Science and Environmental Policy Project

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The Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) was an organization run by S. Fred Singer and his wife Candace Crandall - but with the help of a large number of corrupted (and some gullible) scientists. It was established as a climate change denier organization by Philip Morris's private public relations firm APCO & Associates. This happened at much the same time that APCO were also establishing the infamous junk-science organisation known as TASSC - The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition - (eventually run by Steven J Milloy).

These were two related organisations, serving the same end. They were anti-science, in that they deliberately distorted the facts about a range of scientific research for the sole purpose of calling into question the claims of scientists to know that health and the environment were being harmed by air-pollutants. They accused the scientists of over-reacting, bias, scare-mondering, and just plain incompetence -- and TASSC in particular hid its tobacco industry connections by attacking a wide range of regulate substances - DDT, Alar, breast implants, etc.

SEPP concentrated on the more limited, but less understood area of climate science. It was later transferred to the George Mason University along with the Independence Institute and the Cash-for-Comments Economists Network.

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.

History

In his highly imaginative history of SEPP, Prof. S. Fred Singer says that he founded the Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) in 1990. It began as a research effort for a book Dr. Singer was writing on global warming.

At least four of Singer's books have been published by Paragon House Publishers, which since 1981 was owned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church's think-tank operation, the International Cultural Foundation (ICF). (which worked for the tobacco industry and other funding corporations)

Singer was for several years a member of the Advisory Board of the monthly magazine The World and I for which he and his wife, Candace Crandall, wrote several articles over a time span of more than 10 years.

The website The World and I, which (like the Washington Times newspaper) is owned by Unification Church's News World Communications. Other people who have been with SEPP who have links to the Unification Church are Tor Ragnar Gerholm and the late Michael Higatsberger who were active in the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) [2], while Gerhard Stohrer (a partner of Singer in SEPP) and Candace Crandall (Singer's wife) were both involved with the UC-affiliated Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy.

In February 1992 SEPP published the "Statement by Atmospheric Scientists on Greenhouse Warming" expressing alarm about the agenda for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as the Earth Summitt, which ocurred in November in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro. (See SEPP and the Statement by Atmospheric Scientists on Greenhouse Warming).

In an article, "Scientists Ripped As Alarmists in Ecology Warning", by M. Schunkmann published on November 21, 1992 by the St. Louis Post, Candace Crandall was listed as the executive director of SEPP. [3]

SEPP and the International Institute of George Mason University organized on May 24 & 25, 1993 in the Madison Hotel in Washington a conference called "Scientific Integrity in the Public Policy Process". [4] The debating points included the use and misuse of scientific data in relation to radon, asbestos, global warming, ozone depletion, passive smoking, pesticides, etc. Participants were: [5] [6] [7]

This conference was only 2 weeks after the Michel Salomon's International Center for a Scientific Ecology (ICSE) conference in Paris which were S. Fred Singer and Michel Salomon were participants. Philip Morris (PM) wanted to indirectly sponsor an ICSE seminar in May 1993 in Washington DC [8] and at least one employee of PM did attend it. [9]

S. Fred Singer was in 1994 the Senior Reviewer of a junk science report of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (AdTI) called Science, Economics, and Environmental Policy: A Critical Examination. [10] [11] AdTI was funded by Philip Morris and the Tobacco Institute. (see also AdTI-Funding)

"In January 1995, the Science & Environmental Policy Project moved to Fairfax, joining Atlas, the Institute for Humane Studies, The Locke Institute, and the Center for Market Processes at "4084 University Drive" near George Mason University. Atlas provided a grant to IPPS to facilitate the move and help fund the organization during its first year in Fairfax." [12]

SEPP and Helmut Metzner's European Academy for Environmental Affairs held in November 1995 a conference in Leipzig after which the Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change was announced. This is a petition of some "scientists concerned with atmospheric and climate problems" who deny that human greenhouse gas emissions are causing global climate change. [13] [14]

In 1997 a second conference was held in Bonn.

Personnel

Board of Directors

Board of Science Advisors

Research Associates

Others

Finances

SEPP's 2003 IRS Form 990 (2003) showed no one receiving a salary and the total expenses were $56,029 with a total revenue of $160,249 and net assets $714,531.

Funding

"... S. Fred Singer, acknowledged during a 1994 appearance on the television program Nightline that he had received funding from Exxon, Shell, Unocal and ARCO. He did not deny receiving funding on a number of occasions from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon." [20]

In 2000 SEPP wrote on their web site:

"SEPP does not solicit financial support from either industry or governmental sources. Income is derived mainly from charitable foundations and private individuals. Some income is derived also from SEPP conference fees and the sale of books and reports to the public. As a non-profit educational and research 501(c) 3 organization, accepting tax-deductible contributions, SEPP is required to file an annual report with the IRS. SEPP operates on a modest budget; its officers and associated scientists do not receive salaries but contribute their services on a pro bono basis." [21] (emphasis added)

ExxonMobil donated $10,000 to SEPP both in 1998 [22] and 2000 [23].

Other SourceWatch resources

Contact information

Current address: Science and Environmental Policy Project
1600 S Eads St.
Suite 712-S
Arlington, VA 22202
Phone: 703-920-2744
Web: http://www.sepp.org/

Here are some of SEPP's prior addresses, including space provided by Koch-connected enterprises:

2101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1003
Arlington, VA 22201
(This is the same building address as the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and an array of Koch-funded groups that operate out of offices in that building.)

Prior to that address, SEPP was located at:
4084 University Drive
Fairfax, VA (near George Mason University)
(This space was shared with other Koch-funded operations such as the Atlas, the Institute for Humane Studies, The Locke Institute, and the Center for Market Processes.


External links

  • ↑ Donna Fitzpatrick Bethell (2011-08-21). (letters) Global warming: Ever the politically hot topic. The Washington Post. Retrieved on 2011-11-01. “The writer was the undersecretary in the Energy Department from 1988 to 1989 and serves on the board of the Science & Environmental Policy Project.”
    • Retrieved from "https://dev.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Science_and_Environmental_Policy_Project&oldid=703409"