Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow

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The Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) was founded in 1985. It does policy and lobbying work on the environment from a libertarian perspective. It touts itself as a conservative answer to the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (e.g. NYPIRG, ConnPIRG et al.), progressive lobbying groups concerned with environmental issues. The PIRGs raise much of their funding from door-to-door canvassing and student activity fees at college campuses around the country. CFACT has been involved in efforts to eliminate this funding, or found counter-organizations that would give right-wing causes a piece of the pie.

In December 2009 CFACT was a co-organiser of the Copenhagen Climate Challenge, a conference for climate change skeptics to co-incide with the COP15 climate change conference.

In November 2015, CFACT announced the premier of its movie Climate Hustle the following month, in timing with the 21st United Nations international climate negotiations.

Documents Contained at the Anti-Environmental Archives

Documents written by or referencing this person or organization are contained in the Anti-Environmental Archive, launched by Greenpeace on Earth Day, 2015. The archive contains 3,500 documents, some 27,000 pages, covering 350 organizations and individuals. The current archive includes mainly documents collected in the late 1980s through the early 2000s by The Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research (CLEAR), an organization that tracked the rise of the so called "Wise Use" movement in the 1990s during the Clinton presidency. Access the index to the Anti-Environmental Archives here.

Founding

CFACT describes its founding: "In 1985, the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) was founded to promote a positive voice on environment and development issues. Its co-founders, David Rothbard and Craig Rucker, believed very strongly that the power of the market combined with the applications of safe technologies could offer humanity practical solutions to many of the world’s pressing concerns. A number of leading scientists, academics, and policy leaders would also agree with them and soon joined their effort, along with thousands of citizens from around the country."

Mission

"Today, this Washington DC-based group is a highly respected organization and its voice can be heard relentlessly infusing the environmental debate with a balanced perspective on environmental stewardship. With an influential and impressive scientific advisory board, aggressive collegiate program, CFACT Europe, United Nations representation, Adopt-A-Village project, Global Social Responsibility program, and 'Just the Facts' national radio commentary, CFACT has and continues to offer genuine positive solutions to today’s global challenges."

People

Leadership

Accessed September 2008:

• Craig Rucker, Executive Director. Rucker attended SUNY-Albany, where he first came in contact with NYPIRG, the New York affiliate of the 'Public Interest Research Groups'. Ever since, he's worked with and for organizations in an attempt to subvert the PIRGs. He's also an adjunct scholar at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.[1]
• David Rothbard, President
• Meredith McLain, Development Director
• Duggan Flanakin, Director of Policy Research
• Bill Gilles, Collegians For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) Director
• Holger J. Thuss, CFACT Europe Director
• Paul Driessen, Senior Policy Advisor

CFACT's 2010 IRS Form 990 lists Marc Morano as Director of Communications.

Advisory Board

Accessed September 2008:

Also See Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow: Advisory Board (as of 2004)

• Bruce Ames, Ph. D. - Professor, University of California at Berkeley
• Sallie Baliunas, Ph. D. - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
• Robert C. Balling, Jr., Ph. D. - Professor, Arizona State University
• Roger Bate, Ph. D. - Director, Africa Fighting Malaria
• Jim Beers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (retired).
• E. Calvin Beisner, Ph. D. - Associate Professor, Knox Theological Seminary
• Ben Bolch, Ph. D. - Professor Emeritus of Economics, Rhodes College
• Hardy Bouillon, Ph. D. - Head of Academic Affairs, Centre for the New Europe
• James Bovard, Author and Lecturer
• Gilbert Brown, Ph. D. - Professor, University of Massachusetts at Lowell
• H. Sterling Burnett, Ph. D. - Senior Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis [energy, environment]
• Bernard Cohen, Ph. D. - Professor, Department of Physics, University of Pittsburgh
• Richard S. Courtney, European Science and Environment Forum
• Joseph D. DeLuca, Biotechnology Laboratory Specialist, Yale University School of Medicine
• Thomas DiLorenzo, Ph . D. - Department of Economics, Loyola College of Maryland
• Hugh Ellsaesser, Ph. D. - Meteorologist (retired), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Michael Fumento, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
• Indur Goklany, U.S. Department of the Interior
• Howard Hayden, Ph. D. - Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut;
• Steven F. Hayward, Ph. D. - American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
• Peter Holle, Founding President, Frontier Centre for Public Policy (Winnipeg)
• Sherwood B. Idso, Ph. D. - President, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change
• Jacqueline Kasun, Ph. D. - Professor Emeritus of Economics, Humboldt State University, California
• Kelvin Kemm, Ph. D. - Nuclear Engineering, STRATEK, Pretoria, South Africa
• Gerald R. Kleinfeld, Ph.D. - Consortium for Atlantic Studies, Arizona State University
• Manfred Kroger, Ph. D. - Professor Emeritus of Food Science, Pennsylvania State University
• Jo Kwong, Atlas Economic Research Foundation
• William H. Lash III, Ph. D. - Professor of Law, George Mason University
• Tung-Ching Lee, Ph. D. - Department of Food Sciences, Rutgers University
• Leon Louw, Executive Director, Free Market Foundation of South Africa
• David Maillie, Ph. D. - Professor Emeritus of Biophysics, University of Rochester
• Roger Meiners, Ph. D. - Professor of Economics and Law, University of Texas at Arlington
• John Meredith, Founder, Meredith Advocacy Group; Member, Agenda 21
• Patrick J. Michaels, Ph. D. - University of Virginia
• A. Alan Moghissi, Ph. D. - President, Institute for Regulatory Science
• Pauline Mwinzi, M.D. - Kenya Medical Research Institute
• Nick Nichols, Founder, Nichols-Dezenhall Communications Management Group, Ltd.
• Robert Novak, University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Harry Priem, Professor of Isotope and Planetary Geology, Utrecht University (retired)
• Jay Richards, Acton Institute, Director of Media
• Michael Sanera, Research Director, John Locke Foundation
• Frederick Seitz, Ph. D. - President Emeritus, Rockefeller University
• Fr. Robert A. Sirico, Acton Institute
• Syrulwa Somah
• James H. Steele [2]
• Ruthann Swanson
• Shmuel Vaknin, (Sam), Ph.D. - Associate Editor, Global Politician; Founding Analyst, The Analyst Network [economics, finance]
• Donald Waite, Ph. D.
• Gerd-Rainer Weber, Ph. D.
• Elizabeth Whelan, Ph. D.
• Kate Xiao Zhou, Ph. D. - Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Hawaii

Other writers

As of December 2010, these other (non-leadership, non-advisory-board) individuals were writing for the CFACT website:

With CFACT titles:

• Alan Caruba, CFACT Adjunct Policy Analyst
• Bonner R. Cohen, CFACT Senior Policy Analyst
• Redmond Weissenberger, CFACT Policy Analyst

Without CFACT titles:

• Dennis Avery
• Hans Labohm
• Bob Carter
• Christopher Lore
• Marc Morano, host of the website Climate Depot; termed "CFACT's Marc Morano", but his position is unclear.

Affiliates Listed on 2010 "Provisional" U.N. Document

For the June 2010 U.N. climate talks in Bonn, the "Provisional list of participants" [3] lists over 30 individuals in the CFACT entourage, including many not previously associated with the organization. But these "extras" - including "Senior Advisor" Nir Shaviv, who denies any CFACT tie - do not appear in the "Final list of participants"[4]. It is not known why these additional individuals appeared as CFACT affiliates.

Funding

CFACT is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit group under the of code of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. On its website, CFACT does not disclose its corporate or foundation funders.

Media Transparency calculates that between 1991 and 2006 CFACT gained $1,280,000 from 18 grants from only two foundations -- the Carthage Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation. The Carthage Foundation granted $1,105,000 to CFACT between 1991 - 2006, while the Sarah Scaife Foundation sent $175,000 to the group between 1996 - 2001.

On its website tracking grants to groups, the conservative Capital Research Center listed CFACT as having received grants of $60,500 from Chevron between 1994 and 1998. (The CRC lists the grants comprising $16,000 in each of 1994, 1995 and 1996 and $12,500 in 1998). The CRC also listed CFACT from having received $25,000 from DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund $25,000 and a token $500 from the Ford Motor Company Fund.

ExxonMobil contributed $5,000 in each of 1997 and 1998. Greenpeace's ExxonSecrets website adds that Exxon has contributed a further $577,000 between 2000 and 2007.

Contact Information

CFACT
P.O. Box 65722
Washington, D.C. 20035
Phone: 202-429-2737
Email: info AT cfact.org
Web: http://www.cfact.org

Street Addresses

Guidestar.org lists CFACT at 7521 Presidential Ln, Manassas, VA 20109; this is the address of its tax preparer Hendershot, Burkhardt and Reed (which was used by many like-minded groups).

Some online webpages have CFACT at 1825 I St. NW in Washington, but as of April 2010 this was incorrect; the actual office address appears to be a virtual office in the same International Square complex, at 1875 I St. NW, 5th floor.

External Links

• "FACTSHEET: Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, CFACT", exxonsecrets.org
• "Straight Talk: Nader Scams College Kids", an article on the conservative viewpoint of the PIRGs, Foxnews.com

Resources and Articles

Related Sourcewatch Articles

• Hendershot, Burkhardt and Reed