John Droz

John Droz Jr. is "a physicist who has also been an environmental activist for some 25 years." He runs a website called Wind Power Facts that argues "we do have serious energy (and environmental) problems, and we should insist on Sound Scientific Solutions for such matters." The website does not mention that he is also a fellow of the American Tradition Institute.

Droz is a longtime opponent of wind farms, arguing that the technology has not yet been scientifically proven and that wind technology should not be on the public grid until it has. He claims 10,000 subscribers to his pro-science email newsletter.

Facing South notes that Droz "spent most of his career in real estate as an investor and a broker, according to his resume. He owns two properties in coastal Carteret County, N.C. together valued at over $900,000, according to county tax records." He serves as a member of the board of directors and a scientific advisor to NC-20, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that brings together twenty NC coastal county governments, as well as businesses and individuals to represent the interests of coastal North Carolina citizens.

Subverting wind power memo
On May 8, 2012, the Guardian posted a confidential memo edited (but not written) by senior fellow John Droz of the American Tradition Institute (ATI) that suggests how to build a national movement of wind development protesters. Among its main recommendations, the proposal calls for a national PR campaign aimed at causing "subversion in message of [wind] industry so that it effectively becomes so bad that no one wants to admit in public they are for it." It suggests setting up "dummy billboard businesses", and creating a "counter-intelligence branch" to track the wind energy industry. It also calls for spending $750,000 to create an organisation with paid staff and tax-exempt status dedicated to building public opposition to state and federal government policies encouraging the wind energy industry.

Although originally planned, the proposal was not discussed at a meeting of self-styled 'wind warriors' from across the country in Washington DC in February 2012. Participants included members of conservative groups such as Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and Tea Party Patriots, as well as the Sierra Club and Audubon.

The proposal was reviewed by Droz for discussion at the Washington meeting, which he also organized. ATI's executive director, Tom Tanton, told the Guardian that Droz had acted alone on the memo, although he remains a fellow at ATI. Droz said the Washington strategy session was his own initiative, and that neither he nor any of the participants had been paid for attending the session.

In a phone interview with The Guardian, Droz confirmed that he occasionally enlisted support for his pro-science effort from a variety of organizations like FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), Sierra Club, etc.

Wind power presentations
In December 2011, Facing South reported that representatives of the American Tradition Institute and the John Locke Foundation were holding forums in the North Carolina coastal communities of Wilmington and Morehead City titled, "The Truth About Wind Power on the Coasts of North Carolina". One of the presenters was John Droz. N. C. Senate Bill 3, a law that passed in 2007, made the state the first in the Southeast to adopt a minimum requirement for the use of renewable energy sources by investor-owned electric utilities: 12.5 percent by 2025. The groups dismissed the law as an energy tax on the poor. The John Locke Foundation is calling for repealing it entirely.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * American Tradition Institute
 * Western Tradition Partnership

External resources
American Tradition Institute website (http://www.atinstitute.org/ - not to be confused with the American Tradition Partnership website at http://www.americantradition.org/ )

External articles

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