Stink Tanks: State Policy Network Internal Budget Documents Revealed by The Guardian

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It’s been aย rough week for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The โ€œcorporate bill millโ€ group’sย annual States & Nation meetingย was overshadowed by damaging evidence of misconduct revealed byย The Guardian.ย 

And it just got a whole lot rougher with yet another investigative installment inย The Guardianย series.

This time, instead of focusing on ALEC alone,ย Guardian reporters Suzanne Goldenberg and Ed Pilkingtonย took a big swing at whatย Center for Media and Democracyย andย Progress Now have called the โ€œstink tanksโ€ network run by the right-wing State Policy Network (SPN). Leaked a copy of SPN‘s tax and budget proposal published in July 2013, the documents offer a rare glimpse inside the SPN machine.

One of the biggest revelations in the energy and environment sphere: SPN Associate Member, the Beacon Hill Institute โ€œrequested $38,825โ€ฆto weaken or roll back a five-year effort by states in the region to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,โ€ explained The Guardian.ย โ€œThe institute said it would carry out research into the economic impact of the cap-and-trade system operating in nine states known as the Regional Greenhouse Gasย Initiative.โ€

โ€œBHI appeared to have already arrived at its conclusions in advance, admitting from the outset that the aim of the research was to arm opponents of cap-and-trade with data for their arguments, and to weaken or destroy theย initiative.โ€

Another huge related development came in a piece published concurrently byย The Guardian.ย That piece pointed out thatย Beacon Hill Institute is in trouble with its host institution Suffolk University for pushing research explicitly funded by SPN to oppose the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, with research results already determined before the inquiryย began.ย 

โ€œThe stated research goals, as written, were inconsistent with Suffolk University’s mission,โ€ Greg Gatlin, the university’s vice-president for marketing and communications, wrote in an email to The Guardian. โ€œThe Beacon Hill Institute’s grant proposal did not go through the university’s approval process. The university would not have authorized this grant proposal asย written.โ€

Searle, Monsanto, โ€œThe Donโ€: Ohย My

The Guardian‘s piece is based on funding proposals from SPN member organizationsย handed to theย Searle Freedom Trust, โ€œa private foundation that in 2011 donated almost $15m to largely rightwing causes,โ€ the paperย explains.ย 

โ€œThe trust, founded in 1998, draws on the family fortune of the late Dan Searle of the GD Searle & Company empire โ€“ now part of Pfizer โ€“ which created NutraSweet,โ€ wrote The Guardian. โ€œThe trust is a major donor to such mainstays of the American right and the Tea Parties as Americans for Prosperity, the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec), the Heartland Institute and the State Policy Networkย itself.โ€

Donald Rumsfeld; Photo Credit: Wikimediaย Commons

Prior to Pfizer buying it out, Searle was a wholly owned subsidiary of transnational agribusiness giant, Monsanto. Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush,ย served as CEO of Searle & Company from 1977-1985. Rumsfeld leftย the firm after it was purchased by Monsanto, personally earning $12 million on theย deal.

Donors Trust/Donors Capital, Chicagoย Ties

The Chicago-based Searle Freedom Trust also gives big money to Donors Trust/Donors Capital, donating $1,880,000 between 2009 and 2011 according toย SourceWatchย and millions more to ALEC, according to the Bridge Project.ย Donors is referred to by Mother Jones reporter Andy Kroll as theย โ€the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement.โ€

The Windy City ties that bind are key. Among them, the Chicago-basedย Heartland Instituteย and theย โ€œanonymous donorโ€ behind its anti-science climate denial campaign (mentioned inย the โ€œHeartland Institute Exposedโ€ documents),ย Chicago billionaire Barre Seid.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel; Image Credit: Wikimediaย Commons

The Guardian‘s piece notes that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel โ€” the former chief of staff to President Barack Obama who has been dubbed โ€œMayor 1%โ€ by Chicago activists and in a recent book by Kari Lydersonย โ€” was selected by SPN member the Illinois Policy Instituteย as the ideal spokesman for slashing pensions of public sector workers inย Illinois.

Illinois Democratic Party Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation doing just thatย on Decemberย 5.ย 

โ€œMini-Heritageย Foundationsโ€

Holding its first meeting at the Madison Hotel in Washington DC, and coining itself the Madison Group, the right-wing Powell Memo-inspired founders of the group envisioned the organization to consist of a nationwide network of โ€œmini-Heritage Foundations,โ€ according toย The National Review.ย 

Decades later, the vision has come to fruition, with the State Policy Network’sย $83 million worth of โ€œstink tanksโ€ polluting the public square with the ideas necessary to push forward ALEC‘s corporate agenda.ย 

Photo Credit: Wikimediaย Commons

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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