Tanton, T e&e

promoted to primary 3/16, small beer but in ATI and IER and E&E, CA

evil: http://coalitionofenergyusers.org/about/economic-justice/

bogus that green energy hurts poor ppl

===

Fueling the Opposition: How Fossil Fuel Interests Are Fighting to Kill Wind and Solar Farms Before They Are Built

anti-Renewable-Energy Activists and Operatives

John Droz

Realtor John Droz resides in North Carolina and maintains a summer cottage in upstate New York. Based on undergraduate and graduate degrees in physics and some work earlier in his career for General Electric, Droz has presented himself as a scientific expert on a wide range of issues.

He’s emerged as an influential source of conspiracy theories and disinformation about everything from climate science and wind and solar power to Covid-19 and the 2020 elections.²⁰⁸(https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QEZy450AR-6-iTNUOlslT8HzmnFAik8pMFt2QhpSY7k/edit#bookmark=id.ozwnc9q5gxxy)

Droz is a member of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Oil and Gas Commission. In 2018, he self-published a paper that was supportive of offshore drilling for oil and methane gas off North Carolina’s coast.

“Offshore wind energy is a much worse choice than is offshore natural gas,” Droz wrote in the paper.

He’s also a member of the CO2 Coalition, formerly known as the George Marshall Institute, a climate denial group that has received money from the Koch network and oil and gas producer EOG Resources.

Droz co-founded the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) with Ohio anti-wind activist Tom Stacy more than a decade ago. AWED and Droz have provided model local laws, strategies, and information utilized by anti-renewables activists all over the country.

A “Potpourri” section of AWED’s website wiseenergy.org lists individuals “who contributed constructive ideas for this website,” including:

• Rob Aliasso, an outspoken opponent of wind power in upstate New York who served as co-chairman of the Coalition for the Preservation of the Golden Crescent, and spent more than three decades as an executive at Stebbins Manufacturing and Engineering, which saw its coal scrubber business decline amidst the transition to cleaner forms of energy
• Charles Battig, a climate denier associated with the Heartland Institute and CO2 Coalition
• Steve Goreham, a paid speaker and climate denier whose clients have included numerous fossil fuel industry groups
• Jonathan Lesser, a fellow for the Manhattan Institute and Texas Public Policy Foundation and economic consultant whose clients have included gas utilities, pipeline companies, and Bill Koch’s Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound
• George Taylor, a fellow for the Energy and Environment Legal Institute

Since 2009, AWED has published a monthly newsletter that’s frequently cross-posted on the Institute for Energy Research’s blog MasterResource.org, where Droz is listed as a principal contributor.

In 2011, Droz announced in the newsletter that he’d joined the American Tradition Institute as a fellow. He would later describe the position as unpaid.

“ATI has some great aspirations, and getting rid of unscientific options like wind energy is high on their list,” Droz wrote.

He pointed to ATI’s 2011 lawsuit against Colorado’s renewable energy standard as an example, and asked readers to donate money to support ATI.

ATI named coal producer Alpha Natural Resources as a member in a declaration by executive director Tom Tanton filed in the Colorado lawsuit in March of 2012. Tanton said ATI’s membership also included unnamed “electric power generating and transmission companies that generate energy from coal, natural gas and oil-fired and combustion turbine generation facilities.”

One month earlier, in February of 2012, Droz participated in a coordinating meeting between anti-wind activists and representatives of ATI and other national groups backed by the fossil fuel money. He also helped draft an anti-wind public relations strategy in advance of the meeting.

Droz was back in D.C. that December with Taylor and investor Larry Gerdes meeting with representatives of the American Legislative Exchange Council and Competitive Enterprise Institute and staff for multiple members of the U.S. House and Senate, according to an AWED report-back document EPI later found on one of Droz’s anti-wind websites.

“We gave each legislator a copy of the Rasmussen Renewable Energy report(2.0),” that document said.

Kimball Rasmussen is president and CEO of the Utah-based Deseret Power, a coal burning and mining electric cooperative. In 2010, Rasmussen credited Droz and Taylor with providing “thoughtful input” on the 2.0 edition of his report, “A Rational Look at Renewable Energy,” which disparaged renewables while promoting methane gas as an alternative for reducing CO2 emissions.

AWED’s D.C. trip report-back document from 2012 also illustrates how Droz quickly got to work implementing parts of the national anti-wind PR strategy, which included plans to distribute copies of the Rasmussen report and coordinate with well-funded national groups like ALEC and the Heritage Foundation. Droz later continued to coordinate his anti-wind efforts with Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.

“Everyone involved with AWED (including me) is an unpaid volunteer, who is committed to Science-based energy policies,” Droz told EPI 2017.

Lisa Linowes

Lisa Linowes founded the Industrial Wind Action Group in 2006 and has since emerged as one of the nation’s top anti-renewables activists. Her website, WindAction.org, describes her group as the “#1 Trusted Information Resource on Large-scale Renewables.”

WindAction is incorporated as a “Domestic Profit Corporation” in New Hampshire, where Linowes resides, though the group’s incorporation information states it was “organized exclusively for charitable, educational & scientific purposes.”

WindAction’s website claims the group is “not funded in any way” by the fossil fuel industry or “affiliated with large political activists groups.”

Linowes is the co-founder of the Save Right Whales Coalition that’s fighting offshore wind development along the east coast. In 2021, she joined the Caesar Rodney Institute’s American Coalition for Ocean Protection.

In addition, Linowes serves on the board of directors of Environmental Progress, a California-based group known for criticizing wind and solar power and advocating for nuclear energy and fossil fuels. Michael Shellenberger, the group’s president, is involved in the Save Right Whales Coalition with Linowes.

Linowes is also the co-chairman of the Wildlife, Energy & Community Coalition, which opposes “harmful industrial-scale renewables.”

Linowes has long coordinated her efforts with think tanks funded by the fossil fuel industry. The Institute for Energy Research has promoted Linowes’ writings and efforts on its blog MasterResource.org since 2010, and in 2018 she joined IER’s newly formed advisory council.

In 2017, the name of IER’s former director of communications was listed as the “author” in the document properties of an open letter opposing the federal production tax credit for wind power that Linowes claimed she wrote alone.

She’s also served as a senior policy fellow for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where she authored a two-part anti-wind report in 2018.

Kevon Martis

Kevon Martis is a longtime anti-renewables activist in Michigan who has organized and led multiple groups opposing renewable energy projects. Martis has served as a leader of Our Home, Our Voice (OHOV) since its inception in 2023, when the self-described 501(c)(4) organization opposed the passage of legislation aimed at streamlining renewable energy siting in Michigan. OHOV reported over $145,000 in revenue on its annual tax report for 2023, but was not required to disclose its donors.

Martis is now the spokesperson for a Citizens for Local Choice ballot initiative that’s fighting to repeal Michigan’s new siting law. Matt Brewer, an attorney for a group that’s opposing the ballot initiative, told Planet Detroit earlier this year that OHOV’s contributions to Citizens for Local Choice may have violated campaign finance laws by hiding the source of some early donations to the ballot committee. Brewer then filed a campaign finance complaint against OHOV.

Citizens for Local Choice did publicly report a $10,000 contribution from longtime Ariel Corporation executive Tom Rastin of Ohio.

Martis joined the Energy and Environment Legal Institute as a Senior Policy Fellow in 2016, about a month after the Wall Street Journal reported that Arch Coal had to disclose its funding of the anti-renewables and anti-climate science group in its bankruptcy filings. In 2012, Martis participated in a coordinating meeting in D.C. between anti-wind activists from multiple states and representatives of the American Tradition Institute and other front groups backed by the fossil fuel industry.

Martis has also led the Interstate Informed Citizens Coalition (IICC) since 2011.

“Martis’s co-founder at the IICC, Joshua Nolan, represented Martin County Coal Corporation in a lawsuit that same year,” as Distilled first reported.

The Institute for Energy Research has promoted Martis’s writings and efforts on its blog MasterResource since 2012.

“I have not and do not receive any support from any energy interest of any kind,” Martis said in a 2020MasterResource blog post by IER’s Robert Bradley. “This includes fossil fuel utilities or the Koch family, etc.”

Martis also described his fellowship position at E&E Legal as unfunded and said “I take no direction from them on any matter.”

Martis’s anti-renewables efforts have extended far beyond his own backyard in Michigan.

“And I have testified on wind energy land use issues across the Midwest, including OH, IL, MI and Kentucky as well as in Nebraska and North Dakota,” Martis said during his 2016 testimony to the Ohio Power Siting Board on wind siting rules.

“I have also been invited to testify before members of Congress in Washington DC,” Martis also said, in reference to a 2013 event hosted by IER.

Martis also appeared at anti-wind meetings in Ohio with Samuel Randazzo, the former attorney and lobbyist who was secretly paid millions of dollars by the coal-burning utility FirstEnergy between 2010 and 2019.

Tom Stacy

Tom Stacy has served as a director for the National Wind Watch (NWW), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Massachusetts that serves as a clearinghouse for anti-wind information, since 2009.

NWW is frequently asked if it is “backed by the coal or nuclear industry.”

“NWW is not backed by, affiliated with, or funded in any way by these or any other industry, political organization, or ‘think tank,’” according to a FAQpage found on the group’s website wind-watch.org.

The FAQ page also states that members of the organization’s board of directors “are unpaid volunteers with no affiliations to fossil fuel or nuclear energy industries or any similar outside interests.”

Stacy began to fight wind power as the leader of Save Western Ohio from 2008 to 2010, and he also co-founded the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions with John Droz.

For many years, Stacy could be found speaking at events and hearings alongside other prominent wind power opponents like Lisa Linowes, Kevon Martis, and Samuel Randazzo.

By 2014, Stacy became a paid consultant for groups like the Institute for Energy Research and the coal industry group America’s Power. He’s co-authored multiple reports that mislead on the costs of renewable energy with George Taylor, a consultant and fellow for the Energy and Environment Legal Institute.

In 2022, Stacy co-authored a report by the Center of the American Experiment, a State Policy Network group in Minnesota, that opposed Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’s 100% clean energy plan. The Center received $250,000 that year from the Koch group Americans for Prosperity.

Tom Tanton

Tom Tanton has been the president of the consulting firm T2 & Associates since 2003, and during that time he has churned out reports for groups like the American Petroleum Institute and American Legislative Exchange Council.

Tanton was a vice president at the Institute for Energy Research from 2003 to 2007, where he was part of the fight to kill the Cape Wind offshore wind project. He’s been affiliated with the American Tradition Institute and Energy and Environment Legal Institute for over a decade.

Tanton’s LinkedIn account lists “friend” of Save Western Ohio as his professional experience for 2009. Save Western Ohio was the anti-wind group led by Tom Stacy before Stacy became a paid consultant who co-authored reports for IER and the coal industry.

A slew of influential anti-renewables activists who emerged during the 2000s have cited Tanton as an early influence on their views on wind power.

A page from the website We Oppose Wind Farms last updated in 2009 includes a picture of Tanton posing with “statewide wind warriors” from New York. More recently, the anti-wind group Save Ontario Shores used public intervenor funds to pay Tanton to be an expert witness against the Lighthouse Wind project in upstate New York, which was never built.

“Much of my tutorial about wind energy and grid operations came from Tom Tanton’s knowledgeable bonhomie,” birder and anti-wind activist Jon Boone wrote in a 2006 paper. “His patient mentoring, enkindled through long phone conversations and voluminous exchanges of emails, made this work possible.”

Boone created the website stopillwind.com and produced and directed “Life Under a Windplant,” a documentary often cited by anti-wind activists. Some of Boone’s writings from more than a decade ago can still be found on IER’s blog MasterResource.org.

Tanton topped a 2008 list where anti-winder John Droz dubbed “the better writers regarding the industrial wind power business.”

That same year, Boone credited Tanton, Droz, Lisa Linowes, and others with reviewing a draft of his article “Why Wind Won’t Work.”

In 2010, anti-winder Ken Hawkins credited Tanton, Boone, Droz, and Stacy, as well as IER’s CEO Robert Bradley, with reviewing a draft of his paper on renewable energy grid integration.

===

6/16 LI // scrape pul bachman BHI

Mr. Tanton is President of T 2 & Associates, a firm providing consulting services to the energy and technology industries. T 2 & Associates are active primarily in the area of renewable energy and interconnected infrastructures, analyzing and providing advice on their impacts on energy prices, environmental quality and regional economic development. Mr. Tanton has 40 years direct and responsible experience in energy technology and legislative interface, having been central to many of the critical legislative changes that enable technology choice and economic development at the state and federal level.As the General Manager at EPRI, from 2000 to 2003, Mr. Tanton was responsible for the overall management and direction of collaborative research and development programs in electric generation technologies, integrating technology, market infrastructure, and public policy. From 2003 through 2007, Mr. Tanton was Senior Fellow and Vice President of the Houston based Institute for Energy Research. Until 2000, Mr. Tanton was the Principal Policy Advisor with the California Energy Commission (CEC) in Sacramento, California. He began his career there in 1976. He developed and implemented policies and legislation on energy issues of importance to California, and U.S. and International markets, including electric restructuring, gasoline and natural gas supply and pricing, energy facility siting and permitting, environmental issues, power plant siting, technology development, and transportation. Mr. Tanton held primary responsibility for comparative economic analysis, environmental assessment of new technologies, and the evaluation of alternatives under state and federal environmental law.

Experience

President

Independent

January 2003 – Present (13 years 6 months)(Open)1 recommendation

• ##### Joshua Treviño, MBA

Vice President for Strategy at Texas Public Policy Foundation

I first engaged Tom Tanton's professional services some years back, when we needed an Environmental Fellow at the Pacific Research Institute. Suffice it to say that I was immediately impressed with him on several counts: he is immensely...View

President

T2 & Associates

2003 – Present (13 years)

friend

Save Western Ohio

2009 – 2009 (less than a year)

VP

IER

2003 – 2007 (4 years)

==

2014

http://www.energyandpolicy.org/tags/front_groups

On Thursday, July 24, Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-KY) and the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power held a hearing entitled “Laboratories of Democracy: The Economic Impacts of State Energy Policies.” The hearing featured testimony from representatives of Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal), Manhattan Institute, and Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University, all of which have received funding from fossil fuel interests and primarily advocate for the continued use of fossil fuels over renewable energy.

Tom Tantonis the director of science and technology assessment at E&E Legaland the president of T2 & Associates, an energy and technology consulting firm whose clients have included the American Petroleum Institute (API).

Between 2003 and 2007, Tanton was the vice president and senior fellow of the Institute for Energy Research, a Texas-based think tank that has received $307,000 from Exxon Mobil and $175,000 from Koch Industries.

E&E Legal is a non-profit think tank (formerly the American Tradition Institute or ATI) that received $140,000 from Doug Lair of Lair Petroleum in 2010. E&E Legal has taken issue with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, especially on the topic of anthropogenic climate change. E&E Legal’s predecessor, the American Tradition Institute, broke campaign finance laws in 2010 when it mailed fliers attacking legislative candidates. In 2012, The Guardian published a memo prepared by an E&E Legal fellow about a secret anti-wind meeting between local anti-clean energy groups and national fossil fuel-funded organizations seeking to organize widespread opposition against wind energy through a deceptive public relations campaign. Other members of E&E Legal’s Senior Leadership have ties to fossil fuel interests as well: David Schnare, a fossil fuel-funded pundit with connections to Heartland Institute, State Policy Network, and other front groups; and Chris Horner, a fossil fuel-funded climate denier who works at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an advocacy group with ties to tobacco disinformation campaigns.

==

==

e&e bs:

Tom Tanton is the Director of Science and Technology Assessment for E&E Legal.He is also president of T² & Associates, a firm providing services to the energy and technology industries. T² & Associates are active primarily in the area of renewable energy and interconnected infrastructures, analyzing and providing advice on their impacts on energy prices, environmental quality and regional economic development.

Tanton has 40 years of direct and responsible experience in energy technology and legislative interface, having been central to many of the critical legislative changes that enable technology choice and economic development at the state and federal level.Mr. Tanton is a strong proponent of free market environmentalism and consumer choice, and frequently publishes and speaks against alarmist and reactionary policies and government failures.

Until 2000, Tanton was the Principal Policy Advisor with the California Energy Commission (CEC) in Sacramento, California. He began his career there in 1976, developing and implementing policies and legislation on energy issues of importance to California, the U.S. and International markets. These included electric restructuring, gasoline and natural gas supply and pricing energy facility siting and permitting, environmental issues, power plant sitting, technology development, and transportation. Tanton completed the first assessment of environmental externalities used in regulatory settings. He has held primary responsibility for comparative economic analysis, environmental assessment of new technologies, and the evaluation of alternatives under state and federal environmental law.

As the General Manager at EPRI, from 2000 to 2003, Tanton was responsible for the overall management and direction of collaborative research and development programs in electric generation technologies, integrating technology, market infrastructure, and public policy. From 2003 through 2007, Tanton was Senior Fellow and Vice President of theHouston based Institute for Energy Research. He was also a Senior Fellow in Energy Studies with the Pacific Research Institute until 2010.

http://www.calitics.com/tag/valero

==

http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/10/conservative-group-demanding-climate-scientists-emails-is-less-than-transparent-about-its-ow

Conservative group demanding climate scientists' emails is less than transparent about its own tax status

The American Tradition Institute, a conservative nonprofit that losta controversial lawsuit against the University of Virginia seeking the emails of former professor and leading climate scientist Michael Mann, claims that it wants to promote greater transparency of how tax dollars are spent.[SOMEBODY AT ATI WAS IN COOCH OFFICE? nope prolly before his tenur, schnare?]

But ATI is less than transparent about its own nonprofit tax status. In fact, it recently violated Internal Revenue Service regulations by denying a request for tax documents that it is supposed to make publicly available. Meanwhile, the IRS documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request raise questions about whether the group has engaged in political activity prohibited for a nonprofit like ATI.

The discovery comes amid questions over whether ATI's sister nonprofit, the Colorado-based American Tradition Partnership,misled the IRS in its own tax filings.

I began looking into the tax status of ATI a year ago as part of my ongoing investigation into the group, which has offices in Washington, D.C. and Denver. My reporting revealed ATI's extensive dirty-energy connections and efforts to use the Freedom of Information Act to discredit Mann and other climate scientists. I got a copy of the group's 2010 Form 990, the organization's annual report to the IRS, from the Foundation Center's 990 Finder database.

The group's**publicly available 990**, dated May 25, 2011, raised questions about whether ATI had engaged in prohibited political activities. ATI is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit, which under IRS rules is forbidden from engaging in political activity. But on the 990 I obtained from the Foundation Center, the group answered "Yes" to the question, "Did the organization engage in direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office?" The form was signed by ATI director Dan Reed and was prepared by Scott Shires of the Aurora, Colo.-based Shires Financial Group.

After contacting ATI, I heard back from Reed, who has also served as a spokesperson for the Western Tradition Partnership, now known as the American Tradition Partnership, aColorado-based 501(c)(4) "social welfare" nonprofitbacked by fossil fuel interests from which ATI spun off. (Unlike a 501(c)(3), a 501(c)(4) can participate in political campaigns as long as that is not its primary activity, and it does not have to disclose its donors.) ATP and Shires have a rather dubious history, as I reported:

[The Western Tradition Partnership] was first registered as a Colorado nonprofit in 2008 by Scott Shires, a Republican operative with a checkered past: He was fined over $7,000 for campaign finance violations in Colorado, pleaded guilty in a scheme to fraudulently obtain federal grants for developing alternative fuels, and was tied to an illegal gambling ring. WTP was active on behalf of oil and gas industry interests in the 2008 commissioners race in Garfield County, a center of Colorado's energy industry.

On Oct. 28, 2011, Reed emailed me what he said was an amended 990 report, which he claimed had been filed with the IRS but may not have appeared on public websites. However, the amended form he sent raised the same questions. Prepared bycertified public accountant George M. Vogler of Colorado -- but neither dated nor signed -- the new report specified that the group was in fact a 501(c)(3). But it still indicated ATI had engaged in prohibited political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office.

I then contacted Paul Chesser,who at the time was serving as ATI's executive director, and asked him about the reported campaign activity. I again heard from Reed, who told me the revised 990 he had sent me "was a draft, not the final." He said he would send me the official copy.

Thirty-seven minutes later, Reed sent another Form 990, this one with his signature and dated Oct. 17, 2011. It reported that ATI was a 501(c)(3) and did not engage in direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates. That was the version I linked to in my story, which did not bring up the issue of political activity by ATI.

Fast-forward nine months to July 2012. While reporting on ATI's more recent activities, which have included targeting other scientists' emails, I returned to the Foundation Center website to see if there were any new tax filings for the group. I was surprised to find the only ATI document in the database was the same one I found there last October -- the May 25, 2011 version prepared by Shires that indicated the group had engaged in prohibited political campaign activities. The revisions Reed had shared with me had not made their way to the database.

I contacted ATI and heard back from Tom Tanton, the group's new executive director and an energy industry consultant. He told me that relying on documents available via third-party websites would not represent "due diligence" on my part, and he reiterated Reed's assurance that ATI has not campaigned for or against candidates for office.

"I'm sure you can understand the potential for harm if you write something based on information you know to be out of date," Tanton wrote in his email.

He advised me to go directly to the IRS. I then asked him to provide a copy of his group's IRS filings. Under IRS Public Inspection 6104(d) regulations, a nonprofit must provide copies of its three most recent 990s to anyone who requests them, whether in person, by mail, fax or email. Tanton did not respond to my request. So I submitted a FOIA request to the IRS for the group's most recent tax filing.

The document on file at the IRS was the same Form 990 that I had originally downloaded: Dated May 25, 2011 and prepared by Shires, it reported that the group had engaged in banned political activity. Apparently the revised form Reed had produced for me still had not made its way to the IRS, which also reported that the group's 2011 Form 990 was not yet available as it had received a filing extension.

Why did the IRS not have the updated paperwork?ATI did not respond to my request for comment.

Sister group also has transparency issues

The questions about the American Tradition Institute's tax status and its violation of IRS disclosure regulations come amid scrutiny over its 501(c)(4) sister group, the American Tradition Partnership. ATP has been deeply involved in Montana state politics -- and in an effort to rewrite campaign finance laws in that state in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision loosening restrictions on corporate money in politics.

Ironically for a group connected to an effort demanding greater disclosure from scientists, ATP is also challenging Montana's disclosure rules for political contributions while endeavoring to keep secret its own funding sources -- going so far as to even resist discovery proceedings in court.

A Center for Public Integrity investigation published this week by NBC News delved into ATP's activities and finances.It found they have extensive connections to national tea party groups funded by the conservative Koch brothers, the billionaire owners of the Koch Industries oil and chemical conglomerate. According to CPI:

ATP has joined tea party lobbying efforts, signing at least two letters to Congress in the last year urging an end to tax credits for renewable resource industries. The letters were signed by Koch-funded groups including Americans for Prosperity and tea party boosters FreedomWorks, Club for Growth and**Art Pope**'s John Locke Foundation.

As I have reported, ATP's sister group, ATI, also worked with the John Locke Foundation as well as the American Legislative Exchange Council on anti-wind energy presentations across North Carolina that misrepresented the facts.

Another connection between ATI and the John Locke Foundation is Paul Chesser, a prominent figure in the climate science denial movement who went to work as ATI's director after serving as editor ofCarolina Journal, a John Locke Foundation publication that promotes fringe theories about climate change. Art Pope, who founded and whose family foundation is the primary funder of JLF, is one of the national directors of Americans for Prosperity. Chesser is no longer listed among ATI'sstaff or fellows. He is currently a fellow at the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative think tank where he writes about energy and environmental politics.

Interestingly, Scott Shires -- the political consultant with the criminal past who signed ATI's Form 990 on file with the IRS -- told CPI that his reputation suffered after signing ATP's official documents:

“The operatives writing these stupid ads and mailings don't want to be identified,” said Shires. “I was the screen that allowed them to hide -- plausible deniability is something a lot of these groups are interested in.”

Also this week, ProPublica and Frontline jointly reported that ATP might have misled the IRS when it applied for the 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status that shields its donors from public disclosure:

Documents obtained by ProPublica and Frontline show that Western Tradition Partnership, now known as American Tradition Partnership, said it would not attempt to sway elections when it asked the IRS to recognize it as a tax-exempt social welfare organization in late 2008.

Shortly before submitting the application, however, Western Tradition Partnership, which bills itself as a "grassroots lobbying" organization dedicated to fighting radical environmentalists, and a related political committee sent out fliers weighing in on candidates for Montana state office. The mailers blitzed districts in Montana days before the Republican primary.

Though ATP remains active, the IRS could not locate any tax returns for it after 2008, according to ProPublica and Frontline. Nonprofits that don't file returns for three consecutive years can lose their tax-exempt status.

==

Credentials

• B.S. Chemistry, California State University, San Diego (1972). [1]

 Background

Tom Tanton is president of T2 & Associates, a consulting firm for the energy and technology industry. As president of T2 & Associates, Tanton has conducted research regarding alternate fuels for the American Petroleum Institute (API).

In an interviewabout his research for API, Tanton said a "voluntary and self-interested approach" is the most effective with regards to restricting industry carbon emissions. [2]

Tanton was also General Manager for EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, from 2000 to 2003. Prior to 2000, he was the principal policy advisor with the California Energy Commission (CEC).

Tanton is also the former vice president and senior fellow of the Institute for Energy Research (IER) from 2003 to 2007. The IER is a Houston, Texas-based think tank that has received over $200,000 in funding from oil-giant ExxonMobil.

Stance on Climate Change

"Cuts in greenhouse gases may be necessary, but it is innovation, more likely, not regulation, which will bring the breakthroughs of our energy future." [3]

Key Quotes

"Nuclear power and offshore drillingwould go a long way toward easing our energy shortfalls and financial instability." [3]

"The erratic and highly variable nature of wind power has been found to increase rather than decrease emissions of pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act."[1]

"Wind energy is environmentally harmfuland costly to taxpayers. Furthermore, its expansion could adversely affect the nation's electricity transmission system." [4]

Key Deeds

March, 2009

Speaker at the Heartland Institute's second International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC2). [5]

DeSmogBlog researched the funding, and found sponsor organizations had received over $47 million from energy companies and right-wing foundations, with 78% of that total coming from the Scaife Family of foundations.

See video of his presentation below:

November, 2009

Published "Top Ten Energy Myths" (PDF) with thePacific Research Institute.

Among the "Myths" listed by Tanton: [6]

• "Offshore oil production poses environmental risks, including oil spills and pollution."

• "Reducing our petroleum use through alternative energies lke solar and wind will increase U.S. energy security."

• "Energy companies will not invest in clean reliable energy so we need government programs to do so."

• "The U.S. consumes large amounts of energy and thus emits a disproportionate amount of the world’s greenhouse gasses."

• "Federal mandates for higher-mileage cars means less energy consumption."

• "Forcing drivers to use alternative fuels will help solve global warming."

One of the reviewers listed for the paper is Kenneth Green of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a well-known climate change skeptic.

Affiliations

• T2 & Associates — President. [7]
• **Institute for Energy Research (IER)** — Past Senior Fellow and Vice President, 2003 - 2007. [1]
• **The Heartland Institute**— "Expert." [8]
• **American Tradition Institute (ATI)**— Executive Director & Director, "Science & Technology Assessment." [10]
• **Pacific Research Institute (PRI)**— "Fellow in Environmental Studies" (until 2010) and author.[3]
• **American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)** — Co-published ALEC report with Tom Tanton (see below).

Publications

Thomas Tanton has not published any articles in peer-reviewed journals.

A search of Google Scholar does reveal an article titled "Motor Fuel and Natural Disasters: Don’t Regulate."

Further investigation reveals that the report, which Tanton co-published with climate change skeptic Robert Bradley, is part of a document published by the **American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)** titled *ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, AND ECONOMICS: A Guide for State Legislators, The Fifth Edition* (see PDF).

Here is ALEC's description of the report: [9]

"Much of the climate change debate is really about energy, not climate. The section of this guide titled Our Energy Future explains that despite current high energy prices, we will have plentiful amounts of energy in the future, as long as we do not artificially restrict our energy choices. State legislators are frequently seeing threats to energy markets in the form of calls to enact price gouging legislation. In Motor Fuel and Natural Disasters: Don’t Regulate, Robert Bradley and Thomas Tanton demonstrate how price gouging laws actually hurt consumers by failing to provide incentives for plentiful energy."

Other Publications

• Tom Tanton. "Top Ten Energy Myths" (PDF), Pacific Research Institute, November, 2009.

Resources

1. "AMERICAN TRADITION INSTITUTE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. THE STATE OF COLORADO, et al., Defendants" (PDF). UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO, Statement of Thomas Tanton. Republished by the American Tradition Institute.
2. Jane Van Ryan. "Energy Tomorrow Radio: Episode 86 - Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction," EnergyTomorrow Blog, July 14, 2009. Archived February 19, 2012, with WebCite.
3. Thomas Tanton. "Lights On: An Energy Policy Survey for California" (PDF), Pacific Research Institute, November, 2007.
4. Thomas Tanton. "Whirlwind of Trouble," Rocky Mountain News, January 15, 2005. Republished by Industrial Wind Action Group.Archived February 19, 2012, with WebCite.
5. "Global Warming: was it Ever Really a Crisis?" International Conference on Climate Change (climateconference.heartland.org). Accessed February, 2012.
6. Tom Tanton. "Top Ten Energy Myths" (PDF), Pacific Research Institute, November, 2009.
7. Tom Tanton. "An Estimate of the Economic Impact of A Cap-and-Trade Auction Tax On California" (PDF), T2 & Associates, March 2010 (prepared for AB 32 Implementation Group).
8. "Heartland Experts: Thomas Tanton," The Heartland Institute. Accessed February, 2012.
9. ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, AND ECONOMICS: A Guide for State Legislators, The Fifth Edition (PDF). American Legislative Exchange Council, June 2007. Retrieved from SourceWatch, February, 2012.
10. "Staff & Board of Directors," American Tradition Institute. Accessed February, 2012. Archived with WebCite, February 19, 2012.

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http://www.desmogblog.com/tom-tanton

Chris Horner And The American Tradition Institute

Perhaps the most visible member of CEI's environmental team is Chris Horner, a lawyer who often appears on Fox News to cast doubt on climate science and claim that scientists are manipulating temperature data to manufacture a warming trend. At both CEI and The American Tradition Institute (ATI), Horner has filed Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests in an attempt to access anything to embarrass climate scientists.

The American Tradition Institute (ATI) is a free-market think tank focused on blocking environmental regulations and "battling radical environmentalist junk science head on." ATI was launched in 2010 by the American Tradition Partnership (ATP), an industry-backed advocacy group that has fought campaign finance disclosure laws and was accused in the 2010 election cycle of corruption and money laundering. ATI is funded primarily by ATP and a handful of individuals and foundations with ties to the oil industry.

ATI Executive Director Tom Tanton is an**energy industry consultant**who has**conducted**research for the American Petroleum Institute and formerly served as the vice president of the**oil industry-funded**Institute for Energy Research. Weather forecaster Joe Bastardi and climate skeptic blogger Steve Milloy serve as advisors to the think tank.

advisor to

David A. Rohy, Ph.D. was appointed to the California Energy Commission in May 1995 by Governor Pete Wilson.In April 1997, Dr. Rohy was appointed Vice Chairman of the Commission. He filled the engineering or physical science position on the Energy Commission until he from the Commission in April 2000.

Dr. Rohy brought more than 25 years of industrial experience to the Energy Commission. He was employed from 1970 to 1995 by Solar Turbines, Inc., a major turbine manufacturing company in Southern California. In his last position there, he was the Director of the Advanced Turbine Systems program, a large nation-wide cooperative research and development program with the Department of Energy. That program, which included several industrial and university partners, has as its goals the development of cleaner and more efficient gas turbine engine systems. From 1967 to 1970, he was employed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Dr. Rohy has had more than 30 technical papers published and two patents awarded, and made extensive presentations at national technical conferences. He received a Ph.D. in Experimental Solid State Physics from Cornell University and a B.A. Degree in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

native ppl?  At the La Pine Industrial Park, Silvan Power Co. is hoping to build a biomass-fueled power plant that would generate 24 megawatts of power. In Prineville, a sawmill recently received a grant to build a lumber-drying kiln that is fired by wood products.

http://www.greenvc.org/vulcan_power_company/ geothermal both oregon