Steve Milloy
Background
Steve Milloy is the publisher of the websites JunkScience.com and DemandDebate.com, a columnist for Fox News, co-creator and manager of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, an adjunct analyst with the right-wing think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the president of the business consulting firm Steven J. Milloy, Inc.
Milloy, TASSC, and Big Tobacco
Steve Milloy has been associated with the major American tobacco companies since at least 1997. In 1997, he took over as the executive director of the Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), a front group set up by Philip Morris in 1993. The project was run by the public relations firm APCO Associates.
The main objective of TASSC was to question the validity of the science being used to demonstrate the detrimental effects of cigarette smoke. The idea was for TASSC to create an extensive grassroots campaign in which the coalition would be promoted as a legitimate scientific source. The coalition created materials and reprinted news articles to distribute to TASSC audiences, found "appropriate scientists/spokespeople" to participate in and promote the coalition's message, and established a nationwide media tour defaming "unsound science" on radio and television and in newspapers. According to PRWatch.org, Philip Morris budgeted $880,000 for TASSC in 1994.
In 1994, Philip Morris discussed creating a European branch of TASSC. During these discussions, APCO stated that the major message the European TASSC group should focus on was that "science should never be corrupted to achieve political ends." APCO identified other issues that required the support of sound science and had a significant impact on business and industry, and that "tied-in" perfectly with what TASSC was doing in the US at the time. The first issue on the list was global warming. APCO and Philip Morris believed diversifying their "unsound science" message would create more allies, contributors, members, and legitimacy for TASSC.
TASSC's list of corporate sponsors grew to include, among others, the British-American Tobacco Company, ExxonMobil, General Motors, Chevron, and Dow Chemical.
When Steve Milloy took over as executive director of TASSC in 1997, he cited the TASSC-sponsored website Junkscience.com as a tool in promoting the coalition's message. In 1998, Philip Morris quietly retired TASSC. However, according to Tim Lambert's Deltoid blog and The New Republic, Steve Milloy was under contract as a consultant with Philip Morris through 2005. In both 2000 and 2001 Milloy charged Philip Morris $92,500 in fees and expenses.
The Junkman's Sound Science Conflict of Interest
On his website, Steve "The Junkman" Milloy proclaims himself a pioneer fighting against "faulty scientific data used to advance special, and often hidden, agendas." He fails to point out his own special interests and connections.
Lobbying for Food Additives and Oil
Steve Milloy has worked extensively as a lobbyist for the firm EOP Group, Inc. His clients have included the FMC Corporation (manufacturer of insecticides and pesticides), Solutia Inc. (formerly the chemical branch of Monsanto), the International Food Additives Council, and the American Petroleum Institute.
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Steve Milloy is also an adjunct analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). CEI is a conservative think tank that is immersed in contentious scientific topics including global warming, food politics, and carbon-dioxide and fuel economy standards. According to Exxon Secrets, CEI is at the center of the global warming misinformation campaign. CEI has argued that climate change would bring about a "milder, greener, more prosperous world." The Competitive Enterprise Institute's funding comes from a variety of sources including ExxonMobil, Philip Morris, Amoco (the American Oil Company), the Texaco Foundation, Texaco Inc., General Motors, the Ford Motor Company Fund, Monsanto, Pfizer Inc. (the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company), Dow Chemical, and the Amerian Petroleum Institute.
The Free Enterprise Education Institute
The Free Enterprise Education Institute (FEEI) is a non-profit organization that was established by Steve Milloy and Thomas J. Borelli (former director of Scientific Affairs at Philip Morris). FEEI ran the now-defunct csrwatch.com. The site monitored the "anti-business movement" which it claimed threatened business and the free enterprise system. The FEEI defined the anti-business movement as "social activists attacking business with claims for corporate social responsiblity and socially responsible investing."
According to Brian Angliss, FEEI's total expenses over several years was $477,000, $355,000 of which was paid to Steven J. Milloy for consulting services. Furthermore, according to FEEI's IRS claim from 2005, the organization received $71,000 in funding of which, according to Exxon Secrets, approximately $45,000-$70,000 came from Exxonmobil. In 2004, the Free Enterprise Education Institute received a $30,000 grant from the Claude R. Lambe foundation (one of the Koch family charitable foundations). The Claude R. Lambe foundation also funds the Competitive Enterprse Institute and the National Center for Public Policy Research. In 2008, FEEI merged with the National Center for Public Policy Research, and now runs under the title of Free Enterprise Project of the National Center for Public Policy Research.
Citizens for the Integrity of Science
Citizens for the Integrity of Science (CFIS) is an organization run by Steve Milloy and Michael Gough. Gough and Milloy worked together at the Cato Institute and co-authored the book Silencing Science. There are few details available on CFIS however it is registered at the same address as TASSC and Junkscience.com.
Citizens for the Integrity of Science has produced two websites promoting the use of food additives. The first site, IGF-1 and Cancer, argues that milk produced from dairy cows injected with the genetically engineered growth hormone Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), does not have any detrimental effects on human health and does not cause cancer. The use of rBGH has been banned in Europe, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand. The growth hormone is produced by Monsanto, the same compnay Steve Milloy worked for as a lobbyist.
The second site is the now defunct Aspartame Archives. This site was dedicated to debunking the myths regarding the harmful effects of aspartame on the human body. Aspartame is manufactured by the NutraSweet Company; until 2000, the NutraSweet was owned by Monsanto. In 2000, NutraSweet was bought for $440 million by the private equity firm J.W. Childs Equity Partners. After the purchase, the senior vice president of Monsanto, Nick Rosa, became the president and CEO of NutraSweet.
The Free Enterprise Action Fund
Steven Milloy and Thomas J. Borelli are also the managers of the Free Enterprise Action Fund (FEAF). The Free Enterprise Action Fund is a politically conservative mutual fund whose mission is to counteract "left-wing social and political activists [that] are harnessing the power, resources and influence of publicly-owned corporations to advance their social and political agendas." So, according to its website, FEAF not only offers tangible investment returns but also a "pro free enterprise ideological benefit through advocacy that promotes shareholder value and defends the American system of free enterprise."
According to FEAF's 2007 Annual Report, the fund holds shares in over 400 companies. However, its largest investment is in ExxonMobil. As Daniel Gross of Slate Magazine notes, FEAF uses its holdings in these companies to try and push its conservative agenda. Any measures taken by companies in which FEAF has invested that do not meet its ideology are criticized and lobbied against. For example, at the Goldman Sachs 2006 annual meeting, Milloy and Borelli argued that chairman Hank Paulson's proposed program to make Goldman Sachs a big contributor to environmental causes, and his position as chairman of the Nature Conservatory, conflicted with his duty toward shareholders.
Seven investors in the Free Enterprise Action Fund control 76% of its assets. Included among them are William Dunn, Arthur Dantchik, Thomas L. Phillips, the Randolph Foundation, the Claws Foundation, and Robert A. Levy.
William Dunn is a director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Reason Foundation, and the Property and Environment Research Center. His charitable foundation, Dunn's Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking, regularly funds conservative think tanks. In 2004, it gave away over $3,000,000 in grants to institutions including the Competitive Enterprise Institute ($445,000), the Reason Foundation ($308,000), the Property and Environment Research Center ($370,000), the Institute for Justice ($370,000), and the Cato Institute ($185,000). According to Mother Jones, between 2000 and 2003 ExxonMobil gave CEI $960,000, the Property and Environment Research Center $60,000, and the Cato Institute $75,000.
Arthur Dantchik is a director of the Institute for Justice (IJ), a libertarian public interest law firm. Also, on the board of directors at the Institute for Justice is Robert A. Levy, the chairman of the Cato Institute. Dantchik is also a director at the Claws Foundation where he works with Jeffrey Yass, another director of the Cato Institute. During the years 1995 to 2001, the Institute for Justice received $1.3 million in grants from the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation. And, from 1992 to 2005, IJ received $1.1 million in grants from the Sarah Scaife Foundation.
Thomas L. Phillips is the CEO of Phillips International, the parent company of the Phillips Foundation. The Phillips Foundation provides grants to journalists who undertake projects to advance a vibrant free enterprise system within the United States and abroad.
The Randolph Foundation is a donor to the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Phillips Foundation. James Q. Wilson, a Randolph Foundation trustee, is the also the chairman of the American Enterprise Institute's (AEI) Council of Academic Advisers. The president and director of the Randolph Foundation, Heather R. Higgins, is also a chairman of the Philanthropy Roundtable and a scholar at the Hoover Institution, which received $295,000 from ExxonMobil between 1998-2005.
There is no website for the Claws Foundation. According to the foundation's IRS Return for 2007, it received $5,181,571 in contributions all of which are directly linked to Arthur Dantchik. Dantchik personally donated $125,000, and Artay, Inc. donated $5,056,571. Artay, Inc. is located at the same address as the Claws Foundation and its board of directors is made up of senior executives at the Susquehanna International Group, which Dantchik co-founded.
The last of the big investors in the Free Enterprise Action Fund is Robert A. Levy, LLC. Levy worked with Steve Milloy at the Cato Institute and is currently the chairman of the board of directors at the Cato Institute. In 1997, Levy gave congressional testimony in regards to the proposed Global Tobacco Settlement, declaring it to be a "shameful document extorted by public officials who have perverted the rule of law to tap the deep pockets of a feckless and friendless industry. It is destructive to the health of a free nation."
JunkScience, DemandDebate, and Climate Change
JunkScience.com and DemandDebate.com are both climate change denier websites. JunkScience also engages in other scientific topics including those on food additives such as dioxin, Igf-1, and aspartame. In the article, "The Greenhouse Myth," which Steve Milloy wrote in 2006, he stated that the "doubling of atmospheric CO2 from pre-Industrial Revolution days might increase global temperature from between 0.5 degrees Centigrade to 1.5 degrees Centigrade – that is, not much." He went on to declare that anthropogenic climate change is not based on "actual temperature measurements and greenhouse physics – rather it comes from manmade computer models relying on myriad assumptions and guesswork."
DemandDebate targets parents, children, and schools and claims to be "educating and empowering students and parents to eliminate bias from environmental education." The site encourages parents to ask for balance in environmental education by promoting materials such as the books The Great Global Warming Swindle and The Sky is Not Falling, and the movie Mine Your Own Business. Mine Your Own Business was funded almost entirely by Gabriel Resources, Ltd., a Canadian mining company.
Furthermore, the DemandDebate website describes scientific claims of global warming and climate change as apocolyptic, radical, extreme, alarmist, and catastrophic: "the close-mindedness of the people trying to 'save' us from global warming is frightening." On the site, Milloy also states that claims of human-caused global warming are based on highly questionable scientific grounds.
Information on the funders for Steve Milloy's websites JunkScience.com and DemandDebate.com is not accessible.
