The Independent Women’s Forum was run by Nancy Pfotenhauer (formerly Nancy Mitchell), who was Koch Industries’ chief in-house lobbyist from 1996 to 2001. In 2003, IWF affiliated itself with Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a group that split from Citizens for a Sound Economy. Pfotenhauer served as president and CEO of AFP until 2005. Pfotenhauer left IWF to work on the McCain presidential campaign.
Through its annual college essay contest, IWF offered a $10,500 in prizes in 2008 to college students authoring papers on the economic implications of climate change, using the following prompt (emphasis added):
“While there are differing views among scientists regarding global warming, do you believe the potential costs to the American economy in terms of diminished economic growth, jobs and higher costs for goods and services are worth the cost of proposed climate policies to address the issue? If so, why? Or, do you believe this money should be spent on other priorities (and if so, where and why)?”
IWF soft-launched a project called Mothers for Educating with Sound Science (MESS), including radio appearances questioning the science of global warming and warning of dire impacts of global warming pollution regulation.
