How The Koch Brothers Are Hacking Science
FRANK ACKERMAN – MARCH 24, 2014, 6:01 AM EDT3483
Rhode Island has recently learned that its renewable energy standards could be ruinously expensive. But they’re in good company: more than a dozen states have “learned” the same thing, from reports from the same economists at the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI).
Housed at Boston’s Suffolk University, BHI turns out study after study for right-wing, anti-government groups. Funding for BHI’s relentless efforts has come from Charles and David Koch (leading tea party funders) and others on the same wavelength. For the Rhode Island study, BHI teamed up with the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity, a member of the Koch’s State Policy Network.
While BHI’s name and location place it close to the Massachusetts state government, it is philosophically a different beacon on a different hill. Last year BHI requested a grant from the Searle Freedom Trust, aimed at undermining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state effort that Massachusetts participates in. The grant application said, “Success will take the form of media recognition … and legislative activity that will pare back or repeal RGGI.” Suffolk vice-president Greg Gatlin said that BHI had not gone through the university’s required grant approval process, and “the University would not have authorized this grant proposal as written.” As it turned out, the proposal was not funded.
BHI has worked closely with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a corporate-funded network of ultra-conservative legislators and policy analysts, which drafts and advocates laws that will push state policies to the right. After gaining notoriety for supporting “stand your ground” gun laws, ALEC has now decided to downplay social issues and refocus on its core economic mission: attacking Obamacare, progressive taxation, and environmental protection.
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