Myron Ebell is a global warming denier with his fingers in many pies, all of them connected to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), one of the most vocal and well-funded of the organizations opposing action by the U.S. government on curbing climate change-causing greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Ebell is not a scientist. He is, however, listed as the director of energy and global warming policy at CEI, as well as the director of “Freedom Action”, an astroturf organization loosely affiliated with CEI. Mr Ebell also chairs the “Cooler Heads Coalition” headed by CEI. The Cooler Heads Coalition, according to DeSmogBlog.com, is a coalition of 23 freemarket think tanks, many of them with ties to the oil-industry, including the Heartland Institute, the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, the Pacific Research Institute and the George C. Marshall Institute. According to their website, the mission of the Cooler Heads Coalition is “dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis”.
In 2006, Mr. Ebell appeared on BBC’s “NewsNight”, along with John Mitchell, Chief Scientist for the UK Met Office, and a lead IPCC author. Here is an excerpt from that interview:
BBC: Myron Ebell why do you imagine that Exxon gives you money?
Ebbel: You know, I think that the attempt here to claim that only the purest of the pure can engage in the public policy debate…
BBC: Please answer the question Mr. Ebell, why do you imagine they give you money?
Ebell: Because we send them letters asking them to support our general programs which… our general program is simply this: we believe in free markets and we support policies that promote less regulation of people’s daily lives.
BBC: And they would presumably not be giving you that money if they felt you were taking a different view on, say for example climate change.
Ebell: I suppose that’s right. We develop our policies and then we try to find funding.
Here is the video from the interview:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyKUblhXJw8]
For more on the Competitive Enterprise Institute and other Climate Criminals: