Tom Tanton

 Consulting

Tanton is president of T2 & Associates, a consulting firm for the energy and technology industry. As president of T2 & Associates, Tanton has conducted research regarding alternate fuels for the American Petroleum Institute (API). In an interview regarding his research for API on alternative fuels, Tanton concludes that the “voluntary and self-interested approach” is the most effective with regards to restricting industry carbon emissions.

Tanton’s was also General Manager for EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute, from 2000 to 2003. Prior to 2000, he was the principal policy advisor with the California Energy Commission (CEC).

Tom Tanton and the Institute for Energy Research

Tanton is a former vice president and senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research (IER). The IER is a Houston, Texas-based think tank that has received over $200,000 in funding from oil-giant ExxonMobil.

The IER has strong links to other well-known industry-friendly organizations.

Robert Bradley, the president of IER, is listed as an “Adjunct Scholar” for the Cato Institute and an “Expert” for the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Listed on the IER website are Marlo Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute, and Joel Schwartz of the American Enterprise Institute. Combined, these organizations have received over $4.5 million in funding from ExxonMobil since 1998.

Of the six listed IER Board of Directors, 2 are directly affiliated with IER, 1 is with the American Enterprise Institute and 3 are involved in the energy sector.

Tanton is a regular contributor to an IER-operated website called Facts On Energy.

Tom Tanton and the Pacific Research Institute

Tanton is listed as a “fellow in environmental studies” at the Pacific Research Institute (PRI). The PRI is a San Francisco-based freemarket think tank that has received $445,000 from oil-giant ExxonMobil for “public information and policy research.”

According to their website, the PRI’s mission is to “champion freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility for all individuals by advancing free-market policy solutions.”

The PRI recently published a document called “Hysteria’s History: environmental alarmism in context.” The document argues that “there is an entire industry devoted to the promulgation of climate-change hysteria,” and that:

[t]he apostles of global warming falsely claim that the science is ‘settled,’ but in reality only the conventional media wisdom is settled. That conventional wisdom, enforced by the rhetoric and peer pressure of wealthy celebrities, leads almost universally to terrible policy making at all levels.

Tanton’s research for PRI includes a study called “Top Ten Energy Myths.” Included in the paper is a description of how driving a more fuel-efficient car will likely lead to increased energy use, and why alternative fuels are unlikely to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. His paper was reviewed by Dr. Kenneth Green, “resident scholar” of the industry-funded American Enterprise Institute.

Tanton and the Heartland Institute

Tanton is a regular contributor to “Environment and Climate News,” a publication owned and distributed by the Heartland Institute through their Center on Climate and Environmental Policy. Environment and Climate News describes itself as a publication that promotes and defends free-market environmentalism.