Energy & Environment Legal Institute
To do: disentangle content of WTI/ATI from WTP/ATP; either that, or merge the two pages.
The American Tradition Institute (ATI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Washington, DC and in Denver, CO. According to its mission statement, the ATI is "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."
- But "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," reported the Institute for Southern Studies in October 2011.[1]
In 2011, ATI sued the University of Virginia to get access to the emails of climatologist Michael Mann.
Contents
Background - sprung from 501(c)(4)(?) WTP (which was formed 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."[2]
- "In 2010 WTP changed its name to American Tradition Partnership (ATP), and announced that it had launched the American Tradition Institute, a [501(c)(3)] 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."[2]
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 available on Guidestar[1] and an amended return by another preparer available 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.[citation needed]
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.[3], [4]
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.[5]; 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."[2]
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."[2]
Personnel
Unusual org. structure - as of 2010, nobody is paid
According to ATI's amended 2010 IRS Form 990 filing, it has no paid employees, 3 volunteers, and 3 independent voting members of the governing body. (It's possible that these pro bono workers are compensated by ATP instead.)
Board Members
ATI's 2010 Form 990 reports 3 directors, but lists only one, as Dan Reed.
The website lists 3 as of Nov. 2011:[6]
- Nick Spyros, Haymarket, VA
- Dennis Champion, Palmdale, CA
- John Reed, Denver, CO
Staff
From ATI's website as of Nov. 2011, staff are:[6]
- Paul Chesser, Executive Director, "who WTP/ATP describes as a 'noted climate scholar.' But Chesser is not a scientist."[2]
- David W. Schnare, Director of ATI's Environmental Law Center.
- Christopher C. Horner, Senior Fellow.
- Mark Newgent, Associate Research Fellow.
Funding - asserted v. actual
The ATI website's About page says that "ATI accepts no government grants, and our financial backing has to date primarily derived from a broad and growing base of grassroots contributors."[7]. In 2010, $140k of its $186k of funding reportedly came from Doug Lair and the Lair Family Foundation. (The remainder was $1k from memberships, $40k from the American Tradition Partnership, and $5k from Atlas Economic Research Foundation).[7]
Articles and resources
References
- ↑ Sue Sturgis (2011-10-31). SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Who's behind the 'information attacks' on climate scientists? -. The Institute for Southern Studies. Retrieved on 2011-11-01.
- ↑ Jump up to: 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Shawn Lawrence Otto (2011-11-01). Climate Scientist Wins A Round for America. Huffington Post. Retrieved on 2011-11-02.
- ↑ Michael Mann (2011-11-02). Mike Mann’s Thank You Letter to Supporters. Global Warming: Man or Myth. Retrieved on 2011-11-02.
- ↑ Geoff Mohan (2011-11-02). Judge restricts release of emails among climate scientists. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2011-11-02. “A county Circuit judge in Virginia has sided with the University of Virginia's effort to restrict the release of personal emails from one of its former faculty members. The decision late Wednesday would allow the university to alter an agreement it had reached with the American Tradition Institute, which was seeking communications between Michael Mann, a physicist and climate scientist, and other scientists from 1999 to 2005, when Mann was employed by the university. The American Tradition Institute, headquartered in Washington, D.C., and Colorado, is a nonprofit policy research and education group that has close ties to energy interests that have opposed climate legislation, including the Koch Brothers.”
- ↑ Timeline: Legal Harassment of Climate Scientist Michael Mann. Union of Concerned Scientists. Retrieved on 2011-11-03. “October 18: UVA files a petition with the court to alter the protective order, agreeing that it would be inappropriate to disclose exempt emails to ATI. In a supporting memorandum and a more extensive affidavit, UVA attorney Richard Kast outlines two concerns: first, regarding statements that ATI attorneys made on their website and in the press, and second, regarding how ATI attorney David Schnare represented his employment with the United States Environmental Protection Agency.”
- ↑ Jump up to: 6.0 6.1 Staff & Board of Directors. American Tradition Institute. Retrieved on 2011-11-05.
- ↑ About. American Tradition Institute. Retrieved on 2011-11-05.
Related SourceWatch articles
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
