).

D

unn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking$3,806,500
Searle Freedom Trust$3,204,000
Earhart Foundation$2,256,271
Sarah Scaife Foundation$2,217,000
John M. Olin Foundation$640,775
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation$603,600
Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation$498,644
Pierre F. and Enid Goodrich Foundation$445,000
Castle Rock Foundation$272,000
William H. Donner Foundation$269,750
The Roe Foundation$250,000
The Carthage Foundation$250,000
DonorsTrust$211,250
Walton Family Foundation$178,700
Chase Foundation of Virginia$151,540
Jaquelin Hume Foundation$150,000
Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation$130,000
Exxon Mobil$127,500
The Randolph Foundation$105,000
John William Pope Foundation$105,000
Adolph Coors Foundation$100,000
Philip M. McKenna Foundation$75,000
JM Foundation$55,000
Robert P. Rotella Foundation$47,500
Armstrong Foundation$33,500
True Foundation$4,500
Ruth & Lovett Peters Foundation$3,000
Friedman Foundation For Educational Choice$1,000
Grand Total$16,192,030

...

Past Board Members (2012)

As of November 1, 2012, additional Board Members included:14

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WIKI

Property and Environment Research Center - Wikipedia

The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), previously known as the Political Economy Research Center, is a free-market environmentalist think tank based in Bozeman, Montana, United States. Established in 1980,[2] PERC is dedicated to original research on market approaches to resolving environmental problems.

History

PERC began as an intellectual collaboration between economists John Baden and Richard L. Stroup.[3] PERC started with a simple question: "If markets can produce bread and cars, why can't they produce environmental quality?"[2]

In 1978, the two men established the Center for Political Economy and Natural Resources at Montana State University with the help of Terry L. Anderson, P.J. Hill and Ronald Johnson. Later, they founded PERC as a free-standing research institution with the goal of showing that economic freedom can improve environmental quality.[4]

While PERC later adopted the term "free market environmentalism," the original concept was called the New Resource Economics, which was discussed in an article by Terry Anderson in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.[5] As Anderson indicated in his article in the AJAE, the New Resource Economics combined neoclassical economics, property rights, public choice, and Austrian economics.

Notable former board members, fellows and alumni include Tim Sheehy,[6] Henry N. Butler, Jonathan H. Adler, Gary Libecap, Bart Wilson, Jane S. Shaw, Bruce Yandle.

Outreach

PERC engages in research and advocacy related to free-market environmentalism and is active on issues including endangered species, water, pollution, and public lands.[4] PERC says that government policy is the root cause of much environmental degradation. The Dust Bowl Reconsidered, for instance, blames the federal Homestead Act for accelerating erosion problems by limiting claims of newly settled land to 160–320 acres (0.65–1.29 km2) parcels. According to this article, fragmented land ownership reduced the incentives for implementing erosion countermeasures and made it difficult for farmers to negotiate contracts for voluntary soil conservation.[7]

PERC seeks to influence public policy by publishing guides for Congressional staff and organizing weeklong seminars for undergraduates. The organization's monthly publication, PERC Reports, regularly features articles questioning assumptions that form the basis of U.S. federal environmental law.

References

  1. "Political Economy Research Center Inc - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
  2. "PERC's History | PERC – The Property and Environment Research Center". www.perc.org. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
  3. Stroup, Richard; Baden, John (October 1973). "Externality, Property Rights, and the Management of Our National Forests". The Journal of Law and Economics. 16 (2): 303–312. doi:10.1086/466768. ISSN 0022-2186. S2CID 154738820.
  4. Frohnen, Bruce; Beer, Jeremy; Jeffrey, Nelson (2014). American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia. Open Road Media. ISBN 9781497651579.
  5. Anderson, Terry L. (December 1982). "The New Resource Economics: Old Ideas and New Applications" (PDF). American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 64 (5): 928–934. doi:10.2307/1240760. JSTOR 1240760.
  6. Miller, Blair (June 13, 2024). "Sheehy didn't disclose former board membership at Bozeman think tank • Daily Montanan".
  7. Benjamin, Daniel (December 10, 2004). "The Dust Bowl Reconsidered". PERC. Retrieved 14 September 2016.

External links

Terry Lee Anderson is an academic and author primarily focused on the intersection of economic and environmental issues in America. Anderson's works argue that market approaches can be both economically sound and environmentally sensitive.[1][2] Influenced by the Austrian school of economic thought, his research helped launch the idea of free-market environmentalism and has prompted public debate over the proper role of government in managing natural resources.

Anderson received his B.S. from the University of Montana in 1968 and earned a PhD in economics from the University of Washington in 1972. Following graduation, he began a teaching career at Montana State University which spanned over 25 years, culminating in a professor emeritus position at the university. In 1980, Anderson, along with three colleagues who were also interested in environmental policy (Richard L. Stroup, John Baden and P.J. Hill), co-founded the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), where he later became executive director and a William A. Dunn Distinguished Senior Fellow. Anderson is also a John and Jean De Nault Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.[3]

Anderson is the author or editor of thirty-seven books. Among these, Free Market Environmentalism,[4][5][6] co-authored with Donald Leal, received the 1992 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award. Anderson and Donald Leal's most recent book, Free Market Environmentalism – The Next Generation, was published in 2015. His most recent publications are Environmental Markets: a Property Rights Approach and Tapping Water Markets. Other books include Greener Than Thou: Are You Really an Environmentalist?[7] and Property Rights: A Practical Guide to Freedom and Prosperity, both co-authored with Laura Huggins. His book, with Peter J. Hill, The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier, was awarded the 2005 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award.[8][9][10][11]

Anderson's research, which has also focused on Native American economies, recently resulted in a co-edited volume, Self-Determination: The Other Path for Native Americans. He has published widely in the popular press and professional journals, including the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, Fly Fisherman, Journal of Law and Economics, and Economic Inquiry. In March 2011, Anderson received the Liberalni Institute Annual Award in Prague, Czech Republic, for his "Contribution to the Proliferation of Liberal Thinking, and Making Ideas of Liberty, Private Property, Competition, and the Rule of Law Come True."(source?)

Anderson was an expert witness for the State of Montana in the youth climate change lawsuit Held v. Montana. His testimony was rejected by the judge, who wrote that Anderson's data "was not well-supported, contained errors, and was not given weight by the Court."[12]

Selected works

References

TALK

Does anyone have a reliable source to indicate that Anderson also served as George W. Bush's public lands policy advisor?

NOTABLY ABSENT?

On Friday, February 9, Lissa Lucas — a Democratic Party candidate for West Virginia's House of Delegates — was forcibly removed from a Senate hearing for calling out how many thousands of dollars legislators backing a pro-oil and gas industry bill have received from that very industry.

The video of Lucas's public comment and removal has gone viral and served as a launching pad for her campaign, which has raised more than $46,000 since the incident. Previously, she had raised just over $4,000. Coincidentally, Lucas supportsa publicly funded campaign finance system.

The bill (HB 4268) she opposed, however, has passed in the West Virginia House of Delegates.

That law, “forced pooling” legislation which makes it easier for the oil and gas industry to obtain mineral rights from private landowners as a precursor to drilling, has the support of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association. It enables oil and gas companies to perform more hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) on private land in the state by mandating that, rather than securing land lease contracts from all landowners, companies only need 75 percent of those living in an area to sign leases and are granted the remaining 25 percent by default.

Appalachian Storage Hub Advances

Beyond HB 4268, in the days surrounding Lucas's removal from the hearing, both the West Virginia legislature and congressional delegation took steps to advance a proposal that would create a petrochemical storage and refining hub in the state, which would be fueld by fracked oil and gas development in the region's Marcellus and Utica shale basins.

That hub is set to receive $83.7 billion in capital from China, an agreement finalized in a ceremony overseen by President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping and which took place during a U.S. Department of Commerce trade mission to China in November.

On February 7, one day after DeSmog published an investigation on the proposed Appalachian Storage Hub, which would also cover Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, the West Virginia House of Delegates introduced a resolution (H.R. 7) calling on Congress to pass various pieces of legislation which would create favorable regulatory conditions for the hub. This was also one day before Lucas was ousted from the hearing on the forced pooling bill.

The same day as the Lucas incident, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a major backer of the federal bills, co-wrote a letter asking the Senate Appropriations Committee to support and continue funding the Department of Energy's Title XVII loan guarantee program, which came under scrutiny after providing a $535 million loan to the ill-fated solar company, Solyndra. The Energy Department, as DeSmog previously reported, is considering offering a $1.9 billion loan guarantee to develop the petrochemical hub in West Virginia, a move lauded by Manchin, who is up for re-election in November.

In his office's press release about the letter supporting the loan guarantee program, Manchin explicitly linked the funding request with the prospective creation of the petrochemical hub in his state.

“The Title XVII Innovative Loan Guarantee has a successful track record of helping finance innovative American energy technologies,” reads the press release. “In 2017, Senator Manchin introduced the Capitalizing American Storage Potential (CASP) Act to ensure a regional storage hub, like the proposed Appalachian Storage Hub, is eligible for the Department of Energy’s successful Title XVII loan guarantee program.”

The proposed state bill, H.R. 7, requests that Congress “renew its support for and fully fund the Department of Energy’s highly successful Loan Programs Office.”

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law seminars update post FREE

Speaking from the right

According to The Center for Public Integrity’s analysis, the person who spoke at more judicial conferences than any other was Butler, a professor and prominent conservative formerly of Northwestern and now executive director of George Mason’s Law & Economics Center.

He has taught judicial seminar courses with titles like “Economic Thinking” and ��Economics of Insurance.” A former Republican candidate for Congress — he lost a 1992 bid — Butler was a “Koch Distinguished Professor of Law and Economics” at the University of Kansas.

Butler’s resume cites his ��professional affiliations” with the conservative Federalist Society and the Mont Pelerin Society, which decries society’s loss of freedoms “fostered by a decline of belief in private property and the competitive market.”

Butler declined to be interviewed for this story. In response to emailed questions about George Mason��s judicial seminars, he wrote, ���You seem to have a well-established theme to your story, accordingly we don’t see any advantage in collaborating with you.”

Daniel Polsby, dean of the George Mason University School of Law, also declined to answer questions for this story other than to say via email: “We’re very proud of the activities and programs of the Law & Economics Center.”

Another frequent seminar instructor is Terry L. Anderson, president of the Property and Environment Research Center, a conservative think tank “dedicated to improving environmental quality through property rights and markets.”

Anderson, a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution, has regularly led “Free Market Environmentalism” lectures at conferences hosted by both George Mason and Northwestern.

Green energy’s ‘false promise’

In January 2011, Anderson was one of four lecturers who spoke at George Mason���s “Advanced Institute on Environmental Economics” conference, which was funded in part by ExxonMobil, BP America and Shell Oil.

The other three speakers were Andrew Morriss, co-author of the book “The False Promise of Green Energy”; Robert K. Fleck, an economics professor who has received thousands of dollars in research grants from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation; and Jason Johnston, a former fellow with the Koch-funded, Anderson-led Property and Environment Research Center and a critic of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

���I don’t express views” during lectures, says Anderson. He says his talks are based strictly on economic analysis. “None of my lectures are aimed at changing any judge’s opinion” about a case before them in court.

George Mason law professor Todd J. Zywicki, another regular judicial program speaker, has taught judges about issues like mortgage markets and consumer credit.

He is a senior scholar at the school’s conservative Mercatus Center, and has ties to the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which is ��dedicated to advancing the principles of limited government, free enterprise, and individual liberty.” Zywicki did not respond to a request for comment.

George Mason “is known to stage conferences that have a conservative economic perspective,” says Gillers, the NYU law professor.

One frequent attendee of George Mason��s judicial seminars, Judge Bennett of Alabama bankruptcy court, told the Center “I’m not going to be snowed by anybody’s presentation.” He said he finds the seminars “infinitely invaluable.”

“You can accumulate information much more quickly than if you sit in your office and read stuff,” he says.

Bennett dismisses criticism of George Mason’s judicial conferences — even though he acknowledges that they often feature conservative voices.

���I believe they put on a fairly balanced program,” he says, noting that he doesn’t pay attention to who funds the conferences. “I’ve been to George Mason seminars where they’ve had people who are not conservative. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

Stacked panels?

Northwestern’s 2009 seminar titled “Criminalization of Corporate Conduct” included a speaker panel that was very corporate-friendly — something George Mason��s Henry Butler openly acknowledged during his presentation summing up the day’s events.

Butler noted ��a question can be raised” about the panels�� balance and “do we have enough people here that are representing the prosecutor���s perspective.” (His remarks are posted onYouTube./maxresdefault.jpg).) “And I certainly can plead guilty to that accusation.” VID]

“On the other hand,��� he continued, “I have to explain to you that we’ve had difficulty in the past getting the U.S. attorneys to participate in these programs.”

The December 2010 ��Climate Change Litigation” session hosted by George Mason’s Law & Economics Center was sponsored in part by BP America, ExxonMobil and Shell Oil, and featured four speakers.

Two were attorneys who have represented corporate clients like Koch Industries and ExxonMobil. A third speaker, Johnston, the former Property and Environment Research Center fellow, spent part of his presentation criticizing the American civil courts system for making American companies less competitive on the international stage.

Butler, who moderated the panel, acknowledged the imbalance as he introduced a last-minute replacement for the fourth panelist.

���Eric Mayer is going to be pro-public nuisance, climate-change litigation cases, and the other three are basically going to express some skepticism,” Butler said in his introduction, identifying Mayer, a lawyer who has represented plaintiffs as well as corporate defendants.

The announcement drew laughs from panelists and audience members.

“This may seem unbalanced,” Butler continued, “but Eric is not daunted by this challenge at all.”

Donor names disappear

The “transparency” policy regarding judicial trips may be weak, but the names of the corporations, foundations and individuals that pay for the conferences at least are available to the public.

Now, even that bit of sunshine is clouding over.

In 2012, George Mason’s Law & Economics Center began listing “xyz corp.,” as a sponsor before listing itself as the only donor on official disclosure documents. However, the think tank does provide a list of donors on its website.

The 2007 Judicial Conference policy allows such reporting if the support comes from general revenues or from endowments or gifts “not raised for the particular educational program or for the purpose of educating judges.”

Geyh, the Indiana University law professor, says the policy enables conference hosts to shield their donors and make it tough for judges to identify potential conflicts before attending seminars.

“It does raise transparency issues,����� he says. “It strikes me as some semantic game-playing with the rules.”

This story was originally published��by The Center for Public Integrity, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C. It was reported and written by*Chris Young, Reity O’Brien and Andrea Fuller; John Dunbar contributed.

*Copyright 2013 The Center for Public Integrity

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http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Property_and_Environment_Research_Center

The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) is a think tank based in Bozeman, Montana that specialises in free market environmentalism. PERC was previously known as the Political Economy Research Center.

PERC is one of the pioneers of "the approach known as free market environmentalism, which is based on the following tenets:

"We believe environmental quality can be achieved by managing our resources based on property rights, private initiative and voluntary activity. Free market environmentalism offers a genuine alternative to excessive government control and regulation," PERC argues on its website. ^[1]

Contents [hide]

History

Founded in 1980 and initially known as the Political Economy Research Center, PERC identifies itself as "the center for free market environmentalism". This use of environmentalism in connection with the language of free market economics is now commonplace with a host of similar groups, as if it were a valid form of environmentalism rather than a tactic in the overall strategy for taking control of the public's land.

PERC links to a long list of the country's most powerful right-wing foundations and organizations committed to deregulation of industry and to the privatization of public assets. PERC's basic premise is that ownership and management of land by government is bad for the environment and that private property rights lead to better "stewardship of resources". The Federal Government is depicted not as an entity "of, by, and for the people" but as something far, far away and characterized by faceless, incompetent bureaucrats.

PERC advances its agenda through policy analysis, conferences, seminars, internships, books, articles and "education".

Board

Accessed June 2010: ^[2]

Staff

Staff biographies

Funding

At some point since April 2003, PERC recently underwent a name change from Political Econonomy Research Center. According to Mediatransparency, PERC under its old name, received $603,600 from Bradley Foundation and $640,775 from Olin Foundation.

Other funding has come from Sarah Scaife, JM Foundation, Lambe Foundation, McKenna Foundation, Earhart Foundation, Koch Foundation, Carthage Foundation and Castle Rock Foundation -- the guts of a force of roughly a dozen or so foundations that, since the 1960s, have coordinated their efforts toward forging national policy favorable to deregulation of industry and to privatization. According to Mediatransparency's records, PERC received $4,175,875 from all funding sources combined from 1985 to 2002.

Since 1998 PERC has received $80,000 (unadjusted for inflation) from ExxonMobil. [2]

Contact information

2048 Analysis Drive Suite A

Bozeman

Montana 59718

Phone 406 587 9591

Web: http://www.perc.org/

Resources

References

  1. ��� Property and Environment Research Center, "Who Funds PERC", accessed December 2007.
  2. ↑ Directors, Property and Environment Research Center, accessed June 13, 2010.

Other SourceWatch resources

External links

Categories:

BS OFF

PERC���the Property and Environment Research Center���is the nation’s oldest and largest institute dedicated to improving environmental quality through property rights and markets. Founded more than 30 years ago in Bozeman, Montana, PERC began as a think tank where scholars documented how government regulation and bureaucracy often led to environmental degradation. PERC sought to explore how property rights and markets could play a more direct role in improving environmental quality. From this work originated the idea of *free market environmentalism*(FME).

PERC researchers began to find real world examples of how FME works on the ground. To encourage the transition of FME from theory to action, PERC established a program to empower individuals—environmental entrepreneurs—by showing them how property rights, contracts, and the market process can be used to improve environmental quality. PERC's Enviropreneur Institute now attracts people from around the globe who are enhancing environmental assets by putting PERC's ideas into practice.

PERC continues to evolve, the newest development being PERC University. The PERC campus is a place where scholars, journalists, policy makers, and environmental practitioners can come together to share knowledge, refine their work, and engage in robust discussion. 'PERC U' is flourishing as representatives of many disciplines inspire and push each other to further explore the possibilities and applications of free market environmentalism.

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Thomas E. Beach, Beach Investment Counsel, Inc.

West Conshoshocken, Pennsylvania

Beach is a private investor with Beach Investment Council. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and his career has entirely focused on various sectors of investment research and management industry. He sits on the board of several organizations including the Reason Foundation, Eisenhower Fellowships, and the Pennsylvania Lumberman’s Mutual Insurance Company.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Loren Bough, Private Investor

Big Sky, Montana

Bough has worked as a trader in New York and London, has been a partner at Brunswick UBS Russia, and head of trading and risk management for a Russian investment banking business. He is a founding supporter of United Way Russia, Downside Up, and Maria's Children in Moscow. He is currently the Chairman of the Big Sky School District and active in local charities. 

Robert C. Clement, Independent Consultant (retired)

Sunset, South Carolina

Clement had a 15 year career at Accenture, one of the world’s largest technology consulting companies, from which he retired as a partner in 2004. Prior to his tenure at Accenture, he was an Instructor of Economics at Clemson University. Clement continues to consult with a variety of businesses in the areas of business strategy, business operations, project management, and antitrust economics. Clement is a member of the Board of the Reserve at Lake Keowee Foundation and Keowee River Club, LLC. 

Tyler Dann, Harlem Valley Investing Co., Inc.

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Dann has been an insurance broker and president of Wesfair Agency, Inc. in Chappaqua, New York since 1970. He is co-trustee of the Helen I. Graham Charitable Foundation which supports organizations or similar organizations selected by Mrs. Graham prior to her death. Dann was a former director of The Factory Point Bancorp (Manchester, VT.), Premier Bancorp, Fishkill, NY, and a regional director of M&T Bancorp. He was a former trustee and member of the investment committee of The Community Foundation ��of Dutchess County, NY.

Kimberly O. Dennis, Searle Freedom Trust

Washington D.C.

Dennis is president of the Searle Freedom Trust. She is also chairman of the board of Donors Trust, vice chairman of the board of Donors Capital Fund, a trustee of the Earhart Foundation, and a member of the board of the Philanthropy Roundtable. Her previous positions include: director of the National Research Initiative, a program of the American Enterprise Institute; executive director of the Philanthropy Roundtable; and program officer for the John M. Olin Foundation. 

*Deborah Donner, Business Consultant

Denver, Colorado

Donner is a business consultant with an international focus on retail and fine art wholesaling. She brings non-profit experience through her service on several philanthropic organizations. She is a fourth generation Trustee and Member of the Board of Directors of the William H. Donner Foundation (New York City) and Donner Canadian Foundation (Toronto), whose philanthropic pursuits include public policy, legal and educational reform, land and wildlife conservation, based on the principles of free market capitalism.

William A. Dunn, Dunn Capital Management, Inc.

Stuart, Florida

Dunn owns a successful capital management firm in Stuart, Florida, and actively supports free market ideas. He is also on the board of directors of the Reason Foundation, the Foundation for Economic Education, the Prometheus Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. 

Carlos Fern��ndez, The Nature Conservancy huh?

San Carlos de Bariloche, Rio Negro Patagonia, Argentina

Fernández is project manager for the TNC Patagonian Grasslands of Argentina program which aims to conserve 16 million hectares of Argentina’s temperate grasslands by 2015. In 2009, he was also appointed Southern Andes Conservation Strategies Manager charged with overseeing the conservation strategies of the Conservancy’s projects implemented in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. He was formerly based in Arlington, Virginia, as the Conservancy���s Senior Foreign Legal Advisor for South America when he attended PERC��s 2007 Enviropreneur Institute.*

*Steven F. Hayward, F.K Weyerhaeuser Fellow in Law and Economics, American Enterprise Institute, and Senior Fellow, Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy

San Francisco, California

Hayward writes frequently on a wide range of current topics, including environmentalism, law, economics, and public policy for publications including National Review, Reason, Weekly Standard, American Spectator, Public Interest, the Claremont Review of Books, and Policy Review. His newspaper articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, and dozens of other daily newspapers. He is the author of the Almanac of Environmental Trends.*

*Frank-Paul A. King, Managing Partner, King Capital Partners

Dallas, Texas

King is president of King Capital Partners, a family office focused on economic and social investment opportunities in the areas of energy, real estate, and technology. King serves on the Board of Directors of Republic Energy, Inc.; TFO Holdings, LLC.; 2D2C, Inc.; Teakwood Capital, L.P.; and Paseo de la Resaca; and he is the former chairman of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

Dwight E. Lee, Gagnon Securities LLC

New York, New York

Lee is a partner at Gagnon Securities, a New York-based investment firm. ����He has been a director or trustee of public and private corporations and many charitable organizations, and is currently chairman of the board of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers (Scholastic Art & Writing Awards) and a trustee of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.*

*Leigh H. Perkins, The Orvis Company

Sunderland, Vermont

Leigh Perkins combined his love of sport with a sharp mind for business when he purchased the Orvis Company in 1965, taking the highly respected, albeit small, business from $500,000 in annual sales to nearly $100 million annually when he chose to turn the business over to his sons in 1992, and current annual sales of $300 million. Leigh Perkins has supported private solutions to land and water conservation for many years. He has been a national board member of: The Nature Conservancy; The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy; and past president of the Ruffed Grouse Society. He also served on the boards of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Cleveland Scholarship Foundation; and continues to serve on the board of the American Museum of Fly Fishing, which he founded.*

*John F. Tomlin, Managing Member, Conservation Forestry Partners, LLC

Greenville, South Carolina

Tomlin is a co-founder and managing member of Conservation Forestry Partners, LLC, and its affiliated entities which were formed to align private equity with conservation capital for the purpose of acquiring, managing and realizing competitive risk adjusted returns on large forestland properties. Prior to forming Conservation Forestry, Tomlin was involved in several entrepreneurial endeavors, including general partner of a group of venture and private equity funds known as the Vista Group.*

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*copies from PERC

See also The Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) is a think tank based in Bozeman, Montana that specialises in free market environmentalism. PERC was previously known as the Political Economy Research Center.

PERC is one of the pioneers of "the approach known as free market environmentalism, which is based on the following tenets:

"We believe environmental quality can be achieved by managing our resources based on property rights, private initiative and voluntary activity. Free market environmentalism offers a genuine alternative to excessive government control and regulation," PERC argues on its website. [1]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Property_and_Environment_Research_Center#cite_note-0)

...

At some point since April 2003, PERC recently underwent a name change from Political Econonomy Research Center. According to Mediatransparency, PERC under its old name, received $603,600 from Bradley Foundation and $640,775 from Olin Foundation.

Other funding has come from Sarah Scaife, JM Foundation, Lambe Foundation, McKenna Foundation, Earhart Foundation, Koch Foundation, Carthage Foundation and Castle Rock Foundation -- the guts of a force of roughly a dozen or so foundations that, since the 1960s, have coordinated their efforts toward forging national policy favorable to deregulation of industry and to privatization. According to Mediatransparency's records, PERC received $4,175,875 from all funding sources combined from 1985 to 2002.

Since 1998 PERC has received $80,000 (unadjusted for inflation) from ExxonMobil. [2]

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Steven F. Hayward, F.K Weyerhaeuser Fellow in Law and Economics, American Enterprise Institute, and Senior Fellow, Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, San Francisco.

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As of April 1, 2007, SEC documents show that there were eight investors who held more than 5% of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, of which seven held 9% or greater. These seven are William Dunn (19%), Arthur Dantchik (10%), Thomas L. Phillips (10%), Robert A. Levy (10%), the Claws Foundation (9%), The Randolph Foundation (9%), and Donors Capitol Fund (9%). These seven investors control a combined total of 76% of the total assets of the fund.

The largest shareholder, William Dunn of Stuart, Florida, is the director of Dunn Capitol Management and the founder of Dunn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking. William A. Dunn of Stuart, Florida is also a director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. In addition, he is a Director and a member of the Board of Trustees for the Reason Foundation and a Director of the :{Property and Environment Research Center:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: (PERC). If you’ll recall from yesterday’s post, Mr. Milloy’s associate Kenneth P. Green (currently of the American Enterprise Institute) used to work for the Reason Foundation and Mr. Milloy himself works with the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Dunn��s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking gave away over $3 million in grants in 2004 alone, with much of that money going to organizations associated in some way with Mr. Milloy or people he knows: $445,000 to the CEI, $370,000 to the Institute for Justice (see Arthur Dantchik below), $370,000 to PERC, $308,000 to the Reason Foundation, $185,000 to the Cato Institute, and $25,000 to the AEI. Some of the other backers for both the CEI, PERC, and Reason Foundation have been the Charles G. Koch and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundations. The Charles G. Koch foundation funds the CEI and PERC to the tune of almost $60,000 and $15,000 respectively. The David H. Koch foundation granted $315,000 to the CEI between 1995 and 2001 and over $1.5 million to the Reason Foundation between 1986 and 2001.  rogues and scholars

anti-carson ddt

An economist and lawyer, Roger Meinersdefends the superiority of the common law--legal traditions developed through the courts--over federal regulation. In his view, the success of markets is intertwined with the common laws strong protection for property rights. Common law protects the environment by allowing individuals to take action against trespass and nuisance affecting the enjoyment of their properties. It empowers individuals and decentralizes decisions. In contrast, centralized regulations concentrate power and tend to apply a one-size-fits-all solution to a multitude of problems.

He and PERC Fellow Andrew Morriss have written several papers on the mining industry, including articles published in Environmental Law and Administrative Law Review.

He received his law degree from the University of Miami and his Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech, where he was strongly influenced by public choice economists James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, and Richard Wagner. He is currently Goolsby Distinguished Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Texas at Arlington and is Chairman of the Department of Economics. He was previously on the faculty at Clemson University, Emory University, and Texas A&M University. He also served as the director of the Federal Trade Commission office in Atlanta.

Roger lives with his wife Cary, a high school administrator, in Fort Worth, Texas. He has four children in various stages of higher education.

Current Work:

Meiners and PERC Senior Fellow Andrew Morriss are examining legal constraints on the mining industry and the economic justifications for demands that the industry be subjected to even tighter regulatory controls. They find that the Mining Law of 1872 is, contrary to its many critics, sensible legislation that creates good incentives.

Articles by Roger Meiners >

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