Heartland Institute

ALEC's 'Electricity Freedom Act' Systematically Attacks State Renewable Energy Standards

| Importance: 8/10

In October 2012, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) adopted the ‘Electricity Freedom Act’—a model bill co-written with the fossil fuel-funded Heartland Institute that called for the nullification of state Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards (RPS). The legislation was …

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Heartland Institute James Taylor Edison Electric Institute American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers +2 more alec renewable-energy fossil-fuels model-legislation regulatory-capture +3 more
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Heartland Institute Billboard Compares Climate Scientists to Unabomber

| Importance: 8/10

On May 4, 2012, the Heartland Institute erected a digital billboard on the Eisenhower Expressway near Chicago featuring Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber) with text reading “I still believe in global warming. Do you?” The billboard remained live for 24 hours before widespread …

Heartland Institute Ted Kaczynski James Sensenbrenner State Farm Diageo +1 more climate-denial scientist-harassment extremist-rhetoric disinformation fossil-fuels
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Donors Trust Becomes Primary Climate Denial Dark Money Conduit

| Importance: 8/10

By 2010, Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund had emerged as the primary “dark money ATM” for climate denial funding, fundamentally transforming how fossil fuel interests concealed their opposition to climate regulation. From 2002 to 2011, these two donor-advised fund organizations …

Donors Trust Donors Capital Fund Koch brothers Knowledge and Progress Fund Americans for Prosperity +2 more climate-denial dark-money regulatory-capture corporate-corruption lobbying +1 more
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DonorsTrust Organizational Profile: Dark Money ATM Enabling Anonymous Billionaire Political Spending

| Importance: 9/10

Comprehensive organizational analysis reveals DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund as the central infrastructure for conservative dark money operations, earning designation as ‘Dark Money ATM of The Right.’ Founded in 1999 by Whitney Lynn Ball and Kimberly Dennis (both from Philanthropy …

DonorsTrust Donors Capital Fund Whitney Lynn Ball Kimberly Dennis Lawson Bader +5 more organizational-profile dark-money donor-advised-fund anonymity-infrastructure koch-network +4 more
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ALEC's 'Environmental Literacy Improvement Act' Mandates Teaching Climate Denial in Schools

| Importance: 8/10

On May 5, 2000, the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Natural Resources Task Force adopted the ‘Environmental Literacy Improvement Act’ at ALEC’s Spring Task Force Summit, with full approval by ALEC’s Board of Directors in June 2000. The model bill was …

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Sandy Liddy Bourne Heartland Institute Koch Industries ExxonMobil +4 more alec climate-denial education disinformation model-legislation +3 more
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State Policy Network (Madison Group) Founded - State-Level Think Tank Coordination

| Importance: 8/10

In 1986, the Madison Group was established as an informal confederation of state-level think tanks and their supporters, named after the Madison Hotel in Washington, DC where they first met. This network, which would be formalized as the State Policy Network (SPN) in 1992, represented the extension …

Thomas A. Roe American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Heritage Foundation South Carolina Policy Council Heartland Institute think-tank-infrastructure state-capture alec-coordination powell-memo-implementation coordinated-networks
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