The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is a free market organization with offices in Irvington, New York and Atlanta, Georgia that publishes The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, a largely libertarian publication. Unscientific skepticism and obstructionism regarding global warming are promoted both on FEE’s blogs and through The Freeman–including Willie Soon, whose grants since 2002 are exclusively from fossil fuel interests, and the promotion of two books by discredited industry apologist scientists Patrick Michaels and Robert Balling.
In an apparent rebuttal to an article in Nature linking global warming to increased extinction rates,The Freeman cites the Koch-funded Marshall Institute and the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, a project of the Western Fuels Association (a coal industry front), which has received grants from Koch foundations and ExxonMobil with staff currently contracted by The Heartland Institute—see Greenpeace’s investigation of Heartland Institute leaked documents.
The Foundation for Economic Education promoted a list created by Senator James Inhofe, who gets more political donations from Koch Industries than any other single source, naming 400 scientists who supposedly doubt the climate change scientific consensus. In examination of the authenticity of this list, the Daily Green found that of the 400 names, 44 were TV weathermen, 70 have no background in climate science, and 84 were recipients of industry money.
FEE staff are linked to the Mackinac Center, Americans for Prosperity and the Cato Institute.
FEE is a member of the State Policy Network.
