Kent Jeffreys

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Kent Jeffreys is director of environmental studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C -- May 26, 1992, Cato Institute [1]

In an article mention on the Competitive Enterprise Institute Kent Jeffreys is identified with the Heritage Foundation in 1995. [2]

We find Jeffreys in a very short period of time holding prominent positions, being published by Cato Institute, Alexis de Tocqueville Institution as Adjunct Scholar, Competitive Enterprise Institute as Adjunct Scholar, and affiliated with Heritage Institute. Kent Jeffreys is a Senior Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis in 2001. [3]

Documents & Timeline

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1994 Aug A Alexis de Tocqueville report "The EPA and the Science of ETS" has been funded by the Tobacco Institute. The author was Adjunct Scholar Kent Jeffreys, and the senior reviewer was S. Fred Singer, a Professor of Environmental Science (on leave from the University of Virginia) and a Senior Fellow at the Institute. The final report was scheduled to be complete mid-June and it would be entitled "Science and Environmentalism".

A confidential memo by the president of the Tobacco Institute, Samuel D. Chilcote, Jr., described how this secret tobacco-funded report was being used in legislative lobbying:

This morning Reps. Peter Geren (D-TX) and John Mica (R-FL) held a press conference announcing the release of a study by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution that evaluates the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) scientific principles used to justify policy decisions. Geren and Mica were joined by Cesar Conda, executive director of the de Tocqueville Institution and coauthors Dr. S. Fred Singer and Kent Jeffreys." [4]

"Press coverage included States News Service, Stephens Publishing and Cable Congress. Several congressional staffers also attended, copies of the Geren/Mica "Dear Colleague" letter, press release and the study are enclosed."

[5]

This report is part of a larger coordinated effort to blindside the EPA. A "panel of experts" was assembled to "peer-review" the report. Naturally the majority were people with identified links to tobacco-funded institutes and think tanks, and some who share the same small set of funders.

Academic Advisory Board:

• Dr. Gary Anderson, Professor of Economics, California State University-Northridge
• Dr. Nancy Bord Visiting Scholar The Hoover Institution Stanford University
• Dr. Gordon L. Brady Associate Professor and Director Environmental Studies Sweet Briar College
• Dr. Jeffrey Clark Professor of Economics University of Tennessee-Chattanoogna
• Dr. Michael Darby Professor of Economics and Director John M. Olin Center for Policy University of California, Los Angeles
• Dr. Robert Ekelund Lowder Eminent Scholar Auburn University
• Dr. Michael Gough Project Director Congressional Office of Technology Assessment
• Dr. William Hazeltine Environmental Consultant
• Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gosnell Professor of Economics Rochester Institute of Technology
• Dr. Dwight R. Lee Ramsey Professor of Economics University of Georgia
• Dr. Michael Marlow, Professor of Economics, California State Polytechnic University-San Luis Obispo
• Dr. Thomas Gale Moore Senior Fellow The Hoover Institution Stanford University
• Dr. Malcolm Ross Research Mineralogist U.S. Geological Survey
• Dr. S. Fred Singer Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences University of Virginia and President Science and Environmental Policy Project
• Dr. Gerhard Stöhrer Director of Chemical Risk Program Science and Environmental Policy Project and former Department Head Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research
• Dr. Mark Thornton Professor of Economics Auburn University
• Dr. Robert D. Tollison Duncan Black Professor of Economics and Director Center for the Study of Public Choice George Mason University
• Dr. Richard Vedder Professor of Economics University of Ohio
• Dr. Richard Wagner Professor of Economics and Chairman Department of Economics George Mason University

Senior Staff and Contributing Associates
Rachael Applegate,   Bruce Bartlett,   Merrick Carey,   Cesar Conda,   Gregory Fossedal,   Dave Juday,   Felix Rouse,   Aaron Stevens

Ten of the 19 names of the Academic Advisory Board are members of the Cash for Comments Economists Network. At this time S. Fred Singer was a Senior Fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute, but they chose not to credit him with such close links.

These attempt to link the tobacco industry's problems to arguments about climate change were part funded by the Olin Foundation, Koch Family Foundations and Scaife Foundations.

• 20 page Draft document sent to the Tobacco Institute [6]
• The release about the final report (August 11 1994) It is now an attack on "environmental regulation" -- ETS, radon, pesticides and agricultural regulation, and the Superfund toxic waste cleanup program ... and based, supposedly, on the quality of the science used by the EPA. [7]
• The final report was called Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination.' It had the approval of the Cash for Comments Economists Network. [8]

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1994 Aug 11 TO: The Members of the Executive Committee
FROM: Samuel D. Chilcote, Jr. [9]
This morning Reps. Peter Geren (D-TX) and John Mica (R-FL) held a press conference announcing the release of a study by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution that evaluates the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) scientific principles used to justify policy decisions.

Geren and Mica were joined by Cesar Conda, executive director of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution and coauthors Dr. S. Fred Singer and Kent Jeffreys.

Press coverage included States News Service, Stephens Publishing and Cable Congress. Several congressional staffers also attended. Copies of the Geren/Mica "Dear Colleague" letter, press release and the study are enclosed.

... Dr. Singer explained that the study was peer reviewed by a number of scientists and economists so that real risks and costs benefits to society could be sufficiently evaluated. ...

Jeffreys pointed to the recent media attention on Clinton Administration officials lying to or withholding information from Congress. During the question-and-answer session, Jeffreys said that EPA is not communicating the whole truth to the public and policymakers about risks. He told the group that EPA often relies on incomplete information by basing risks on single case, nonreplicable results. In the case of ETS, the EPA used irrelevant data and applied inconsistent methodology, Jeffreys said.

On the subject of ETS, Jeffreys said that the research is incomplete and irrelevant to the questions being asked about the actual risk in public settings. He said that "the research EPA examined focused on nonsmoking spouses in the home...for that reason alone, the EPA report is irrelevant." Jeffreys added that based on the data, "I can't prove that ETS is not a risk of lung cancer, but EPA can't prove that it is." He concluded bx saying it would be irresponsible for Congress to regulate ETS based on the EPA report.

The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution also provided this report to EPA in response to EPA's request for comments on its cost/benefit analysis of H.R. 3434, Rep. Waxman's smoking ban legislation.

Additional copies of this "confidential" memo were recovered from various files:

http://tobaccodocuments.org/ti/TICT0008136-8137.html

http://tobaccodocuments.org/ti/TIMN0044655-4656.html

http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2044266694-6696.html

When Epa Exaggerates Risks Date: 15 Sep 1994
Length: 3 pages
2044266694-2044266696

Author Jeffreys, K.
Named Person Jeffreys, K. Author (Organization) Journal of Commerce + Commercial
Type NEWS, NEWS ARTICLE

page 1 EDITORIAL/OPINION When EPA Exaggerates Risks By Kent Jeffreys Opinion polls consistently show that Americans...

page 3 risk by distracting Americans from true hazards. Kent Jeffreys is an adjunct scholar with the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution...

Koch Industries has had many environmental pollution fines, and criminal prosecutions. Elimination of Superfund has been a priority of Koch Family Foundations funding of compliant institutes.

http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2041128878-9002.html

Fyi Directors Edition Date: 01 Feb 1995
Length: 125 pages

page 21: "Republicans must aggressively counterattack with an agenda that achieves the same or better environmental protection without costing ]obs or limiting individual freedoms."

... "The Superfund reform bills in the last Congress fell woefully short of fixing the program's fundamental problems. Republicans should simply abolish Superfund outright and replace it with a revolving state loan fund, as proposed by analyst Kent Jeffreys.

Financed in part by a portion of Superfund's current taxes, this fund would provide loans to states and localities for local hazardous waste cleanups. The fund and the taxes should be phased out over a reasonable period: allowing time for the cleanup of the 10% of Superfund sites that pose actual risks. Expensive cleanups should be replaced by land use and deed restrictions along with the s'e'tection of the most cost-effective containment measures. Allowing the local community to decide how to spend funds to clean up Superfund sites would produce better results." http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2040165575.html

Briefing on Sound Science and Environmental Policy Date: 02 Aug 1994
Length: 1 page Author: Geren, P., Mica, J.

... The briefing will be conducted by Dr. S. Fred Singer, professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, and Mr. Kent Jeffreys, both of whom are senior fellows with the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution.

For more information, please contact KC McKee (5-5071), Sharon Pinkerton (5-4035) or Cesar Conda of Alexis de Tocqueville Institution. http://tobaccodocuments.org/pm/2023585726-5727.html

CEI Science Policy Clips and Highlights (930100 - 940400)
Date: 19930100/D
Length: 2 pages
Page 1:
Competitive Enterprise Institute CEI Science Policy
Clips and Highlights
(January 1993 - April
) Page 2:
CEI Staff Mentions 7/18/93 Kent Jeffreys quoted in the Albuquerque Sunday Journal about the American Lung Association's decision to sue EPA over particulate pollution.

From Cato Institute website

http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/reg17n1-jeffreys.html
Cato Institute

Amending Superfund: Reform or Revanche?
Kent Jeffreys
Kent Jeffreys is an independent environmental writer and consultant.

The Clinton administration has now presented its long-promised Superfund reform proposals to Congress. A casual look at the Superfund Reform Act of 1994 ...

https://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv17n1/reg17n1.html
Cato Institute

Volume 17, Number 1, Winter 1994 Features

   * Amending Superfund
     Kent Jeffreys

http://www.cato.org/research/nat-studies/Superfund.html
Cato Institute

Opinion and Commentary
"Amending Superfund: Reform or Revanche?," by Kent Jeffreys, Regulation 17:1, Winter 1994.

http://www.cato.org/environment/environ-law.html Cato Institute

"A Free-Market Environmental Vision," by Fred Smith and Kent Jeffreys, Market Liberalism: A Paradigm for the 21st Century, edited by Edward Crane and David Boaz (1993).

http://www.cato.org/pubs/chapters/marlib23.html
Cato Institute

Chapter 23.
A Free-Market Environmental Vision
By Fred L. Smith, Jr., and Kent Jeffreys

From Market Liberalism: A Paradigm for the 21st Century
Edited by Ed Crane and David Boaz

http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/reg17n1-taylor.html
Cato Institute

The Challenge of Sustainable Development
Jerry Taylor

Jerry Taylor is director of natural resource studies at the Cato Institute.

... Those lessons in the efficacy of private stewardship are certainly applicable toward the recent concern over dwindling stocks of ocean fisheries. As environmental analyst Kent Jeffreys pointed out in "Who Should Own the Ocean?" a paper published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, ...

From Competitive Enterprise Institute website

http://www.cei.org/gencon/025,01552.cfm
Competitive Enterprise Institute

Reinventing Superfund: The Clinton Reform Proposal and an Alternative
by Kent Jeffreys
June 1, 1994

http://www.cei.org/gencon/026,02259.cfm
Competitive Enterprise Institute

The True State Of The Planet Ten Of The World's Premier Environmental Researchers In A Major Challenge To The Environmental Movement
by Ronald Bailey January 1, 1995

Table of Contents

Chapter 1, by Nicholas Eberstadt
Population, Food, and Income: Global Trends in the Twentieth Century

Chapter 2, by Dennis Avery
Saving the Planet with Pesticides: Increasing Food Supplies While Preserving the Earth's Biodiversity

Chapter 3, by Robert C. Balling, Jr.
Global Warming: Messy Models, Decent Data, and Pointless Policy

Chapter 4, by Stephen Moore
The Coming Age of Abundance

Chapter 5, by Bruce N. Ames and Lois Swirsky Gold
The Causes and Prevention of Cancer: The Role of Environment

Chapter 6, by Roger A. Sedjo
Forests: Conflicting Signals

Chapter 7, by Stephen R. Edwards
Conserving Biodiversity: Resources for Our Future

Chapter 8, by Terry L. Anderson
Water Options for the Blue Planet

Chapter 9, by Kent Jeffreys
Rescuing the Oceans

Chapter 10, by Indur M. Goklany
Richer is Cleaner: Long Term Trends in Global Air Quality

http://www.cei.org/gencon/027,01523.cfm
Competitive Enterprise Institute

Testimony before the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, House Committee on Science, Hearings on the Status of the Global Climate Change Negotiations
by Fred L. Smith, Jr.
November 6, 1997

... Former CEI environmental studies director Kent Jeffreys published a major monograph on the issue, titled "Why Worry About Global Warming," in February 1991. ...

http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,03110.cfm Competitive Enterprise Institute

Making the Polluters Pay
Adler Article In The Freeman
by Jonathan H. Adler
March 1, 1995

...The ACA has helped fishing clubs pursue injunctions against upstream pollution ever since. To date, the ACA has been involved in over 1,500 cases.9 ...

9. This history is recounted in Kent Jeffreys, Who Should Own the Ocean? (Washington, DC: Competitive Enterprise Institute, 1991), pp. 17-18

From Co-conspirator Heartland Institute website

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=2173
Heartland Institute

Guide to Regulatory Reform: The Federalism Rule
Written By: Kent Jeffreys
Published In: Brief Analysis
Publication Date: January 1, 1995
Publisher: National Center for Policy Analysis

http://www.heartland.org/pdf/23661d.pdf
Heartland Institute

Guide to Regulatory Reform: Takings
Written By: Kent Jeffreys
Published In: Brief Analysis
Publisher: National Center for Policy Analysis

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=5382
Heartland Institute

Progressive Environmentalism: Principles for Regulatory Reform

Written By: Kent Jeffreys
Published In: Policy Report (part 2)
Publication Date: June 1, 1995
Publisher: National Center for Policy Analysis

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=2731
Heartland Institute

Guide to Regulatory Reform: Cost-Benefit Analysis
Written By: Kent Jeffreys
Published In: NCPA Brief Analysis
Publisher: National Center for Policy Analysis

From Co-conspirator Michael Fumento website

http://www.fumento.com/energytax.html
Michael Fumento website

What Will an Energy Tax Do?
Raise Prices and Slow Growth, but Little Else
By Michael Fumento

Investor's Business Daily, March 5, 1993

... "This hurts practically everybody," said Kent Jeffreys, environmental director for the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a Washington-based free-enterprise think tank. "The only bloc behind this tax is the environmental groups." ...

http://www.fumento.com/irishwake.html
Michael Fumento website

The Doom of Earth Day
By Michael Fumento

Investor's Business Daily, April 22, 1993

... "The trendlines in almost every single category have been positive, yet environmentalists consistently ignore them," said Kent Jeffreys of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington. ...

http://www.fumento.com/remedSuperfund.html
By Michael Fumento

The Remediation of Superfund
Program Needs Way To Balance Costs, Benefits
By Michael Fumento

Investor's Business Daily, October 23, 1991

... Said Kent Jeffreys, an analyst with the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute: "It's become a lawyer's welfare bill." ...

http://www.fumento.com/Superfund.html
By Michael Fumento

Superfund: Hazardous Waste?
It Has Spent Billions but Cleaned Just 63 Sites
By Michael Fumento

Investor's Business Daily, October 22, 1991

... Said Kent Jeffreys of the Competitive Enterprise Institute: "We believe that no one's health is being benefitted by Superfund. In 99 of 100 cases, we are supposedly talking about human health concerns, but the (Superfund) law is written so that it essentially calls for returning the environment to a pristine condition." ...

Co-conspirators from National Center for Policy Analysis

http://www.ncpa.org/studies/s194/jeffreys.html
National Center for Policy Analysis

Kent Jeffreys is a Senior Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis. Mr. Jeffreys, who holds a J.D. from the University of Mississippi, is an expert in environmental issues including risk analysis, unfunded mandates, environmental racism, global warming and climate change, Superfund, wetlands, endangered species and property rights. Mr. Jeffreys also is the former Director of Environmental Studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a former Energy and Environmental Policy Analyst for the Heritage Foundation and a former Republican Study Committee Analyst for the U.S. House of Representatives. His television appearances have included MacNeil/Lehrer, C-Span and TechnoPolitics, and he has testified before Congress on numerous environmental issues.

From assorted websites

http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1989/june/Sa16171.htm

The 'Private' Approach Works

Article # : 16171

Section : CURRENT ISSUES Issue Date : 6 / 1989 2,528 Words
Author : Kent Jeffreys

http://www.libertyhaven.com/theoreticalorphilosophicalissues/libertarianism/buildingunlimited.shtml

"Building an Unlimited Future"
Barry Asmus

... But, as Competitive Enterprise Institute environmental director Kent Jeffreys has noted, by the time the facts are marshalled and accurately presented in rebuttal, government policy is already set, and the public is under bombardment by the next media campaign. ...

Other Related SourceWatch Resources

• Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI)
• Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination
• S. Fred Singer
• The Epa and the Science of Environmental Tobacco Smoke

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