XPost EE: Right wing stepping up attacks on renewable energy

[kristopher]

3. American Tradition Institute's fight against 'environmental junk science'

American Tradition Institute's fight against 'environmental junk science'
ATI is one of several groups ramping up an offensive to turn the American public against President Obama's energy policy

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 May 2012 12.49 EDT


American Tradition Institute is a relative newcomer to the network of ultra-conservative thinktank and activist groups with a core mission of discrediting climate science and dismantling environmental regulations – including those intended to avoid catastrophic climate change.

But it has grabbed headlines over the last two years by filing law suits demanding access to the entire document and email record of prominent climate scientists, including Michael Mann, James Hansen, and Katharine Hayhoe.

The thinktank claims it is looking for evidence of fraud. But the rash of law suits have been condemned by the main academic teaching body and scientific organisations as an assault on academic freedom. They also accuse ATI of deliberating filing nuisance suits to disrupt important academic research.

Until now, its campaign against wind power has been relegated to the sidelines. But that has been a core mission. The thinktank was first registered, though under a different name, in Colorado in 2008 by a Republican operative who later pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining federal government grants to develop alternative fuels....

More at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/09/climate-change-american-tradition-insitute?intcmp=239