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== Climate Change ==
The Institute for Energy Research was founded by Charles Koch and CEO Robert Bradley, a former Enron executive, in Texas under its former name, the Institute for Humane Studies of Texas. Thomas Pyle, a former Koch and oil-industry lobbyist, is the President of IER and the American Energy Alliance, the 501c4 counterpart to IER.

Politico reports that IER and AEA still receive Koch money in support of a $3.6 million anti-Obama gas price advertising campaign, although Koch foundations appear to have stopped supporting IER after 2007. The most recent available Koch foundation tax filings to IRS are for the year 2010, indicating the Kochs picked IER back up in 2011 or are funneling money through other avenues. AEA received $1.5 million in 2012 through Freedom Partners, a 501c6 business league directed by many of the most prominent members of the Koch brothers' inner-political circle (Richard Fink, Marc Short, Wayne Gable, and Kevin Gentry) with anonymous funding sources from attendees of "Koch World" meetings.

AEA was founded by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute to fight the BTU tax proposal in 1993, and in recent years funded by ExxonMobil and Koch Industries. AEA has been active in the climate debate, from running ads repeating false claims about the costs of climate legislation to trashing clean energy at town halls around the US.

IER supported and promoted the "Spanish" and "Danish" studies critical of clean energy jobs, both of which have been debunked by credible sources. IER also argues that efforts to curb global warming would accomplish little at too great a cost, promotes ACCF/NAM and Heritage Foundation studies that exaggerate the costs of climate policy, and discourages U.S. leadership on the international stage. <ref>http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries/institute-for-energy-research/</ref>
==See also==
==See also==
*[[Robert L. Bradley, Jr.]]
*[[Robert L. Bradley, Jr.]]

Revision as of 15:43, 28 October 2014

The Institute for Energy Research (IER), is a Washington, DC-based non-profit organization that conducts research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets.[1] Praised by Rush Limbaugh as the “energy equivalent” of the Heritage Foundation,[2] IER maintains that the free-market provides the most inexpensive solutions to global energy and environmental challenges.[3]

IER was founded in 1989 by Robert L. Bradley Jr. in Houston, TX. IER began by distributing quarterly reports to a small but growing list of donors in the early 1990s and eventually expanded its publishing capabilities to include highly publicized studies. It was not until 2001 when Bradley, who previously worked as Enron’s public policy analysis director, secured funding to make IER a full-time organization. In 2007 IER was moved to Washington, D.C. where it transformed itself into a formidable energy think tank offering research and analysis on global energy markets.[4]

IER is a public foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is funded entirely by tax deductible contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations.[5][6] IER has received funding from the Brown Foundation (started by founders of a construction and energy company), the Searle Freedom Trust, and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, which is run by executives of Koch Industries, an oil industry giant known for its massive political involvement.[7] They have also previously received funding from ExxonMobil[8] and from the American Petroleum Institute.[9] IER has not sought for or accepted financial support from the government.[3]

In December 2011, IER released its North American Energy Inventory,[10] a compilation of total energy in North America. Using the North American Energy Inventory, IER asserted that the US could be energy independent if the US federal government were to allow for greater domestic energy exploration and production.

The Institute's CEO and founder, Robert L. Bradley, Jr., is a visiting fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, a research fellow at the Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas at Austin, and an adjunct scholar at both the Cato Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.[11][12] He has written seven books, including Capitalism at Work and Edison to Enron,[13] and he maintains the website Political Capitalism.[14]

Bradley wrote an article published by Competitive Enterprise Institute, entitled "Heated Debate"[15] to respond to a negative review by Harvard Professor John P. Holdren of the 2001 international best seller The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjørn Lomborg. Lomberg was inspired to write his book after he read an article entitled "The Doomslayer"[16] profiling Julian L. Simon. Lomberg was honored in 2003 with the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute's Julian L. Simon award. The award was given to Robert L. Bradley in 2002 and more recently in 2012 to Matt Ridley, who is also skeptical about climate change.[17]

American Energy Alliance

The Institute for Energy Research has a political arm, the American Energy Alliance, which is responsible for multi-million dollar television advertising campaigns that have attacked energy policy, ideas and positions of the Obama Administration that are contrary to the those held by IER. The American Energy Alliance is run by Thomas (Tom) Pyle, a former lobbyist for Koch Industries. According the its website, the Alliance engages in "grassroots public policy advocacy and debate" regarding energy and environmental policies.[18]

Both IER and the American Energy Alliance are partly funded by the Koch Brothers and their donor network, according to Politico's research, sources - and to reports by Koch-controlled charitable foundations themselves. The American Energy Alliance, as a matter of policy, does not disclose the names of its donors.[19]

Keystone XL

American Energy Alliance provide an online petition to U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry regarding the US federal government administration's approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline extension. American Energy Alliance compare the extended time for the application approval to the time it took for the Allies "to win World War II."[20]

Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC)

Benjamin Cole, a spokesman for American Energy Alliance told Politico in October 2012 that, "Our [American Energy Alliance] goal is to make the Wind Production Tax Credit so toxic that it makes it impossible for John Boehner to sit at a table with Harry Reid and say, ‘Yeah, I can bend on this one.’” [21]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/about/
  2. ^ http://humanevents.com/2010/08/08/conservative-spotlight-institute-for-energy-research/
  3. ^ a b "Institute for Energy Research - About us".
  4. ^ http://humanevents.com/2010/08/08/conservative-spotlight-institute-for-energy-research/
  5. ^ http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/about/
  6. ^ http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2012/760/149/2012-760149778-09ca3f40-9.pdf
  7. ^ NPR: New Group Tied To Oil Industry Runs Ads Promoting Drilling, Attacking Democrat. September 22, 2008.
  8. ^ Erman, Michael (23 May 2008). "Exxon again cuts funds for climate change skeptics". Reuters.
  9. ^ American Petroleum Institute, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax, 2010.[1]
  10. ^ Energy for America: North American Energy Inventory.
  11. ^ http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/about/people/robert-bradley/
  12. ^ Cato Institute: Robert L. Bradley, Jr.
  13. ^ Institute for Energy: Staff.
  14. ^ Political Capitalism
  15. ^ Bradley, Jr., Robert L. "The Heated Energy Debate: Assessing John Holdren's Attack on Bjørn Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist" (PDF). Institute for Energy Research: 46. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. ^ Regis, Ed (February 1997). "The Doomslayer". Wired (Issue 5.02). Archived from the original on 2008-05-18. Retrieved 2008-05-18. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. ^ Lomborg, Bjørn (September 2001). The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the True State of the World. Cambridge University Press. pp. 515 pages.
  18. ^ http://americanenergyalliance.org/about/
  19. ^ Vogel, Kenneth (29 March 2012). "Kochs linked to $3.6M anti-Obama gas price ad campaign". Politico.
  20. ^ "American Energy Alliance Homepage". The American Energy Alliance. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  21. ^ Restuccia, Andrew (13 November 2012). "Fans, foes at war over wind tax credit extension".

External references

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