Heartland President Fires Back at Liberal AGs’ Suit to Halt Climate Change Dissent

By John Gizzi

With seventeen state attorneys general in hot pursuit of the research and records of climate change critics, the head of one of the leading groups targeted for legal action made it clear Wednesday he is fighting back. "This is not only a violation of our First Amendment rights but a clear attempt to discourage funding from businesses of organizations that don't accept the Obama administration's take on climate change as absolute truth," Joseph Bast, president of the 32-year-old pro-free market Heartland Institute, told Newsmax.

Underscoring his point, Bast unveiled a new edition of his organization’s latest volume on climate change, titled Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming, written by three climate scientists.  The book is the latest volume in its "Climate Change Reconsidered" series responding to the claims on the issue by groups such as the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.........

"We were struck by the silence from other pro-free market groups on this subject," he told us, “Nobody was talking about the science. Ed Crane of the Cato Institute, Ed Feulner of The Heritage Foundation — neither wanted to go beyond the economics and address the science behind global warming." ........The latest legal assault from the state attorneys general, Bast believes, is designed to discourage funding of Heartland and similar groups from businesses who fear being painted as "soft on climate change."  "We used to receive funding from Exxon, although it never exceeded 5 percent of our annual budget," he said, "They stopped funding us in 2007 because they did not want to deal with criticism for funding climate change skeptics." .....To Read More.....