ICE gcc

=see fred palmersee western fuelssee greening earthdocs<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3119453-1991-Informed-Citizens-for-the-Environment.html">https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3119453-1991-Informed-Citizens-for-the-Environment.html</a>=fred palmer desmog<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Background</h2><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170111210354/https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/media-advisory-fred-palmer-joins-the-heartland-institute-as-senior-fellow" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Fredrick D. Palmer </a>was the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170111210221/http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/pennenergy/2016/01/coal-news-fred-palmer-joins-an-expanding-total-spectrum.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">senior vice president of government relations</a> for <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peabody_Energy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Peabody Energy Corporation</a> from 2001 to June 2015, also serving on the Executive Leadership Team until 2014.  Most recently he worked as Peabody's Special Advisor to the Office of Peabody's Executive Chairman before <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170111210221/http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/pennenergy/2016/01/coal-news-fred-palmer-joins-an-expanding-total-spectrum.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">joining the public relations firm Total Spectrum/Steve Gordon and Associates</a> in January, 2016. In welcoming him to the team, Spectrum congratulated Palmer for a career where he “has excelled in coal, public policy and advocacy.” Fred Palmer was also a lobbyist for Peabody between 2005 and 2015 <a href="http://disclosures.house.gov/ld/ldsearch.aspx" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">according to public lobbying disclosures</a>. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s1" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[1]</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s2" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s3" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a>,<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s4" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> [4]</a>In early 2017, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170111210354/https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/media-advisory-fred-palmer-joins-the-heartland-institute-as-senior-fellow" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the Heartland Institute announced that Palmer would also be joining them as a senior fellow on energy and climate</a>. In his role at the Heartland Institute, Fred Palmer promises to espouse “the positive effects of enhanced atmospheric CO2 content on the biosphere” as well as emphasize “importance of fossil fuel energy to our quality of life.” <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Heartland Institute </a>has a long history of climate change denial and support for the fossil fuel industry and is known for its regular International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) where prominent climate change deniers gather to promote the idea that a debate still exists on the science behind man-made climate change. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s3" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a>Before beginning his career at Peabody Energy, Palmer spent 15 years as the CEO and General Counsel of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/western-fuels-association" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Western Fuels Association (WFA)</a>, a coalition of coal-burning utilities that has long-worked to prevent attempts to regulate the coal industry to reduce fossil fuel emissions. He represented WFA on the board of directors of the National Mining Association where he served as chair of the Legal Affairs Committee, a position where he fought against limits in fossil fuel use in the U.S. In the early 1990s, Palmer also headed a <a href="http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/11FBD95382157280?p=NewsBank" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">WFA effort to send targeted messages to farmers and legislators</a>, suggesting doubt existed on the effect of carbon dioxide on global warming. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s5" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[5]</a><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Greening Earth Society (GES)</h3>Palmer was a past director of the now-defunct <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Greening_Earth_Society" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Greening Earth Society (GES)</a>, a front group that was controlled by the Western Fuels Association. GES had the stated mission of “advocacy on climate change, the environmental impact of CO2, and fossil fuel use.” The group's “scientific advisors” featured a range of well-known industry-funded deniers such as <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sallie-baliunas" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Sallie Baliunas</a> and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/willie-soon" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Willie Soon</a>. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s6" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[6]</a>According to a November, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/ges-all-2-needs-re-scanning.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">1998 report by the Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research (CLEAR)</a> examining the Greening Earth Society and its related entities, Fred Palmer claimed he created the GES because the coal industry was “<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1510958/thegreeningea01547.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">waging an uphill battle</a> against a well-funded environmental lobby that has coalesced around the scientifically unproven notion the earth may warm to cataclysmic proportions in the next century.” <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s7" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[7]</a>,<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s8" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> [8]</a>The CLEAR report notes that Greening Earth Society and Western Fuels “are essentially the same organization.” Both are located at the same office suite in Arlington, VA. They share Fred Palmer as leadership, several WFA board members serve as the board for GES, and they have the same “manager of communications and governmental affairs,” Both Ned Leonard and Fred Palmer served as registered lobbyists for Western Fuels Association at the time. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s9" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[9]</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s8" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Informational Council for the Environment (ICE)</h3>Palmer's work with the Western Fuels Association goes all the way back to 1991, when he served as Vice President to the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2013/06/06/campaigns-tried-break-climate-science-consensus" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Informational Council for the Environment (ICE)</a>, a small coalition of US coal companies that <a href="http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=2950" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">devised a detailed PR campaign</a> to show that “evidence that the earth is warming is weak” and that proof that carbon dioxide was the primary cause was “non existent.”<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s10" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> [10]</a><a href="http://www.wecenergygroup.com/about/management_team/bios/klappa_bio.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ICE's President </a>was <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/gale-klappa" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Gale Klappa</a> of the<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Southern_Company" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> Southern Company</a> and its “Science Advisory Panel” included prominent climate change skeptics <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/robert-c-balling-jr" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Robert C. Balling, Jr.</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sherwood-b-idso" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Sherwood B. Idso</a>, and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/patrick-michaels" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Patrick J. Michaels</a>. As part of the group's plan to “reposition global warming as theory (not fact),” ICE proposed a number of advertising headlines such as: <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s10" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> [10]</a><blockquote style="margin: 1.5em 30px;">“The most serious problem with catastrophic global warming is– it may not be true.”“If the earth is getting warmer, why is Minneapolis getting colder?”“Who told you the earth was warming… Chicken Little?”“Some say the earth is warming. Some also said the earth was flat.”</blockquote>The <a href="http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?ID=4461&Method=Full&PageCall=&Title=The%20Coal%20Industry%27s%20%22ICE%22%20Campaign%20(1999)" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ICE program was discontinued</a> after getting press coverage in a trade paper, The Energy Daily, as well as by The National Journal, The Arizona Republic and The New York Times.<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s11" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> [11]</a> Palmer has claimed that he disbanded ICE after becoming dissatisified with its PR approach.Nevertheless, Palmer of Western Fuels said in a 1999 letter: “It's unfortunate that ICE did not go forward” since the campaign did provoke a “dramatic turnaround in how people viewed the issue of global warming” before its demise. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s11" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[11]</a>View <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3119453-1991-Informed-Citizens-for-the-Environment.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">additional ICE documents and print ads here</a>. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s12" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[12]</a>According to documents obtained by environmental group Ozone Action and journalist Ross Gelbspan, ICE messaging strategies included targeting “older, less educated males from larger households who are not typically active information seekers” and “younger, lower income women.” <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s13" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[13]</a>,  <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s8" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a><h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Gale Klappa & ICE</h3><a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/07/The-Climate-Deception-Dossiers.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">A 2015 report </a>by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/fight-misinformation/climate-deception-dossiers-fossil-fuel-industry-memos#.WN7rpBPys1" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Climate Deception Dossiers</a>, outlined some 85 internal company and trade association documents with details on how ICE had worked to guide the public's views on climate change. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s35" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[35]</a>Another report at the Energy & Policy Institute <a href="http://www.energyandpolicy.org/wisconsin-energy-ceo-gale-klappa-president-of-global-warming-misinformation-campaign/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">detailed the role of Gale Klappa</a>, whose role was not highlighted in the UCS report. <a href="https://www.wecenergygroup.com/about/management_team/bios/klappa_bio.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Gale E. Klappa</a> was then vice president at <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Southern_Company" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Southern Company, </a>and current non-executive Chairman of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Wisconsin_Energy_Corporation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Wisconsin Energy Corporation</a> and now <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2017/03/24/chairman-gale-klappa-stays-atop-we-energies-parent.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">retired CEO</a> of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Wisconsin_Energy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">We Energies</a>. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s36" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[36]</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s37" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[37]</a>,<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s38" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> [38]</a>Back in 1991, Klappa was interviewed in a the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/08/business/pro-coal-ad-campaign-disputes-warming-idea.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New York Times </a>article regarding the leaked ICE documents, saying:  <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s36" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[36]</a>,<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s39" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> [39]</a><blockquote style="margin: 1.5em 30px;">“Those who are predicting catastrophe have been very effective at getting their message across in national media, and in so-called ‘public service’ announcements. But there is another viewpoint, a substantial viewpoint from a body of reputable scientists, and that viewpoint has really not been made available to a large majority,” Klappa told The New York Times in a telephone interview. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s36" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[36]</a></blockquote>Amy Jahns, Media Relations Specialist at We Energies, responded to Energy & Policy Institute writer Matt Kasper on how Klappa became involved in ICE. “Gale Klappa served as president of the ICE board more than 25 years ago,” she said, going on to present Wisconsin Energy's emission control investments and reductions. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s36" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[36]</a>Fred Palmer reported that he had been initially approached by Gale Klappa, then of Southern Company, and Fred Lukens, of Minnkota Power regarding what would become ICE. Palmer recalled in an <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/01/29/25-years-ago-fred-palmer-kick-started-first-fossil-fuel-funded-campaigns-attack-climate-science" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">interview with </a><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/01/29/25-years-ago-fred-palmer-kick-started-first-fossil-fuel-funded-campaigns-attack-climate-science" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">DeSmog</a>: <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s40" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[40]</a><blockquote style="margin: 1.5em 30px;"> “I went to my board not long after the Hansen presentation, probably in 1990, and I said, you know, these coal plants have the most CO2 coming out of them than anywhere else. It was the top of the food chain, I called it. The board agreed. The board said I could go on the ICE board, so I did.” <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s40" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[40]</a></blockquote>Palmer said he quickly became “dissatisfied” with the approach of ICE. “I didn’t think it was a PR issue. I thought it was a scientific educational issue,” he said.<blockquote style="margin: 1.5em 30px;">“I have always been about education, but I was chair (of ICE) and […] I looked at it and I said ‘I don’t like this’ and so we got out of ICE and it was abandoned and Western Fuels started the Greening Earth Society.” <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s40" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[40]</a></blockquote><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Stance on Climate Change</h2>March, 2015Fred Palmer is one of the authors of a <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Comments-of-Peabody-Energy-Corp%20%28downloaded%20July%203%2C%202015%29.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Peabody Energy submission to the White House (PDF)</a> arguing that <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2015/07/14/peabody-energy-white-house-climate-change-greenhouse-gas" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">greenhouse gasses are a “non-existent harm” </a>and a “benign gas that is essential to all life:” <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fred-palmer#s14" style="text-decoration-line: none;">[14]</a>https://www.desmogblog.com/2013/06/06/campaigns-tried-break-climate-science-consensus<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">ICE</h3>“Reposition global warming as theory (not fact),” was the main proposition of a campaign developed in 1991 by a coalition of US coal companies. Western Fuels Association and The Southern Company joined utilities association Edison Electric Institute to develop the campaign under a new group – <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/information-council-environment" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the Information Council on the Environment</a>.Newspaper and radio advertisements were developed and a <a href="http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=2950" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">detailed PR campaign devised</a>. Contrarian scientists Dr Robert Balling, Dr Pat Michaels and Dr Sherwood Idso would act as scientific advisors, make public appearances and write newspaper columns, <a href="http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?ID=4461&Method=Full&PageCall=&Title=The%20Coal%20Industry%27s%20%22ICE%22%20Campaign%20(1999)" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">the plan outlined</a>.One advert chimed “Who told you the earth was warming… Chicken Little?” and claimed that “evidence that the earth is warming is weak”.  In any case, proof that carbon dioxide was the primary cause was “non existent”, the advert claimed. The intention was to convince the public that there was a raging debate among climate scientists about the causes of climate change.John Cook’s study found that in 1991, this just wasn’t the case. There were 65 peer-reviewed studies blaming global warming on human activity in 1991. Only four blamed something else.<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Dirty lessons</h3>GP

The early 1990s: the network of denial is created

In the early 1990s a number of lobby groups were set up to stave off the prospect of political action to prevent

climate change. These included the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), the Climate Council and the Information

Council on the Environment (ICE).

The GCC called itself an ‘organisation of business trade associations and private companies established in

1989 to coordinate business participation in the scientific and policy debate on global climate change’6.

Its membership was a list of the largest coal, oil and car companies in the US.

The Climate Council worked with lobbyist heavyweight Don Pearlman, who became the right hand man of the

Saudi, Kuwait and Russian governments7.

ICE was formed by a group of utility and coal companies: the National Coal Association, Western Fuels and

the Edison Electric Institute 8. In 1991, according to journalist Ross Gelbspan, ICE ‘launched a blatantly

misleading campaign on climate change that had been designed by a public relations firm…[that] clearly stated

that the aim of the campaign was to ‘reposition global warming as theory rather than fact’. Its plan specified that

three of the so-called greenhouse sceptics – Robert Balling, Pat Michaels and S Fred Singer – should be placed

in broadcast appearances, op-ed pages and newspaper interviews.’ 9

One of their arguments may ring a bell today: a newspaper advertisement prepared by the ICE was headlined

‘If the Earth is getting warmer, why is Minneapolis getting colder?’ Fox News anchors all suggested that the

massive snowstorms on the East Coast of the US in early 2010 called into question the scientific consensus on

global warming, comments that climate scientists rejected.10 It would later turn out that, globally January 2010

was among the hottest on record.11

These groups supported a central team of spokespeople who set out to misinform the world. Their names

frequently appear in the media challenging the science of global warming: Fred Singer12, Sallie Baliunas13,

Willie Soon14, Richard Lindzen15, Patrick Michaels16 and many others.

This network was constructed using money provided by fossil fuel companies, most notably Exxon who have

spent $23 million US dollars supporting the climate denial movement since 1998. In 2008, after years of adverse

publicity about its funding policies, ExxonMobil dropped its funding of nine groups, claiming that their ‘position

on climate change diverted attention from the important discussion on how the world will secure the energy

required for economic growth in an environmentally responsible manner.’17 However, ExxonMobil continues to

fund 28 groups campaigning against climate science.

This map at ExxonSecrets sets it out clearly - more information on each of the front groups or conservative think

tanks is listed here, including details of funding from ExxonMobil

http://www.exxonsecrets.org/index.php?mapid=1530

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