Heartland Institute is an oil industry front group, devoted to dispelling the science of climate change. The bulk of their funding comes from Exxon and the Koch brothers. The same Koch brothers that Stephen Harper is using our tax dollars to build a pipeline for, so that they no longer have to pay decent Canadian wages. The jobs will instead be outsourced to Texas.
Recently, Heartland got caught with their carbons down, when sensitive material was leaked to the press.
Astonishingly this leak required no espionage or hacking. Someone simply contacted the institute for a copy of their budget, and got exactly what they asked for, by a careless (ex?) employee.
Maybe we should try this with the National Citizens Coalition.
But now that names have been named, can Heartland survive? Several so-called socially conscious corporations are a little red-faced, and may not renew their tax-exempt donations, including General Motors and Microsoft.
Heartland are amateurs though. Why simply rely on tax-exempt status and court corporations? In Canada, Stephen Harper found a way to fund similar groups with our money. Case in point, Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, once run by his former chief of staff Kory Teneckye.
After several of us bloggers blew the whistle on their 2005-06 annual report, filled with images of conservatives from Rhona Ambrose to Gerry Ritz, they pulled it from the internet. I have a hard copy in my files that I keep meaning to get out and scan. There is a photo of Harper that I'm sure was photo-shopped. They probably bought in online as they do with many of their "official" images.
CRFA also tried to use a televised ad that included a speech by Stephen Harper during a campaign stop.
For their efforts, Jim Flaherty's 2007 budget included a two billion dollar grant for research into using Green Giant creamed corn to run your Hummers. Or something else just as ridiculous. It's not like they actually research anything.
Another 32 million was given for an ethanol plant in Collingwood, that never did go anywhere.
Stephen Harper even brazenly gave a Senate post to another CRFA employee, JoAnne Buth. Nice to see that cronyism is alive and well and living inside the conservative bubble.
From Friends of Science to CRFA to the Heartland Institute. It's all about money, money and more money. Our money.
Gag the scientists but pay the fuel industry to spout nonsense.
This one's for Larry Miller:
"Our national policies will not be revoked or modified, even for scientists." Adolf Hitler
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