Located in Alexandria, Virginia, the Center for Freedom & Prosperity (CF&P) and its associated Foundation have taken adamant positions against global warming science as part of a pro-big business mission “to lobby lawmakers in favor of market liberalization.” In 2016, the Washington Post reported that CF&P was in the “Panama papers” leaks, soliciting funds from Mossack Fonseca to lobby the George W. Bush administration against scrutiny of offshore tax havens.
The Charles Koch Foundation’s grant to CF&P Foundation in 2009 was over a quarter of its overall grant revenue that year, totaling $199,804.
CF&P’s Dan Mitchell helped disseminate the manufactured “climategate” story of stolen emails in 2009, and claims that organizations and businesses striving to find solutions to climate change “have invested money in the scam and they will not give up.”
The think tank defended ExxonMobil when Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe asked them to stop funding climate deniers and applauded oil supermajors BP and ConocoPhillips for pulling out of the “statist” U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition that intended to pass global warming legislation.
The CF&P Foundation’s board of directors reveals numerous connections to other climate change deniers funded by the Kochs. Director John Blundell has ties to the Fraser Institute and the Atlas Network, and sits on the Board of the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) at George Mason University. Blundell was president of both the Charles G. Koch and Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundations, which finance IHS, Atlas, the Fraser Institute, and the Center for Freedom and Prosperity. Other directors are affiliated with the Cato Institute, the Mercatus Center, the Heritage Foundation, and the defunct Citizens for a Sound Economy.
More Information:
SourceWatch profile: Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Daily Kos: Center for Freedom and Prosperity is here to Liberate us from Big Govt
