Heartland Institute
The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian public policy think tank known for its rejection of both the scientific consensus on climate change and the negative health impacts of smoking.[2]
Not to be confused with the Seventh Day Adventist's Hartland Institute or the Heartland Institute affiliated with the Heartland International Film Festival.Formation
1984
- David H. Padden
- Joseph Lee Bast
36-3309812
Public policy analysis
- 3939 N Wilke Rd
- Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004-1275
- United States
Joseph A. Morris
- James Lakely
Vice President[nb 1]
$3,779,901[nb 2]
$3,593,087[nb 2]
Founded in 1984, it worked with tobacco company Philip Morris throughout the 1990s to attempt to discredit the health risks of secondhand smoke and lobby against smoking bans.[3]: 233–234 [4] Since the 2000s, the Heartland Institute has been a leading promoter of climate change denial.[5][6]
History[edit]
The institute was founded in 1984 by Chicago investor David H. Padden, who served as the organization's chairman until 1995. Padden had been a director of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., since its founding as the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974.[7][8][9] Padden was also a former director of Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Acton Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education, and the Center for Libertarian Studies.[8][9] At age 26, Joseph L. Bast became Heartland's first employee. Bast's wife Diane, was Heartland's publications director.[10][11]
In the 1990s, Heartland worked with the tobacco company Philip Morris to question serious cancer risks from secondhand smoke, and to lobby against government public-health regulations.[3] Starting in 2008, Heartland has organized conferences to question the scientific consensus on climate change.[3]: 334 [12]
After the election of U.S. president Barack Obama in November 2008, the Institute became involved with the Tea Party movement. In 2011, the organization's director of communications said that "the support of the Tea Party groups across the country has been extremely valuable."[13] Heartland was among the organizers of the September 2009 Tea Party protest march, the Taxpayer March on Washington.[14][15]
Heartland is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity.[16] It reported revenues of $5.8 million in 2018.[16]
In March 2020, Heartland laid off staff, reportedly in response to financial issues, and then removed its president, Frank Lasee.[17][18]
Funding[edit]
The institute no longer discloses its funding sources.[106] According to its brochures, Heartland receives money from approximately 5,000 individuals and organizations, and no single corporate entity donates more than 5% of the operating budget,[107] although the figure for individual donors can be much higher, with a single anonymous donor providing $4.6 million in 2008, and $979,000 in 2011, accounting for 20% of Heartland's overall budget, according to reports of a leaked fundraising plan.[108] Heartland states that it does not accept government funds and does not conduct contract research for special-interest groups.[109]
Oil and gas companies have contributed to the institute, including $736,500 from ExxonMobil between 1998 and 2005.[79][110] Greenpeace reported that Heartland received almost $800,000 from ExxonMobil.[53] In 2008, ExxonMobil said that it would stop funding to groups skeptical of climate change, including Heartland.[110][111][112] Joseph Bast, president of the institute, argued that ExxonMobil was simply distancing itself from Heartland out of concern for its public image.[110]
The institute has also received funding and support from tobacco companies Philip Morris,[3]: 234 Altria and Reynolds American, and pharmaceutical industry firms GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Eli Lilly.[108] State Farm Insurance, USAA and Diageo are former supporters.[113] The Independent reported that Heartland's receipt of donations from Exxon and Philip Morris indicates a "direct link...between anti-global warming sceptics funded by the oil industry and the opponents of the scientific evidence showing that passive smoking can damage people's health."[57] The institute opposes legislation on passive smoking as infringing on personal liberty and the rights of owners of bars and other establishments.[114]
As of 2006, the Walton Family Foundation had contributed approximately $300,000 to Heartland. The institute published an op-ed in the Louisville Courier-Journal defending Wal-Mart against criticism over its treatment of workers. The Walton Family Foundation donations were not disclosed in the op-ed, and the editor of the Courier-Journal stated that he was unaware of the connection and would probably not have published the op-ed had he known of it.[115] The St. Petersburg Times described the institute as "particularly energetic defending Wal-Mart."[115] Heartland has stated that its authors were not "paid to defend Wal-Mart" and did not receive funding from the corporation; it did not disclose the approximately $300,000 received from the Walton Family Foundation.[115]
In 2010, MediaTransparency said that Heartland received funding from politically conservative foundations such as the Castle Rock Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.[116] Between 2002 and 2010, Donors Trust, a nonprofit donor-advised fund, granted $13.5 million to the institute.[117] In 2011, the institute received $25,000 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation.[118] The Charles Koch Foundation states that the contribution was "$25,000 to the Heartland Institute in 2011 for research in healthcare, not climate change, and this was the first and only donation the Foundation made to the institute in more than a decade".[119]
In 2012, a large number of sponsors withdrew funding due to the 2012 documents incident and the controversy over their billboard campaign. The institute lost an estimated $825,000, or one third of planned corporate fundraising for the year.[72]
According to the organization's audited financial statements for 2014 and 2015 approximately 27% and 19% of revenues, respectively, came from a single unidentified donor.[120]
Funding for the latest year publicly available (from IRS Form-990 yr2020) shows donations at $3,748,445, revenue at $3,779,901, and expenses at $3,593,087.[121]
In 2022 ProPublica claimed that Barre Seid was “the major patron”.[122]
2012 documents leak[edit]
On February 14, 2012, the global warming blog DeSmogBlog published more than one hundred pages of Heartland documents said to be from the institute. Heartland acknowledged that some internal documents had been stolen,[118] but said that one, the "Climate Strategy memo", was forged to discredit Heartland.[123][124][125]
The documents were initially anonymously sourced, but later found to have been obtained by climate scientist Peter Gleick.[125][126] The documents included a fundraising plan, board of directors meeting minutes, and the organization's 2012 budget.[127][128] The documents were analyzed by major media, including The New York Times, The Guardian, United Press International and the Associated Press. Donors to the institute included the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, Microsoft, General Motors, Comcast, Reynolds American, Philip Morris, Amgen, Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Eli Lilly, liquor companies, and an anonymous donor who had given $13 million over the past five years.
The documents contained details of payments to support climate change deniers and their programs, namely the founder of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Craig Idso ($11,600 per month), physicist Fred Singer ($5,000 plus expenses per month), geologist Robert M. Carter ($1,667 per month) and $90,000 to blogger and former meteorologist Anthony Watts. The documents also revealed the institute's plan to develop curriculum materials to be provided to teachers in the United States to promote climate skepticism, plans confirmed by the Associated Press.[108][118][129][130][131][132] The documents also disclosed Heartland's $612,000 plan to support Wisconsin Act 10 and to influence the Wisconsin's recall elections called "Operation Angry Badger."[118][133] Carter and Watts confirmed receiving payments.[130]
Microsoft said its donation had taken the form of gratis software licenses which it was issuing to all nonprofits, and Glaxo said their donation was for "a healthcare initiative" and they did not support Heartland's views on climate change.[134]
Several environmental organizations called on General Motors and Microsoft to sever their ties with Heartland. Climate scientists called on Heartland to "recognise how its attacks on science and scientists have poisoned the debate about climate change policy."[21]
Gleick described his actions in obtaining the documents as "a serious lapse of my own and professional judgment and ethics" and said that he "deeply regret[ted his] own actions in this case". He stated that "My judgment was blinded by my frustration with the ongoing efforts—often anonymous, well-funded, and coordinated—to attack climate science and scientists and prevent this debate, and by the lack of transparency of the organizations involved."[135] On February 24, he wrote to the board of the Pacific Institute requesting a "temporary short-term leave of absence" from the institute.[136][137] The board of directors stated it was "deeply concerned regarding recent events" involving Gleick and the Heartland documents, and appointed a new Acting Executive Director on February 27.[138] Gleick was later reinstated to the Pacific Institute after an investigation found Gleick did not forge any documents, and he apologized for using deception to acquire the documents.[139][140]
