Marlo Lewis, Jr.

Marlo Lewis, Jr.

Credentials

  • Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and a B.A. in Political Science from Claremont McKenna College.1Marlo Lewis, Jr.” Competitive Enterprise Institute. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/VP7Dc

Background

Marlo Lewis is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a group that has received funding from a range of energy industry groups and conservative foundations such as the Koch family foundations, ExxonMobil, Texaco, Arch Coal, and the American Petroleum Institute (API) among others.2Competitive Enterprise Institute,” Conservative Transparency. Data retrieved May 27, 2016. 3Competitive Enterprise Institute,” Capital Research Center. Archived July 2, 2003. 4ExxonSecrets Factsheet: Competitive Enterprise Institute, CEI. Data retrieved August, 2016. Most recent data on file at Desmog. 5COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INST,SMITH,FL JR. COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE. 1994 March. Philip Morris.

Lewis has also served in various governmental positions, working briefly as a policy analyst in the State Department during the Reagan administration. His position at the CEI, where disclosures show he is payed approximately $100,000-a-year, also allows him influence over elected officials. For example, he was given access to Congress when he was permitted to give a rebuttal to Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” to the assembly. Lewis was also allowed to present the supposed “dangers” of the Kyoto Protocol to Congress in 1998.6Marlo Lewis Joins CEI As Senior Fellow,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, March 31, 2002. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/R6kUy 7Competitive Enterprise Institute 990 Forms. Retrieved from DocumentCloud. 8Al Gore’s Science Fiction,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, March 16, 2007. Archived January 5, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/uG5Ir 9Testimony on Why Kyoto Is Not an Insurance Policy, House Small Business Committee,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 29, 1998. Archived July 2, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/qAp3a

The CEI pays for and maintains the website of the Cooler Heads Coalition (CHC), a global warming denial group that Lewis formerly chaired and remains a prominent contributor to.10About,” Cooler Heads Coalition. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/TI18I Lewis has previously defended the “benefits” of Keystone XL pipeline and the Canadian tar sands.11Eight Reasons to Love the Keystone XL Pipeline,” GlobalWarming.org, August 26, 2011. Archived January 2, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/ag8wb

Cooler Heads Coalition

Marlo Lewis served as the former Chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition (CHC), a group describing itself as an “informal and ad-hoc group focused on dispelling the myths of global warming.“ SourceWatch notes that the Cooler Heads Coalition originally had close ties to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) where Lewis is now a senior fellow.12Freedom 21 National Conference,” Freedom21. Archived August 13, 2001. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/NBxSb 13About,” Cooler Heads Coalition. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/TI18I

Stance on Climate Change

November 2013

The following are summarized points from a presentation Lewis gave to train new interns at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) on why he believes that “climate change is not a ‘crisis’ or ‘planetary emergency.’”14Updated Antidote to Climate Hysteria,” Global Warming.org, November 5, 2013. Archived January 3, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/iTwT6

“My thesis, then and now, is that climate change is not a ‘crisis’ or ‘planetary emergency.’ Here’s a quick overview:

  • ‘Worse than we thought’ is a political mantra pretending to be a scientific finding. The state of the climate is better than they told us.
  • An unanticipated 17-year warming pause, the growing divergence between model predictions and observed warming, and a pile of recent studies indicate that ‘consensus’ science overestimates the key variable: climate sensitivity. Lower sensitivity means less warming and smaller impacts.
  • The scariest parts of the ‘planetary emergency’ narrative – dire warnings about ocean circulation shutdown triggering a new ice age, ice sheet disintegration raising sea levels up to 20 feet, malaria epidemics coming to a neighborhood near you, mass extinctions from runaway warming – are science fiction, not science.
  • The only card left in the alarmist deck is extreme weather. However, there has been no long term trend in the strength or frequency of hurricanes, tornadoes, U.S. floods and drought.
  • Heat waves have become more frequent but, paradoxically, the more common hot weather becomes, the more heat-related mortality declines: People adapt!
  • There is no long-term trend in ‘normalized’ extreme weather damages (losses adjusted for increases in wealth, population, and the consumer price index).
  • Globally, mortality rates and aggregate mortality related to extreme weather have declined by 98% and 93%, respectively, since the 1920s.
  • The state of the world keeps improving as CO2 emissions increase.”

December 2008

Lewis told BBC News in December 2008:

“There has been no net warming of the planet since 1998, or if you want to pick a more fair baseline, since 2001.”15Marlo Lewis on Global Warming & The Economy,” YouTube Video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute, December 18, 2008. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

1998

In testimony to congress in 1998, Lewis declared:

“There are several reasons why we shouldn’t worry about global warming. […] [T]he probability of catastrophic warming is low. Indeed, it is not clear global warming is something we should prevent, even if that were easy and cost little. Spending trillions to avoid better weather and a greener planet would make no sense at all.”16Testimony on Why Kyoto Is Not an Insurance Policy, House Small Business Committee,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 29, 1998. Archived July 2, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/qAp3a

Key Quotes

January 2017

Marlo Lewis wrote in The Daily Times:

“The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) so-called Clean Power Plan (CPP) is an unlawful power grab that will increase consumer electricity prices, reduce U.S. job and economic growth, and have no discernible impacts on global warming or sea-level rise.

“To overturn the CPP, Trump should direct the Justice Department to side with the 28 states and numerous industry and nonprofit petitioners challenging the Plan as unlawful and unconstitutional, if the litigation reaches the Supreme Court.”17Myron Ebell. “Donald Trump and environmental regulation,” Daily Times, January 2, 2017. Archived January 6, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/12uBx

December 2016

Lewis wrote in Fox News on why he believes Trump should repudiate the Paris climate agreement:

“The election of Donald J. Trump to be the next president will soon enable congressional advocates of pro-growth energy policy to go on the offense for the first time in eight years—and they should, for the sake of our Constitution, among other things.”18Marlo Lewis. “Here’s why the Senate should help Trump repudiate the Paris climate agreement,” Fox News, December 20, 2016. Archived January 4, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/o69mK

January 2015

Writing at the Cooler Heads Coalition’s blog, Lewis denounced President Obama’s State of the Union speech:

“The State of the Union speech? Yeesh. The energy and climate stuff was disingenuous and dumb.”19Marlo Lewis. “SOTU on Energy and Climate: Disingenuous and Dumb,” Global Warming.org, January 21, 2015. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/XmtOv

“Cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, renewable energy mandates, and the like will accomplish little except to centralize power and transfer wealth from consumers to special interests.”20Marlo Lewis. “Some Free Market Talking Points on the Keystone XL Pipeline Amendments,” Global Warming.org, January 13, 2015. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/PsoAW

“As energy analyst Alex Epstein puts it, fossil energy companies did not take a safe climate and make it dangerous, they took a dangerous climate and made it much safer.”21Marlo Lewis. “Some Free Market Talking Points on the Keystone XL Pipeline Amendments,” Global Warming.org, January 13, 2015. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/PsoAW

November 2014

According to Lewis, writing at the Cooler Heads Coalition blog, “The President should have approved the KXL long ago. The Keystone controversy is completely artificial — a fabrication of green politics.”22Marlo Lewis. “No Brainer: Senate Should Approve Keystone XL,” Global Warming.org, November 17, 2014. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/k2XZ6

July 2014

Writing at the Cooler Heads Coalition’s Blog, Lewis outlined portions of his “Las Vegas Slide Show” presentation at the Heartland Institute’s 9th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC9):

“A ‘conservative’ carbon tax is so loopy that at times I half believe it must be a passing fad, a bad joke, or a piece of blackboard econometric foppery rather than a grimly-determined political agenda,” Lewis wrote.23Marlo Lewis. “My Las Vegas Slide Show on the ‘Conservative’ Case for a Carbon Tax,” Global Warming.org, July 9, 2014. Archived January 3, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/tDza6

June 2014

Marlo Lewis criticizes the American Lung Association (ALA)’s campaign to promote the Clean Power Plan. In his “fact check,” Lewis provides his reasons that CO2 should not be described as pollution:

“[M]ercury emissions from power plants do not poison anyone’s air. […] The case is somewhat similar for arsenic. […] More importantly, carbon dioxide (CO2), the substance targeted by EPA’s Clean Power Plan, is non-toxic to humans and animals at multiple times today’s atmospheric concentration […]”24Marlo Lewis. “American Lung Association Manipulates ‘Maternal Instinct’ to Sell EPA Power Grab,” Global Warming.org, June 15, 2014. Archived January 3, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/Zd8Ag

May 2014

Writing at the Cooler Heads Coalition’s blog, Marlo Lewis criticizes a column Michael Mann wrote on the Keystone XL pipeline:

“Despite climategate, the death of cap-and-trade, the 17-year warming pause, the epic failure of climate models, and the growing popularity of skeptic blogs, Hockey Stick inventor Michael Mann still tries to pull rank and tell policymakers what to do because, after all, he and his ‘colleagues’ in the climate alarm movement are ‘scientists.’ […]

I will let others with the relevant expertise debate whether Prof. Mann is a competent paleo-climatologist. His writings on the Keystone XL pipeline are indistinguishable from those of a political hack.”25Michael Mann’s Hatchet Job on Keystone XL,” Global Warming.org, May 13, 2014. Archived January 3, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/nujrt

January 2014

Writing at the Cooler Heads Coalition’s “Globalwarming.org,” Lewis declared:

“Divorced from analysis of carbon’s social benefits, SCC [Social Cost of Carbon] estimation even at its theoretical best is partisan advocacy posing as objective research.”26Marlo Lewis. “At Last: A Report on the Social Benefits of Carbon,” Global Warming.org, January 22, 2014. Archived January 3, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/rVU5v

October 2013

According to Marlo Lewis, writing at the Cooler Heads Coalition’s blog, global warming is “not even close” to the world’s biggest problem. He writes:

“If global warming is the world’s most hyped problem, global warming alarm may well be the world’s most underrated problem.

[…] In the global warming debate, there has been far too little discussion of whether the proposed cure is worse than the alleged disease.”27Marlo Lewis. “Global Warming: Planet’s Most Hyped Problem,” Global Warming.org, October 9 , 2013. Archived January 3, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/xaiwm

October 2012

Writing in an October 25, 2012 Forbes opinion column, Lewis declared:

“The big attraction of carbon taxes these days is not as a global warming policy but as a revenue enhancer.”28Carbon Tax: Will Tweedle Dum Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory?Forbes, October 25, 2012. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/vj1V1

January 1, 2009

In an interview, Lewis outlines what he believes would be negative impacts of California’s greenhouse gas reduction law (A.B. 32). See video at [0:34]:

“I predict that if we implemented AB32 over the next several years, as the increased energy costs kick in, you will begin to see job flight and capital flight from California.”29Marlo Lewis on California’s Global Warming Regulation,” YouTube Video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute, January 1, 2009. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

May 2, 2008

Lewis told Fox News that the idea of ExxonMobil and the Rockerfeller family moving investment to more green fuels was “ridiculous”:

“This idea that renewable fuels or alternative energy is the wave of the future is ridiculous,” he said in the interview.30Marlo Lewis on ExxonMobil and the Rockefeller Family,” YouTube Video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute, May 2, 2008. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

July 2007

Marlo Lewis was featured on a “Debate” at Fox News opposing David Roberts. Video below:

“The big question here is whether our children and our grandchildren will inherit a world that is energy rich, or energy poor,” Lewis said. “And if we put people like Al Gore in charge, and especially if we put Robert Kennedy in charge, this world is going to be put on an energy diet when much of the world is already energy starved.”31Marlo Lewis Debates Global Warming (7/11/07),” YouTube video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 12, 2007. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

June, 1998

Marlo Lewis delivered a June, 1998 testimony to the Committee on Small Business where he opposed the Kyoto Protocol:

“There is no a priori reason to assume that global warming, on net, would be harmful rather than beneficial,” Lewis stated. “Millions of America’s senior citizens adapt to climate change every decade – when they move from the Snow Belt to the Sun Belt.”32Testimony before the Committee on Small Business, Hearing on the Kyoto Protocol,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 4, 1998. Archived July 4, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/y4bWl

“Yet precisely because carbon dioxide emissions may linger in the atmosphere for a century or longer, it makes no practical difference in the long run whether carbon withdrawal policies are implemented now or a decade or more from now.”33Testimony before the Committee on Small Business, Hearing on the Kyoto Protocol,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 4, 1998. Archived July 4, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/y4bWl

“The road to Hell, we all realize, is often paved with good intentions. The global warming debate illustrates that maxim very well; even a baby step on this destructive path should be avoided.”34Testimony before the Committee on Small Business, Hearing on the Kyoto Protocol,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 4, 1998. Archived July 4, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/y4bWl

Key Deeds

April 20, 2018

Lewis wrote an article before Earth Day titled “The Blessing of fossil fuels.” “Anthropogenic global warming is real. However, that doesn’t mean the planet, and more important the people who inhabit it, are in peril,” Lewis wrote at The Times and Democrat.35Marlo Lewis. “Blessing of fossil fuels,” Times and Democrat, April 20, 2018. Archived April 24, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.li/uAHjB

According to Lewis, climate change isn’t as bad as we thought:36Marlo Lewis. “Blessing of fossil fuels,” Times and Democrat, April 20, 2018. Archived April 24, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.li/uAHjB

“The warming rate is gradual and fairly constant, not rapid and accelerating, as it’s often claimed. Climate change is not ‘worse than we thought,’ it’s better than they told us,” he wrote.37Marlo Lewis. “Blessing of fossil fuels,” Times and Democrat, April 20, 2018. Archived April 24, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.li/uAHjB

Lewis cites fossil fuel proponent Alex Epstein to argue for more fossil fuel use:38Marlo Lewis. “Blessing of fossil fuels,” Times and Democrat, April 20, 2018. Archived April 24, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.li/uAHjB

“As fossil fuel consumption increased, the environment became more livable and human civilization more sustainable. That’s not a coincidence. Energy scholar Alex Epstein explains: human beings using fossil fuels did not take a safe climate and make it dangerous; they took a dangerous climate and made it safer.”39Marlo Lewis. “Blessing of fossil fuels,” Times and Democrat, April 20, 2018. Archived April 24, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.li/uAHjB

Lewis concluded:

“Thanks in no small part to fossil fuels, the world today is healthier, wealthier and safer than ever before in history. And there’s no evidence the economic and social progress is about to stop.

Unfortunately, most Earth Day protesters won’t see it this way — even though the results are right in front of them.”40Marlo Lewis. “Blessing of fossil fuels,” Times and Democrat, April 20, 2018. Archived April 24, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.li/uAHjB

October 22, 2016

Marlo Lewis spoke at the 20th Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights held in Albany, NY.41Twentieth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights,” Property Rights Foundation of America, October 22, 2016. Archived November 5, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/YgUFY

DeSmog reported on Lewis’s talk, which was titled “Standing for Accuracy About Global Warming.” After Lewis argued that Obama’s Clean Power Plan and the signing of the Paris Agreement were equivalent to a “burning of the constitution,” he outlined the three main points of his presentation:42Justin Mikulka. “Insights Into the Thinking of Trump Advisor Myron Ebell’s Competitive Enterprise Institute on Climate Change,” DeSmog, November 27, 2016.

“One is that however strong the scientific case may have appeared at one time for alarm about global warming, there’s really nothing to it.”

“Another key point that all of these folks forget about is that fossil fuels have actually done more to make our climate a livable system than any other force on this planet. If it weren’t for fossil fuels our lives would all be nasty, brutal, and short.”

“My final point is that all of these emission reduction policies, which they claim are necessary to save the world, are one of two things. They’re either all pain for no gain, in other words, they’re a highly costly exercise in symbolism, or they’re a cure that’s worse than the alleged disease. They are a humanitarian disaster in the making.”

Lewis then ran through a PowerPoint presentation “disproving” climate science.

“The other thing is if this were really the terrible crisis that we can’t adapt to that they say, then the population shifts in the United States should have all been moving in the other direction, which is what my next slide shows. It shows that the states that are warmest are the states that have had the most rapid population growth over the last fifty years. People are voting with their feet by the millions to embrace and endure more climate warming in a short space of time than even these outlandish models predict will happen in a century. If you move from Albany to Florida or to Texas, the climate is really going to change for you.”

February 25, 2016

Marlo Lewis authored a “policy paper” (PDF) document claiming that the Paris Agreement is a treaty as opposed to an executive agreement. As a treaty, Lewis argues that it would be “would be dead on arrival” in the senate.43The Paris Climate Agreement Is a Treaty Requiring Senate Review,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, February 24, 2016. Archived January 4, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/6rXuN 44The Paris Climate Agreement Is a Treaty Requiring Senate Review,” On Point No. 213 (February 24, 2016). Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

“Far from being toothless, the Paris Agreement is the framework for a multi-decade global campaign of political pressure directed chiefly against Republican leaders, Red State voters, and the fossil fuel industry,” Lewis warns. “To safeguard America’s economic future and capacity for self-government, congressional leaders must expose Obama’s climate diplomacy as an attempted end-run around the Constitution’s treaty-making process.”45The Paris Climate Agreement Is a Treaty Requiring Senate Review,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, February 24, 2016. Archived January 4, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/6rXuN

September 23, 2015

Marlo Lewis appeared on Fox Business to discuss EPA fuel standards and Volkswagen’s cheating on emissions tests.46Marlo Lewis discusses EPA fuel standards on Fox Business,” YouTube Video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute, March 25, 2016. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

“Maybe we also need to rethink the fuel economy standards, for example,” he said, “so that companies aren’t tempted to do this sort of thing.”

June 23, 2015

Marlo Lewis participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Heritage Foundation and moderated by David Kreutzer titled “The Social Cost of Carbon: A Controversial Tool for Misguided Policy.” Climate Change deniers Jim Inhofe and Patrick Michaels also spoke on the panel. Lewis’s powerpoint presentation can also be viewed here (PDF).47Marlo Lewis. “Computer-Aided Sophistry: My Power Point on the Social Cost of Carbon,” Global Warming.org, June 23, 2015. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/iRhb2 48Social Cost of Carbon: A Controversial Tool for Misguided Policy,” The Heritage Foundation, June 23, 2015. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/gtd6i 49“Social Cost of Carbon: Computer-Aided Sophistry, Menace to Society” (PDF), Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 23, 2015. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

June 11–12, 2015

Marlo Lewis appeared on Panel 4, “The Social Costs of Carbon Dioxide” at the Heartland Institute‘s Tenth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC10) in Washington, DC.50Marlo Lewis, ICCC10 (Panel 4),” International Conferences on Climate Change. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/uMPy2

September 22, 2014

Marlo Lewis took part in a media conference call where he advocated for the rollback of 2014 renewable fuel standard (RFS) targets. Others Lewis said were on the call included:51Marlo Lewis. “OMB Should Uphold Proposed Rollback of 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Targets,” Global Warming.org, September 22, 2014. Archived January 2, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/Hn36E

  • Kristin Sundell — Director of Policy and Campaigns, Action Aid.
  • Former Senator Wayne Allard — VP for Government Relations, American Motorcycle Association.
  • Nicole Wood — Program Manager, Government Affairs, Boat U.S.
  • Ben Schreiber — Climate and Energy Program Director, Friends of the Earth.
  • Emily Cassidy — Biofuels Research Analyst, Environmental Working Group.
  • Nan Swift — Federal Government Affairs Manager, National Taxpayers Union.

July 7–9, 2014

Marlo Lewis was a speaker at the Heartland Institute‘s Ninth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC9) in Las Vegas, Nevada. His speech was titled “Is a Carbon Tax a Conservative Idea Whose Time Has Come?52Marlo Lewis, ICCC9,” International Conferences on Climate Change. Archived January 2, 2017. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/ZPtLG

Lewis was also on a Q&A Panel with Ken Haapala and David Kreutzer:

November 7, 2013

Marlo Lewis testified at a public listening session at the EPA’s headquarters in Washington D.C. where he emphasized that coal power plants should not be shut down:53What I Told EPA at Its D.C. ‘Listening Session’,” Global Warming.org, November 8, 2013. Archived January 3, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/DYSSK#selection-123.0-123.47

“Don’t use the guidelines either to shut down existing coal plants, or to enact a national clean energy standard through the regulatory back door,” Lewis said in a summary of his comments. He added that the EPA needed to be careful that “guidelines for reducing CO2 emissions from existing power plants do not adversely affect the economic viability of existing coal power plants.”54What I Told EPA at Its D.C. ‘Listening Session’,” Global Warming.org, November 8, 2013. Archived January 3, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/DYSSK#selection-123.0-123.47

November 5, 2013

Marlo Lewis, Jr. outlines a global warming presentation that he gives to new interns at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), teaching them the reasons why he believes that “climate change is not a ‘crisis’ or ‘planetary emergency.’”55Updated Antidote to Climate Hysteria,” Global Warming.org, November 5, 2013. Archived January 3, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/iTwT6

In is presentation, titled “Climate Change: Be Not Afraid!” (PDF), Lewis cites the debunked “global warming pause,” says there is no link between extreme weather and climate change, and suggests that “The state of the world keeps improving as CO2 emissions increase.”56Marlo Lewis. “Climate Change: Be Not Afraid!” Competitive Enterprise Institute, November 6, 2013. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

August 26, 2011

According to Marlo Lewis, we should all “love” the Keystone XL pipeline. He provided eight reasons in a post on the Cooler Head Coalition’s website. Excerpts below:57Eight Reasons to Love the Keystone XL Pipeline,” GlobalWarming.org, August 26, 2011. Archived January 2, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/ag8wb

“A win for Keystone XL is a defeat for the global warming movement. Green groups view Keystone as an opportunity to regain momentum and offset their losses after the death of cap-and-trade. If friends of affordable energy win this fight, which seems likely, the greenhouse lobby will take another hit to its prestige, morale, and influence.

Keystone XL strains relations between Obama and his environmentalist base. If Obama approves the pipeline, greenies will be less motivated to work for his re-election. If he disapproves, Republicans and moderate Democrats will hammer him for killing job creation and increasing pain at the pump. Either way, the prospects for new anti-energy legislation should be dimmer.

Keystone XL is bringing aging, New Lefties out of the woodwork, where they can misbehave and get themselves arrested.”

August 10, 2011

When he made a trip to Canada to view the existing Keystone pipeline. Lewis documented his trip in a post at the Cooler Heads Coalition website in a post titled “My Excellent Journey to Canada’s Oil Sands.”58Marlo Lewis. “My Excellent Journey to Canada’s Oil Sands,” GlobalWarming.org, August 10, 2011. Archived January 2, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/QTMaZ

March 8–10, 2009

Marlo Lewis was a speaker at the Heartland Institute‘s Second International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC2) in New York. His speech was titled “Economic Train Wreck: Regulating CO2 Emissions Under the Clean Air Act.”59Marlo Lewis, ICCC2,” International Conferences on Climate Change. Archived January 2, 2017. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/SmBp6

DeSmog researched the funding behind Heartland’s Second International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC2) and found sponsor organizations had received over $47 million in funding from energy companies and right-wing foundations, with 78% of that total coming from Scaife Family Foundations.60Heartland Institute’s 2009 Climate Conference in New York: funding history of the sponsors,” Desmog.

February 2009

Marlo Lewis appeared on CNN to debate global warming policy with Kert Davies from Greenpeace. Video and partial transcript below.61Marlo Lewis Debates Global Warming,” YouTube video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute, February 3, 2009. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

Commentator: “Is it the case that you don’t believe in global warming at all, or do you consider it merely to be global alarmism?”

Marlo Lewis: “I do believe there is global warming, although global warming has slowed down over the last decade, which I think is interesting because none of the climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to forecast global warming over the 21st century anticipated a roughly 10 year period with no net global warming. Which suggest that those models may be too sensitive or too hot.”

C: “If it’s slowed, by which mechanism are you using to evaluate that?”

ML: “The Hadley data and the data which is land-surface data mostly. And also the Alabama-Huntsville satellite data. So two datasets confirm that basically there’s basically been no net warming since 2001. And or none since 1998 if you want to include a year with a very big El Nino.

C: “Ok, now Kert Davis From Greenpeace, I expect you’re going to disagree with that. Do you believe that global warming has stagnated or almost slowed since 2001?

Kurt Davies: “No. Marlo, people living in the real world see global warming every day and in fact what the science is telling us is that it’s worse than we thought. All of the modelling projects exactly what we’re seeing. That is, extremes in weather, extremes heat waves like we’re seeing in the winter in California, loss of snow cover, the protracted drought in the southeast in the United States. And all around the world—extreme typhoons, hurricanes—things are getting worse, not better.

It’s also a misnomer to look at just warming. In fact, the warming is worse at the poles. We’re watching the icecaps break apart, polar bears are being left without ice to walk and feed and live on. And this is affecting people in their lives. Farmers are not planting crops in California this year. That means the food supply is threatened. In fact, what the IPCC found was that poor people around the world are going to be affected first and worst by global warming. That means their lives are at risk. It’s a dangerous distraction to say that global warming does not affect people or is not as bad as we think it is.”

C: “Kert Davies, so presumably then you’re not going for Marlo Lewis’s assertion about the kind of data that he follows and recommends.”

KD: “Marlo Lewis is not a scientist. He comes from a think tank that also worked for the tobacco industry to deny that smoking causes damage. He took money from Exxon for over a decade—two million dollars plus—even Exxon dropped Competitive Enterprise Institute from its funding ranks because they were out of touch with reality.”62Marlo Lewis Debates Global Warming,” YouTube video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute, February 3, 2009. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

2009

Marlo Lewis was one of the “experts” to appear in a video funded by the Cascade Policy Institute titled “Climate Chains.” Cascade describes the video as “22-minute documentary that exposes extreme environmentalism and the misguided pursuit of cap-and-trade legislation. Climate Chains not only explains the dangers of this legislation but offers an alternative to top-down regulation in the form of free market environmentalism.”63About Climate Chains,” Climate Chains. Archived October 20, 2009. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/5pbwO

The full list of experts was as follows:64“About the Experts,” Climate Chains. Archived October 21, 2009. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/bmqwC

June 25, 2008

Marlo Lewis testified before the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming (PDF), arguing against fuel economy standards. Some notable quotes below.65“Statement of Marlo Lewis” (PDF), Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 25, 2008. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

“The new mpg standards enacted in December 2007 will do nothing to measurably cool the atmosphere.”

“Global warming policies can adversely affect human health and life expectancy.”

[…] Please note, I am not saying that global warming is a myth or that there are no health, environment, and safety risks associated with climate change. What I am saying is that there are also risks associated with global warming policy.”

“The global warming debate suffers from a profound lack of balance. Proponents of carbon suppression policies spotlight, trumpet, and even exaggerate the risks of climate change but ignore or deny the risks of climate change policy.

This one-sided perspective dominates recent attempts to link global warming to national security concerns. The remotest possibility of abrupt climate change is seized upon as a rationale for policies with enormous potential to harm people, the economy, and, indeed, national security. This hearing will have served a valuable purpose if it begins to redress the balance.”

March 2–4, 2008

Marlo Lewis was a speaker at the Heartland Institute‘s First International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC1) in New York. His speech was titled “The Economic and Regulatory Perils of Massachusetts v. EPA.”66Marlo Lewis, ICCC1,” International Conferences on Climate Change. Archived January 2, 2017. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/faFRJ

October 12, 2007

Marlo Lewis appeared on CNBC where he discussed his “Skeptic’s Guide” to An Inconvenient Truth” and Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize.67Marlo Lewis Discusses Al Gore & the Nobel Prize (10/12/07),” YouTube Video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute, Oct 15, 2007. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

“A preponderance of scientists do believe that the recent warming, the warming of the past 30 years, is largely the result of the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” Lewis admitted. “I would say that most scientists, though, understand—even if they don’t publicly say—that there isn’t a whole lot we can do about it.”

Lewis also appeared on CNN to further discuss why he believes that Al Gore does not deserve the Peace Prize:68Marlo Lewis on Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize 2 (10/12/07),” YouTube video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute, October 12, 2007. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

“An Inconvenient Truth is basically a lawyer’s brief for a political agenda. It’s completely one-sided. Gore only mentioned or cites studies that support his point of view, then he exaggerates in many cases the evidence that he presents, ” Lewis said. “He is presenting global warming as a planetary emergency […] and that is simply not based on science.”

August 20, 2007

Marlo Lewis testified in the Senate before the Environment and Public Works Committee. Video and partial transcript below.69Marlo Lewis Testifies in the Senate on Global Warming,” YouTube video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute on Aug 20, 2007. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

“Jonah Goldberg, the columnist, notes that the earth warned about 0.7 degrees Celsius in the 20th century while global GDP increased by some 1800 percent.

For the sake of argument, says Goldberg, lets agree that all of the warming was anthropogenic; the result of economic activity. And let’s further stipulate that the warming produced no benefits, only harms. That’s still an amazing bargain, Goldberg remarks.

Average life expectancies doubled in the 20th century. The human population nearly quadrupled, yet per-capita food supplies increased. Literacy, medicine, measure, and even in many respects the environment improved, at least in the prosperous west.

This suggests a thought experiment. Suppose you had the power to travel and time and impose carbon caps on previous generations. How much growth would you be willing to sacrifice to avoid how many tenths of a degree of warming? Would humanity be better off today if the twentieth century had half as much warming, but also a half or a third, or even a quarter less growth? I doubt anyone on this committee would say yes.

A poorer planet would also be a hungrier, sicker planet. Many of us might not even be alive. How much future growth are you willing to sacrifice to mitigate global warming? That is not an idle question.”

[…] “Regulatory climate strategies put the policy cart before the technology horse.”70Marlo Lewis Testifies in the Senate on Global Warming,” YouTube video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute on Aug 20, 2007. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

August 15, 2007

Marlo Lewis appeared on NBC News In-Depth to talk about climate change.71Marlo Lewis on Global Warming Skeptics (8/15/07),” YouTube video uploaded by user Competitive Enterprise Institute, August 23, 2007. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

Discussing funding from the oil industry including companies like ExxonMobil which funded the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Lewis said:

“We don’t take that position because they invest. It’s the other way around. And any environmental group that is honest and has any familiarity with us knows that to be the case.”

May 2, 2007

Marlo Lewis appeared appeared on Glenn Beck’s special “Exposed: The Climate of Fear,” a program that contended climate change was not a man-made ecological crisis.72Exposed: The Climate of Fear,” SourceWatch. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/m3tRa

March, 2007

Marlo Lewis published a “Congressional Working Paper” titled “A Skeptic’s Guide to An Inconvenient Truth” (PDF) with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The paper describes Al Gore’s film as “Science Fiction.”73Marlo Lewis, Jr. “Al Gore’s Science Fiction: A Skeptic’s Guide to An Inconvenient Truth” (PDF), Competitive Enterprise Institute. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

Along with the paper, Lewis also released “A Skeptic’s Primer” on the film, and a so-called “guide” to supposed “Distortions, Misleading Statements, Exaggerations, and Errors” in the film.74Marlo Lewis. “A Skeptic’s Primer on Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth” (PDF), CEI on Point, March 15, 2007. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog. 75Marlo Lewis, Jr. “Some Convenient Distortion” (PDF), CEI On Point, March 16, 2007. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

For example, Marlo Lewis claims that Gore failed to note the “environmental, health, and economic benefits of climatic warmth and the ongoing rise in the air’s carbon dioxide (CO2) content,” a common myth among climate change skeptics.76Marlo Lewis, Jr. “Some Convenient Distortion” (PDF), CEI On Point, March 16, 2007. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

January 26, 2003

Marlo Lewis co-wrote a letter to President Bush with Fred Smith, discouraging Bush from supporting the McCain-Lieberman bill that would have regulated carbon dioxide emissions. Signatories represented a range of climate change denial think tanks and conservative foundations:77Fred L. Smith, Jr. “CEI’s Fred Smith and Marlo Lewis Send Coalition Letter To President Bush On The Proposed Greenhouse Gas Registry,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, January 26, 2003. Archived January 3, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/7LOHj

October 2, 2002

Lewis co-wrote an open letter with Fred L. Smith, Jr. to President Bush opposing GHG reduction credit. The letter expresses concern “that the Administration’s plan to award regulatory credits for ‘voluntary’ greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions will strengthen pro-Kyoto forces here at home – interests adverse to your supply-side economic and energy policies.”78Marlo Lewis, Jr. and Fred L. Smith, Jr. “An Open Letter To President Bush About His Plan To Award Regulatory Credits For ‘Voluntary’ Greenhouse Gas Reductions,Competitive Enterprise Institute, October 2, 2002. Archived November 9, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/sPv2w

July 1, 2002

Lewis gave a speech titled “Precautionary Foolishness,” where he attempts to “challenge the pro-Kyoto coalition’s strongest argument in favor of an international climate treaty. This is the argument that, ‘if we do it smart,”’ Kyoto will provide low-cost planet insurance for present and future generations.”79Marlo Lewis, Jr. “PRECAUTIONARY FOOLISHNESS,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 1, 2000. Archived November 27, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/HOr71

Lewis said that “the Precautionary Principle is incoherent, an ethical empty suit.“80Marlo Lewis, Jr. “PRECAUTIONARY FOOLISHNESS,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 1, 2000. Archived November 27, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/HOr71

“[D]o we have more to fear from Kyoto than from global warming itself? The purpose of the Precautionary Principle is to sweep such questions under the rug,” he said.81Marlo Lewis, Jr. “PRECAUTIONARY FOOLISHNESS,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 1, 2000. Archived November 27, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/HOr71

On the subject of global warming, Lewis suggests that we have little to fear and goes on to discuss the science and he sees it:82Marlo Lewis, Jr. “PRECAUTIONARY FOOLISHNESS,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 1, 2000. Archived November 27, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/HOr71

“A variety of empirical evidence suggests we have little or nothing to fear,“ Lewis begins. “[M]uch of this century’s modest warming may be due to natural causes such as changes in solar energy output. Second, since the models overestimate the warming of the past 100 years, they likely also overestimate the warming of the next hundred years.83Marlo Lewis, Jr. “PRECAUTIONARY FOOLISHNESS,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 1, 2000. Archived November 27, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/HOr71

“From such facts, we may conclude that the climate system is probably less “sensitive” to ‘greenhouse forcing’ than the climate models assume.”84Marlo Lewis, Jr. “PRECAUTIONARY FOOLISHNESS,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 1, 2000. Archived November 27, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/HOr71

When it comes to extreme weather events, he defers to fellow climate change deniers for evidence of a lack of connection:85Marlo Lewis, Jr. “PRECAUTIONARY FOOLISHNESS,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 1, 2000. Archived November 27, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/HOr71

“What about extreme weather events, melting ice sheets, and the spread of tropical diseases? Here I would simply refer you to the work of hurricane scientists like Chris Landsea and William Gray, glaciologists like Howard Conway, and infectious disease experts like Paul Reiter. During the past fifty years, the period of the most rapid increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes have declined.”86Marlo Lewis, Jr. “PRECAUTIONARY FOOLISHNESS,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 1, 2000. Archived November 27, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/HOr71

June 5, 2002

Writing on behalf of the CEI, Lewis urged President Bush to reconsider his proposal on Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program, established under section 1605(b) of the 1992 Energy Policy Act:87Marlo Lewis, Jr. “CEI Comments On The Department Of Energy’s Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Reporting Proposal,“ Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 5, 2002. Archived November 27, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/aLMjh

“A crediting program would energize and expand the “greenhouse lobby” – the coalition of politicians, advocacy groups, and companies supporting the Kyoto Protocol and kindred energy rationing policies,” Lewis said.88Marlo Lewis, Jr. “CEI Comments On The Department Of Energy’s Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Reporting Proposal,“ Competitive Enterprise Institute, June 5, 2002. Archived November 27, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/aLMjh

September 25, 2002

Marlo Lewis co-authored an open letter with Myron Ebell to select senators, attempting to convince them to oppose the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which they describe as “a regressive and coercive policy.”89Myron Ebell and Marlo Lewis, Jr. “An Open Letter To Selected Senators On Their Support For The Renewable Portfolio Standard,” Competitive Enterprise Institute. Archived November 5, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/9sCZ5

July 29, 1998

Marlo Lewis testified on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute to the House Small Business Committee on “Why Kyoto Is Not an Insurance Policy.”90Testimony on Why Kyoto Is Not an Insurance Policy, House Small Business Committee,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 29, 1998. Archived July 2, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/qAp3a

According to Lewis, “There are several reasons why we shouldn’t worry about global warming.” He adds “the probability of catastrophic warming is low. Indeed, it is not clear global warming is something we should prevent, even if that were easy and cost little. Spending trillions to avoid better weather and a greener planet would make no sense at all.”91Testimony on Why Kyoto Is Not an Insurance Policy, House Small Business Committee,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 29, 1998. Archived July 2, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/qAp3a

“In candid moments, Administration spokespersons will admit that the theory of catastrophic warming has not been validated by experimental or empirical evidence,” Lewis claimed. “They’ll concede that scientists know too little about the underlying physics, that computer models are too slow, and that the evidence is too conflicted, to permit a genuine resolution of the global warming debate. In other words, they’ll admit, at least privately, that the science supporting the Kyoto Protocol isn’t really clear, compelling, or ‘settled.’ But they don’t see this as a great liability. Indeed, in their view, our very ignorance about the extent of human influence on the climate system is reason enough to justify an enterprise like the Kyoto Protocol.”92Testimony on Why Kyoto Is Not an Insurance Policy, House Small Business Committee,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 29, 1998. Archived July 2, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/qAp3a

In another testimony document, dated June 1998, Lewis argues that there is “no a priori reason to assume that global warming, on net, would be harmful rather than beneficial.”93Testimony on Why Kyoto Is Not an Insurance Policy, House Small Business Committee,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, July 29, 1998. Archived July 2, 2002. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/qAp3a

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Marlo Lewis, Jr. has written for several publications including Tech Central Station (TCS), Washington Times, Investors Business Daily, the National Review and Interpretation, a journal of political philosophy.

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Selection of Cooler Heads Coalition Posts by Marlo Lewis

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