FACTSHEET: The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition, TASSC
DETAILS
P.O. Box 18432 or 1155 Conn Ave NW Suite 300.Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 800-369-6608
Fax: 800-251-5253
A corporate front group designed to launch a well-funded campaign to cast doubt on a variety of environmental and public health issues, including global warming and second hand smoke. (The New York Times,April 25, 1998)
The apparently defunct Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC) was founded primarily by Philip Morris in 1993, and faded into oblivion after September 1998, possibly due to damage caused by the negative exposure in a 1998 New York Times article.
TASSC as "Coalition" may have dropped its public profile, but the Advancement of Sound Science Center (not Coalition) is still operating out of Steve Milloy's home in Potomac, MD and continues to spend around $300,000 a year, with Milloy enjoying a salary of $165,888 in 2000. The Center has apparently been the Coalition's official IRS name since 1993- or at least the Center's 990s date back to 1993, the same year the Coalition was founded. The Coalition and Center are effectively the same organization, with the same contact information and personnel, and Milloy being the sole non-administrative employee.
Though later a project of Milloy's then employer, the EOP Group, TASSC was originally based in the Washington, D.C. offices of the lobbying firm APCO Associates. In its hey-day , the Coalition claimed a membership of over 400 corporations representing chemical, agricultural, manufacturing, oil, dairy, timber, paper and mining interests, including Amoco, Chevron, and Occidental Petroleum, as well as industry trade associations. TASSC also had a science advisory panel of over 200 members, including some of the most prominent science skeptics in America. TASSC is mentioned by name in the now infamous "tobacco papers" as a group organized to help with the "scientific" message that second hand smoke is harmless. The purpose of TASSC, as described in a memo from APCO's Tom Hockaday and Neal Cohen, was to "link the tobacco issue with other more 'politically correct' products"--in other words, to make the case that efforts to regulate tobacco were based on the same "junk science". (http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2000Q3/junkman.html)
Though the coalition is no more, Steve Milloy continues to operate The Advancement of Sound Science Center from his home address in Potomc, MD.
FUNDING
The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition has received $30,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998.
1995 or 1996
$unknown Exxon Corporation
Source: O'Dwyers PR Services, Feb 1996, Vol 10, #2
2000
$10,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
general operating support
Source: ExxonMobil Foundation 2000 IRS 990
2001
$10,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Source: ExxonMobil 2001 Worldwide Giving Report
2002
$10,000 ExxonMobil Foundation
Source: ExxonMobil 2002 Worldwide Giving Report
KEY PEOPLE
S. Fred Singer
Science Advisor
Source: CLEAR d-base
Patrick J. Michaels
Science Advisor
Source: CLEAR d-base
Steven Milloy
Director/Founder of Advancement of Sound Science Coalition
Source: National Wilderness Institute, 4.20.04
Frederick Seitz
Science Advisor
Source: "A New Disinformation Campaign, April 30, 1998"
SOURCES
ExxonMobil 2001 Worldwide Giving Report
Public Information and Policy Research
http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=4388
ExxonMobil 2001 Worldwide Giving Report
Public Information and Policy Research
http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=4388
ExxonMobil 2002 Worldwide Giving Report
Public Information and Policy Research
http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=4386
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
ExxonMobil Foundation 2000 IRS 990
ExxonMobil Foundation 2000 IRS 990
http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=4390
O'Dwyers PR Services, Feb 1996, Vol 10, #2
O'Dwyers PR Services, Feb 1996, Vol 10, #2
O'Dwyers PR Services, Feb 1996, Vol 10, #2
O'Dwyers PR Services, Feb 1996, Vol 10, #2
CLEAR d-base
CLEAR d-base
CLEAR d-base
CLEAR d-base
National Wilderness Institute, 4.20.04
http://www.nwi.org
National Wilderness Institute, 4.20.04
http://www.nwi.org
"A New Disinformation Campaign, April 30, 1998"
from Rachel's Environment & Health News
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/bulletin.cfm?Issue_ID=521
"A New Disinformation Campaign, April 30, 1998"
from Rachel's Environment & Health News
http://www.rachel.org/bulletin/bulletin.cfm?Issue_ID=521