FACTSHEET: Consumer Alert, CA
DETAILS
1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Suite 1128
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 467-5809
Fax: (202) 467-5814
Consumer Alert is the current host organization for the Cooler Heads Coalition. Consumer Alert was founded in 1977 "as a national, non-profit membership organization for people concerned about excessive growth of government regulation at the national and state levels."
Consumer Alert is "dedicated to informing the public about the consumer benefits of competitive enterprise and to promoting sound economic, scientific, and risk data in public policy decisions" (Consumer Alert website, 5/04).
Consumer Alert publishes a "Commonsense Consumer" column on its website, a bi-monthly newsletter called "Consumer Comments," and the "CPSC Monitor," which reports on the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Consumer Alert frequently submits formal comments to regulatory agencies, and petitions government for regulatory change. Areas of interest include air bags, environment and energy, food issues, technology and privacy, health, taxation, and antitrust.
Consumer Alert publishes articles such as "Endangered Species Act Deserves Extinction," "New York Times Blows Hot Air over Global Warming" and "Global Warming Hotheads Use Anything to Justify Their Theory," all written by gadfly Michael Fumento. When the American Geophysical Union cautiously came out on the side of human-caused global warming in 1999, Consumer Alert attacked their statement as espousing the "gloom and doom scenarios of global warming advocates" (Associated Press, "Science Group Edges into Global Warming Debate," January 28, 1999).
Consumer Alert also operates the Cooler Heads Coalition web site at www.globalwarming.org, the National Consumer Coalitions's pro-biotech food site, www.foodstuff.org, and another anti-regulatory group, the National Consumer Coalition.
The Center for Science and the Public Interest reports that Consumer Alert's funding has come from Chevron, Eli Lilly and Philip Morris, Amoco, American Cyanamid, Exxon, Elanco, Pfizer, Anheuser, Busch, and Coors. In the past, corporations have provided more than 60% of the group's funding.
KEY QUOTES
16 March, 1998
"Consumer Alert is concerned about the unintended consequences of drastic steps to curtail energy use -- impacts that global warming advocates ignore or sweep under the rug. The Kyoto Protocol calls for dramatic restrictions on Americans' use of energy, which will cause steep price increases in electricity, heating and air conditioning, food, transportation, and services. And the impacts will be uneven throughout the U.S. Some people living in regions that depend on fossil fuels for most of their energy production will be heavily hit. The poor will be hurt the hardest, since they pay a larger share of their income for such essentials, and many will sink below subsistence levels."
Source: Cooler Heads Coalition press release 3/16/98
KEY DEEDS
7 June, 2002
Executive Director Frances Smith signed a letter to President Bush, asking him to withdraw the "Climate Action Report 2002" and demand that it be rewritten based on "sound science". The letter also recommends that Bush "dismiss or re-assign all administration employees who are not pursuing your agenda, just as you have done in several similar instances."
Source: Joint Letter To President Bush On The EPA's Climate Action Report 6/7/02
DEEDS
3 October, 2000
Filed a lawsuit against President Clinton for expanding the scope of, and increasing funding to, a report on climate change by the US Global Change Research Program.
Source: "Lawmakers, Groups Sue Over National Assessment on Climate Change," Greenwire, 10/5/2000
FUNDING
Consumer Alert has received $70,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998.
1992
$unknown Exxon Corporation
Source: Consumer Alert Newsletter 1992
1998
$10,000 ExxonMobil Corporate Giving
Source: Exxon Education Foundation Dimensions 1998 report
2000
$10,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
general support
Source: ExxonMobil Foundation 2000 IRS 990
2002
$10,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Source: ExxonMobil 2002 Worldwide Giving Report
2003
$15,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Source: ExxonMobil 2003 Worldwide Giving Report
2004
$15,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Climate Change Issues (Opinion Leader and Public Education Efforts)
Source: ExxonMobil 2004 Worldwide Giving Report
2004
$10,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Climate Change Issues (Outreach to Opinion Leaders)
Source: ExxonMobil 2004 Worldwide Giving Report
KEY PEOPLE
Patrick J. Michaels
Advisory Council Member
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Michael Fumento
former Fellow
Source: CLEAR d-base
Elizabeth Whelan
Advisory Council member
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Frances Smith
Executive Director
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Terrence Scanlon
Advisor
Source: Consumer Alert Website
I.W. (Irwin) Tucker
Advisory Council
Source: Consumer Alert Website
PEOPLE
Robert W. Poole
Advisory Council member
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Tom Miller
Advisory Council member
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Henry Miller
Advisory Council Member
Source: Consumer Alert Website
James Miller III
Advisory Council member
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Walter Williams
Advisory Council member
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Barbara Keating-Edh
Founder & President Ex-Officio
Source: Consumer Alert Website
William C. MacLeod
Chairman, Board of Directors
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Carol G. Dawson
Member, Board of Directors
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Terry Neese
Member, Board of Directors
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Roger E. Meiners
Member, Board of Directors
Source: Consumer Alert Website
James Plummer
Policy Analyst
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Barbara Rippel
Policy Analyst
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Thomas diLorenzo
Chairman, Advisory Council
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Jonathan H. Adler
Advisor
Source: Independent Institute Website 3/04
Hugh Ellsaesser
Advisor
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Ernest Hueter
Advisor
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Bruce Yandle
Advisor
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Benjamin Zycher
Advisor
Source: Consumer Alert Website
Judy Kent
Member
Source: Consumer Alert Website
SOURCES
ExxonMobil 2002 Worldwide Giving Report
Public Information and Policy Research
http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=4386
ExxonMobil Foundation 2000 IRS 990
ExxonMobil Foundation 2000 IRS 990
http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=4390
Exxon Education Foundation Dimensions 1998 report
Exxon Dimensions report 1998- Public Information and Policy Research
http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=4385
Consumer Alert Newsletter 1992
Consumer Alert Newsletter 1992
CLEAR d-base
CLEAR d-base
Consumer Alert Website
http://www.consumeralert.org/StaffAdvisors.htm
Independent Institute Website 3/04
http://www.independent.org
"Lawmakers, Groups Sue Over National Assessment on Climate Change," Greenwire, 10/5/2000
Cooler Heads Coalition press release 3/16/98
http://www.consumeralert.org/issues/enviro/MarchPR.htm
ExxonMobil 2003 Worldwide Giving Report
Public Information and Policy Research
http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=4389
Joint Letter To President Bush On The EPA's Climate Action Report 6/7/02
http://www.cei.org/gencon/027,03051.cfm
ExxonMobil 2004 Worldwide Giving Report
2004 Worldwide Contributions and Community Investments
Public Information and Policy Research
http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=4380