Heartland Institute Lures Legislators with Free Hotels for Climate Skeptics Conference

onFeb 19, 2008 @ 15:31 PST

If there is a sweeter deal for Republican Senator “global warming is hoax” Inhofe I don’t know what it would be.

DeSmogBlog has received the details of an invitation that has apparently gone out to elected officials promising them “lodging and pay for up to two (2) nights of accommodation,” in New York if they would like to attend the Heartland Institute’s “International Climate Change Conference.”

And if that isn’t enough, elected officials who are a member of the Heartland’s “Legislative Forum,” will also receive an extra bonus of $300 to cover travel expenses.

Ka-ching! Membership has its privileges – free trip to New York, free hotel room, I guess political life isn’t as bad as everyone says it is.

The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based “think” tank with a cozy relationship with the energy sector describes the conference as, “… the first major international conference to focus on issues and questions not answered by advocates of the theory of man-made global warming.”

At the bottom of this post is the text of the email invite to elected officials and attached is an RSVP form with the details of the junket.

Our friends at RealClimate.org describe the impressive sounding conference in not-so glowing terms:

Normal scientific conferences have the goal of discussing ideas and data in order to advance scientific understanding. Not this one. The organisers are surprisingly open about this in their invitation letter to prospective speakers, which states:

‘The purpose of the conference is to generate international media attention to the fact that many scientists believe forecasts of rapid warming and catastrophic events are not supported by sound science, and that expensive campaigns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not necessary or cost-effective.’

So this conference is not aimed at understanding, it is a PR event aimed at generating media reports.”

So who do you think is most likely to take the Heartland up on the offer?

My top 4 guesses:

Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK)

Kentucky State Rep. Jim Gooch (D-Providence)

Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)

Kansas State Rep. Melvin Neufeld (R-Ingalls)

Here’s the email transcript of the Heartland invite for elected officials:

From: xxx

Sent: Mon 2/18/2008 3:04 PM

To: “Undisclosed-Recipient:;”@domain.invalid

Subject: Climate Change Conference for legislators/lodging free

Attached is an application on a conference on Climate Change that would be from the perspective that scientifically there is much evidence that humans do not cause any climate change. I think in light of the Governor’s Climate Change Commission it might be good for some to go.

For elected officials, there is no registration fee for this event and The Heartland Institute will arrange for your lodging and pay for up to two (2) nights of your accommodations. If you are a member in good standing of The Legislative Forum at The Heartland Institute, you will also receive up to $300.00 of your travel expenses reimbursed after the conference.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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