Energy & Environment Legal Institute

To do: merge Western Tradition Partnership (an earlier name of the ATI's parent 501(c)(4)) into this page.

The American Tradition Institute (ATI) is a 501(c)3 organization (officially named Western Tradition Institute) with headquarters in Washington, DC and in Denver, CO. According to its mission statement, the ATI "a public policy research and educational foundation ... founded in 2009 to help lead the national discussion about environmental issues, including air and water quality and regulation, responsible land use, natural resource management, energy development, property rights, and free-market principles of stewardship."

In October 2011, the Institute for Southern Studies reported that

"the Colorado-based American Tradition Institute is part of a broader network of groups with close ties to energy interests that have long fought greenhouse gas regulation. Our investigation also finds that ATI has connections with the Koch brothers, Art Pope and other conservative donors seeking to expand their political influence."

Background - originally formed as WTP in Colorado in 2008

"The Western Tradition Partnership (WTP)...[was] a political advocacy group backed primarily by the energy industry. It was first registered as a Colorado nonprofit [501(c)(4)] in 2008 by Scott Shires, a Republican operative who pleaded guilty that same year to fraudulently obtaining federal grants to develop alternative fuels."

"In 2010 WTP changed its name to American Tradition Partnership (ATP), and announced that it had launched the American Tradition Institute, a think tank that would be "battling radical environmentalist junk science head on." The "junk science" ATP seems most concerned with is what the US National Academy of Sciences says should now be regarded as "settled facts" - that the Earth is warming and humans are the likely cause."

IRS status

American Tradition Institute is the dba name of the Western Tradition Institute 501(c)(3). Guidestar lists it as EIN #264239065, ruling date 07/2009.

Confusingly, there are two versions of its 2010 IRS Form 990 online - an original return by Scott Shires on Guidestar[1] and an amended return by another preparer at the Institute for Southern Studies[2] (but no return yet at ERI[3] as of 2011-11-05). The original return shows 30 volunteers and 1 independent director where the amended return shows 3 volunteers and 3 independent directors (though only one is named), and there are also other differences.

Actions

2011 Colorado lawsuit over Renewable Energy Standard mandate

On April 4, 2011, ATI, the American Tradition Partnership and plaintiff Rod Lueck sued the State of Colorado and several officials over the constitutionality of the state’s Renewable Energy Standard mandate. The RES requires the state’s major utilities (mainly Xcel Energy) to obtain 30 percent of their power generation from renewable sources by the year 2020.

2011 Michael Mann e-mails

In 2011 ATI issued a FOIA request to the University of Virginia for emails sent by climate scientist Michael Mann during his tenure at that university. On May 25, 2011, an agreement was reached in which UVA agreed to release 9000 documents to ATI within 90 days.

But on November 2, 2011, a Virginia county circuit judge issued a ruling that was "a huge setback for ATI":

"The court allowed that there was reason for UVA to reopen the protective order before the court. The original protective order would have allowed ATI to review the emails themselves. That court order is now invalid. ATI will not see the exempt emails. ...Now, a neutral party will be able to see the emails, not ATI. The neutral party must be agreed upon by all parties...", Scott Mandia reported Michael Mann saying.,

What had changed? University of Virginia court filings[4][5] had argued that ATI publicity and actions of ATI principals David W. Schnare and Christopher Horner - who were both the attorneys and the petitioners in this case - had raised serious questions about whether as attorneys they could be trusted to abide by the previous ruling's requirement to keep the content of the exempt emails private.; according to one affidavit, Schnare had initially neglected to mention that he was still employed by the Environmental Protection Agency, then when challenged, asserted that the EPA had given him permission to do outside work such as this lawsuit for ATI; but the EPA denied having given Schnare this permission.[6]

2009 Colorado campaigns - corporate money and disclosures

"In 2009, the group sued Longmont, CO over their Fair Campaign Practices Act. The city settled and agreed to drop disclosure requirements. In 2010, after the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, WTP/ATP successfully challenged the constitutionality of the Montana Corrupt Practices Act of 1912, which prohibited independent political expenditures by corporations."

Disciplinary actions

2010 Montana ruling: group broke state campaign laws - suggesting corruption and money laundering

"During the 2010 elections, the Montana Commission of Political Practices found that the organization broke state campaign laws by failing to register as a political committee or report its donors and spending. The state suggested WTP/ATP was involved in corruption and money laundering. They found that it solicited unlimited contributions to support candidates and then passed them through a "sham organization," the Bozeman-based political action committee The Coalition for Energy and the Environment that ran attack ads against Democrats. WTP told corporations that it aimed to combat "radical environmentalists" and "beat them at their own game" and that their contributions would remain secret."

Director and staff

• Dan Reed is listed as the only Director, on ATI's 2011 Form 990.

• Paul Chesser, Executive Director, "who WTP/ATP describes as a 'noted climate scholar.' But Chesser is not a scientist."
• David W. Schnare, Director of ATI's Environmental Law Center.
• Christopher C. Horner, Senior Fellow.
• Mark Newgent, Associate Research Fellow.

Unusual org. structure - 0 employees, 30 volunteers, one governor

According to ATI's 2010 IRS Form 990 filing, it has no paid employees, 30 volunteers, and only one (also unpaid) independent voting member of the governing body.

Board Members

Nick Spyros, Haymarket, VA

Dennis Champion, Palmdale, CA

John Reed, Denver, CO

Funding

ATI claims to accept no government grants, and that its funding is "primarily derived from a broad and growing base of grassroots contributors".

Articles and resources

External resources

[American Tradition Institute http://www.americantraditioninstitute.org]

External articles

• Sue Sturgis, "SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Who's behind the 'information attacks' on climate scientists?" Facing South, Oct. 31, 2011