From CO2 Coalition's About page
The CO2 Coalition was established in 2015 as a 501(c)(3) for the purpose of educating thought leaders, policy makers, and the public about the important contribution made by carbon dioxide to our lives and the economy. The Coalition seeks to engage in an informed and dispassionate discussion of climate change, humans’ role in the climate system, the limitations of climate models, and the consequences of mandated reductions in CO2 emissions.
In carrying out our mission, we seek to strengthen the understanding of the role of science and the scientific process in addressing complex public policy issues like climate change. Science produces empirical, measurable, objective facts and provides a means for testing hypotheses that can be replicated and potentially disproven. Approaches to policy that do not adhere to the scientific process risk grave damage to the economy and to science.
From CO2 Coalition's DeSmog Blog page at
CO2 Coalition
The CO2 Coalition was established in 2015 from the
remains of the now-defunct George C. Marshall Institute (GMI) and registered as a 501(c)(3) organization for the purpose of “educating thought leaders, policy makers, and the public about the important contribution made by carbon dioxide and fossil fuels to our lives and the economy.”
[1],
[2]
The GMI
shut down in September/October of 2015. A GMI press release noted the group's national security research would be transferred to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), while it is apparent that the CO2 Coalition would take over Marshall's “work on energy and climate change.”
[3],
[4]
The CO2 Coalition's tag line is “Carbon dioxide, a nutrient vital for life,” and it appears to share many of the views put forward by
Craig Idso's Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change (
Co2science.org). Craig Idso is notably listed on the CO2 Coalition's Board of Directors.
[1]
“The CO2 Coalition seeks to engage thought leaders, policy makers, and the public in an informed and dispassionate discussion about the important contribution made by carbon dioxide and fossil fuels. We seek to shift the debate from the unjustified criticism of CO2 and fossil fuels to one based on a solid scientific foundation. Any discussion of climate change needs to address the extent of our knowledge of the climate system, well-established uncertainties, the limitations of climate models, and the consequences of mandated reductions in CO2emissions,”
the CO2 Coalition's homepage states.
[1]
In December of 2015, coalition director
William Happer was
implicated in a Greenpeace investigation where activists posed as consultants for a Middle Eastern energy company and asked Happer and Frank Clemente, an emeritus sociology professor at Pennsylvania State University, to author reports on the benefits of coal and carbon dioxide emissions.
[5]
The
Mercer Family Foundation was a top donor to the CO2 Coalition in 2016 with a $150,000 donation. The Foundation is run by by
Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of hedge fund manager
Robert Mercer, and has funnelled millions of dollars to conservative causes and climate change denial groups.
[42]
