Center for Science and Public Policy

This group may have largely morphed into the Science and Public Policy Institute, also headed by Ferguson; please see that page - particularly its timeline - for details, and consider the information below as largely historic.

The 'Center for Science and Public Policy is described on its webpage as "a non-profit, non-partisan public policy organization." However, it is not a separately incorporated non-profit group but a project of the corporate-funded group, the Frontiers of Freedom Institute. (In 2006 one FF media release referred to it as "Frontiers' Center for Science and Public Policy". )

On its website, the project claims that it "relies on scientific experts in many nations and the vast body of peer-reviewed literature to help lawmakers, policy makers, and the media distinguish between scientific findings that are agenda-driven and those that are based on accepted scientific methods and practices. In a timely manner, the Center's Science Watch Team alerts policy makers, the media, and the public to unreliable scientific claims and unjustified alarmism which often lead to public harm. We strive for a fair and balanced examination of science."

Launch
At the time of its launch in March 2003, the institute had great ambitions for the center claiming that it "will enlist the help of world-renowned scientists to serve as a resource for Members of Congress, administrative agencies, and the media to evaluate the deluge of scientific findings that so often drives public policy." The Institute's President, George C. Landrith, bemoaned that "not a day goes by that we don't hear a claim in the media that a product we use every day an artificial sweetener, a pesticide, our cell phones is harmful to our health or safety". The center, he said, would "help lawmakers distinguish between good science and bad science, between the kind of science that is driven by an agenda and engineered to produce certain results, and the kind that is based on sound scientific principles and techniques."

However, what Landrith did not mention was that Exxon had provided $100,000 in 2002 specifically for the "Center for Sound Science and Public Policy" (sic) as well as a further $97,000 for "Global Climate Change Outreach Activities", and a further $35,000 for "Global Climate Change Science Projects";

The earliest submissions from CSPP date from approximately May 2003. These submissions did not mention Exxon's funding.

If the institute had high hopes for the Center at the time of its launch, its subsequent performance has been less than spectacular.

Between March 2005 and August 2007 CSSP published a weekly bulletin titled Climate Weekly, then Climate and Environment Weekly and finally Climate and Environment Review. Robert Ferguson, the previous Executive Director of the CSPP and director of Frontiers of Freedom, was the editor of this from the initial edition until the May 10, 2007 edition.Robert Ferguson was the previous Executive Director and is the After Ferguson ceased editing it, Paul Georgia, the new Executive Director of the CSPP edited it until August 2007 when it was discontinued.

Its only other activities on global warming have been five presentations by institute staff or others, mostly in 2007 with only one in 2008; six media releases or columns thirteen "articles" and 39 commentaries on global warming issues which are touted as "papers".

Personnel

 * Paul Georgia is the Chief Economist for the institute and Executive Director of the Center for Science & Public Policy.

Former Personnel

 * Robert Ferguson was the previous Executive Director and is the founder and President of the Science and Public Policy Institute, another global warming skeptics group.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Frontiers of Freedom
 * Science and Public Policy Institute
 * Robert Ferguson
 * Global warming
 * Global warming skeptics