The Cooler Heads Coalition was a project of the National Consumer Coalition, itself a project of the 501(c)3 charitable nonprofit organization Consumer Alert.[1]. The Cooler Heads Coalition claimed, until its closure in 2006, that "the science of global warming is uncertain, but the negative impacts of global warming policies on consumers are all too real."[2].

The Cooler Heads Coalition was criticized for ties to energy industries that would be affected if the United States enacted any legislation targeted at reducing CO₂ emissions.[3]. The Coalition was widely accused of astroturfing,[4][5][6], for example, writing for The American Prospect, Nicholas Confessore described the Coalition as "an Astroturf group funded by industries opposed to regulation of CO2 emissions." [7]. Updates to the Cooler Heads Coalition's website were done by the Competitive Enterprise Institute,[8] however, the site went offline in June, 2006. Other aspects of the site had been out of date longer: the "news" had not been updated since 2005. Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. ... Astroturfing is a term for formal public relations campaigns in politics and advertising that seek to create the impression of being spontaneous, grassroots behavior. ... The American Prospect is a monthly magazine which focuses on US politics and public policy. ... Nicholas Confessore is a journalist who is currently writing for the New York Times. ... The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a neoliberal think tank based in Washington DC. It calls itself a non-profit, non-partisan research and advocacy institute dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. ...

Members of the National Consumer Coalition included:[9]

• Advancement of Sound Science Coalition

• Alexis de Tocqueville Institution

• Americans for Tax Reform

• Atlas Economic Research Foundation

• Association of Concerned Taxpayers

• Capital Research Center

• Center for Security Policy

• Citizens Against Government Waste

• Citizens for a Sound Economy

• Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow

• Competitive Enterprise Institute

• Consumer Alert

• Defenders of Property Rights

• Foundation for American Liberty

• Frontiers of Freedom

• Fund for a New Generation

• Heartland Institute

• National Center for Policy Analysis

• National Center for Public Policy Research

• Political Economy Research Center

• Public Interest Institute

• Seniors Coalition

• 60 Plus Association

• Small Business Survival Committee

• United Seniors Association

• Women for Tax Reform

The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), is well documented in the Tobacco Documents entered in evidence and passed through due process of law of the largest civil suit in United States history which resulted in a Multistate Settlement Agreement of a record $240 billion dollars by the tobacco companies. ... The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution (not institute; abbreviated AdTI) is a Washington, D.C.-based commercial think-tank and consultancy that produces reports at the behest of its sponsors. ... Americans for Tax Reform is an interest group seeking to reduce the overall level of taxation in the United States, at the federal, state and local level. ... The Atlas Economic Research Foundation was founded in 1981 by Antony Fisher. ... Capital Research Center (CRC) is an organization that was founded in 1984 by Willa Johnson to study non-profit organizations, with a special focus on reviving the American traditions of charity, philanthropy, and voluntarism. ... The Center for Security Policy (CSP) is a Washington, D.C. thinktank that focuses on national security issues. ... Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is a prominent taxpayer watchdog group in the USA. Its stated goal is to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in the federal government. ... Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) is a conservative political group operating in the United States, whose self-described mission is to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation. ... The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization whose stated mission is to promote free market solutions to environmental problems. ... The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is a neoliberal think tank based in Washington DC. It calls itself a non-profit, non-partisan research and advocacy institute dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. ... The Heartland Institute is a free-market oriented public policy think tank based in Chicago. ... The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) is a non-partisan, non-profit think tank that develops and promotes private alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector. ... The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a self-described conservative think tank in the United States. ... USA Next is a United States lobbyist group whose slogan is Building a Legacy of Freedom for Americas Families. It presents itself as a conservative senior citizens organization, although the number of members it has has been challenged. ...

Consumer Alert and National Consumer Coalition

Consumer Alert was founded in 1977, and later established the National Consumer Coalition. [10]

Consumer Alert described itself as "a national, non-profit organization for people concerned about excessive growth of government regulation at the national and state levels. We are dedicated to informing the public about the consumer benefits of competitive enterprise and promoting the utilization of sound economic, scientific, and risk data in public policy decisions."[11]

Staff members of Consumer Alert included, at various times, Frances Smith (executive director from 1994-2005), James Plummer (policy analyst), and Rich Zipperer (policy analyst).

Consumer Alert may have ceased operations. It's website, www.consumeralert.org, and three other websites operated by the organization (as cited in Consumer Alert's 2004 tax return), including the website of the Cooler Heads Coalition, are no longer online. Consumer Alert's 2004 tax return, the last one publicly available, cites its address as "in care of" the Washington DC law firm Collier Shannon Scott (since merged into Kelley, Drye & Warren, LLP).

The National Consumer Coalition was formed by Consumer Alert on February 4, 1997; it conducted research and educational activities on a variety of issues, including housing, transportation, food, health and safety, the environment, utilities, tax policy, financial issues, and telecommunications.[12] A major issue of the National Consumer Coalition in the late 1990s was opposition to a federal mandate that airbags be installed in automobiles sold in the United States.[13] The NCC argued that manufacturers should be allowed to install switches in automibiles so consumers can turn the airbags off. Once this permission was obtained, the NCC sought to persuade automakers to install the switches.[14]

In 2001, the National Consumer Coalition launched the website www.NCCprivacy.org, saying it would cover four issue areas: online privacy, medical privacy, financial privacy and government surveillance.[15] The website is no longer online.

In 2004, the National Consumer Coalition joined with the Free Congress Foundation to ask Congress not to eliminate "sunset" provisions calling for the expiry of regulations in the Patriot Act that Consumer Alert's James Plummer called "violations of consumer privacy."[16]

The founding principles of the National Consumer Coalition can be gleaned from the principles endorsed by its members in a founding proclamation:

"The members of the National Consumer Coalition (NCC) do hereby endorse the following principles for a society of free and responsible consumers:

• A market economy benefits consumers by expanding consumer choice and competition and fostering innovation, which lowers costs and improves consumer health and safety.

• Individual consumers have different values and varying needs in the marketplace and shop for goods and services based on those, such as quality level, price, service, and convenience.

• Informed consumers are better off making their own decisions in the marketplace and holding responsibility for those decisions.

• Consumers exert clout in the marketplace by their decisions to buy or not to buy and to choose where to spend their money.

• Government policies that restrict consumer choice and stifle competition harm consumers by substituting policymakers' values for individual values and raising the costs of goods and services to consumers."[17]

The NCC's Cooler Heads Coalition project, launched in May 1997, was "an alliance of some two dozen non-profit public policy groups concerned about the implications of the Kyoto Protocol for consumers." [18]. It was an educational association that did not engage in lobbying for or against legislation.[19] It generally was associated with skepticism about the significance of the role of human activity in global warming. The global warming controversy is a debate about the specific causes of the increase in global average air temperature since the mid-1800s, the prediction of additional warming, and the consequences of that warming. ... Global mean surface temperatures 1850 to 2006 Mean surface temperature anomalies during the period 1995 to 2004 with respect to the average temperatures from 1940 to 1980 Global warming is the observed increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere and oceans in recent decades and the projected...

External links

• The Internet Archive Wayback Machine archive of the Cooler Heads Coalition website

• The Internet Archive Wayback Machine archive of the National Consumer Coalition website

• The Internet Archive Wayback Machine archive of the Consumer Alert website

• Joint Consumer Alert/Free Congress Foundation press release on the Patriot Act