Interstate Policy Alliance

<p style=" margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem;">opps see other maim<p style=" margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem;">=In 2015, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Energy and Policy Institute <a href="http://www.energyandpolicy.org/beacon-hill-institute-flawed-epa-attack-funded-through-richard-berman-front-group/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-shadow: rgb(204, 51, 51) 0px 3px 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">revealed</a> how IPA operated, when it reported that the Beacon Hill Institute was releasing misleading studies attacking President Obama's Clean Power Plan, an ambitious multi-year effort to cut carbon pollution and mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. The funding for the study came through the previously unknown group called the Interstate Policy Alliance.In many of its sponsored research "studies," IPA promotes fossil fuel development over renewables. This has been a long-term agenda item of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate funded bill mill and many State Policy Network "think tanks" and advocacy groups funded by Bradley. In addition, the Bradley documents examined by CMD show Bradley is funding numerous climate denial groups, including Myron Ebell's Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heartland Institute.<ul style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); word-spacing: 3.6px; margin: 1.5em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px;"><li>One <a href="http://www.mdpolicy.org/docLib/20140918_EastCoastEnergyStudyFinalReport91214.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">IPA report</a>, touts the tens of billions of revenue North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia might gain from offshore oil and gas development in the Atlantic Ocean.</li><li>Another <a href="https://www.westernenergyalliance.org/sites/default/files/2013%20Energy%20Dev%20Impact.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">report</a> argues that fossil fuel development of federal lands in seven Rocky Mountain states will grow the economies at a faster pace than renewables.</li><li><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284159917_Impact_of_Federal_Transfers_on_State_and_Local_Own_Source_Spending" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Another promotes</a> the transfer of federal lands to states, claiming that revenues from taxes and fees will rapidly flow to states.</li><li>And yet another <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304581173_Costs_Benefits_of_Renewable_Energy_Portfolio_Standard" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">study</a> criticizes the Renewable Portfolio Standards in 29 states and D.C. as costly to consumers, while ignoring any benefits to jobs or the environment.</li></ul><p style=" margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem;">=<p style=" margin: 0rem 0rem 2.2rem; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.75rem;">Coggin’s refusal to admit his own agenda while casting aspersions on others is not the only deceptive aspect of his and Berman’s public lands campaign. In a Washington Examiner <a title="Letter to the Editor: Trout Unlimited on national scale has shady agenda " href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/how-camouflaged-activists-want-to-de-industrialize-the-west/article/2554201" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">op-ed</a> last October about Trout Unlimited’s opposition to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management issuing oil and gas leases in Nevada, Coggin cited <a title="" the="the" economic="Economic" value="Value" of="of" energy="Energy" resources="Resources" on="on" federal="Federal" lands="Lands" in="in" rocky="Rocky" mountain="Mountain" region="Region" href="http://www.westernenergyalliance.org/sites/default/files/2013%20Energy%20Dev%20Impact.pdf" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">research</a> by University of Wyoming professor Timothy Considine claiming that up to 208,000 jobs would be created if all of the oil and gas projects on federal lands in seven Western states were approved.

Unmentioned by Coggin? Professor Considine’s report was <a title="" the="the" economic="Economic" value="Value" of="of" energy="Energy" resources="Resources" on="on" federal="Federal" lands="Lands" in="in" rocky="Rocky" mountain="Mountain" region="Region" href="http://www.westernenergyalliance.org/sites/default/files/2013%20Energy%20Dev%20Impact.pdf" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">funded</a> by another one of Berman’s front groups, the Employment Policies Institute, and “prepared under a consulting agreement with the Interstate Policy Alliance.” On his curriculum vitae, Professor Considine also lists himself as a consultant for the Interstate Policy Alliance on “<a title="Timothy J. Considine CV" href="http://www.uwyo.edu/econfin/files/docs/facultycv/considine%20cv%20january%202015.pdf" target="blank" class="broken_link" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">energy development on federal lands</a>.” The Interstate Policy Alliance is <a title="Employment Policies Institute Foundation 2013 990" href="http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/521/521902264/521902264_201312_990.pdf" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">a project</a> of the Employment Policies Institute that <a title="SPN Western States CEO Meeting on Federal Lands" href="http://www.sutherlandinstitute.org/uploaded_files/WesternStates.pdf" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">works</a> <a title="SPN 20th Annual Meeting" href="http://spnannualmeeting2012.sched.org/event/6b4d49a414df9df927981082f5cf6f2f" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">with</a> the <a title="Interstate Policy Alliance" href="http://policyalliance.org/contact-us/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">think tanks</a> in the conservative <a title="The Right-Wing Network Behind the War on Unions" href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/state-policy-network-union-bargaining" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">State Policy Network</a> to “<a title="Interstate Policy Alliance: About Us" href="http://policyalliance.org/about-us/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">support and promote state-based research</a>” from a free market perspective. The Guardian <a title="Lobbyist dubbed Dr Evil behind front groups attacking Obama power rules" href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/23/lobbyist-dubbed-dr-evil-behind-front-groups-attacking-obama-power-rules" target="blank" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: 0px; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box;">recently documented</a> how the Interstate Policy Alliance is funding research critical of the Environmental Protection Agency’s power plant rules.

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