Democratic Senator from Rhode Island demands all correspondence from Heartland with Trump administration concerning recission of the Endangerment Finding by EPA
Heartland President James Taylor responds by demanding Sheldon Whitehouse acknowledge energy and climate positions he has promoted that benefit his many corporate political donors
Heartland also demands to know of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: “Have you ever chosen to be a long-term member of any social club that was NOT Whites Only?”
Sen. Whitehouse in 2023 led the opposition to an amendment that would have denounced a statement calling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas a “house slave” on the House Senate Judiciary Committee
SCHAUMBURG, IL (September 18, 2015) — The Heartland Institute received a letter on September 16, 2025 from U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). He wrote Heartland “to better understand [The Heartland Institute’s] role in the proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rescission of the 2009 endangerment finding.” Sen. Whitehouse is not a stranger to Heartland with these kinds of letters from Democratic members of Congress.
The Heartland Institute is known globally as the leading think tank pushing back on climate alarmism, has hosted 15 International Conferences on Climate Change, and has presented The Climate Realism Show on YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, and X for many years.
Read the letter from Whitehouse here.
Sen. Whitehouse’s party is in the minority, so he has so subpoena power. Heartland Institute President James Taylor pointed that out in his reply to the senator.
“I am not surprised to receive such a letter from you, though I am surprised that it took you so long to send one. Your track record is to verbally flex about and threaten The Heartland Institute when you are in the minority party and have no power to back up your bullying tactics. Then, when your party is in the majority and you have the authority to schedule hearings, issue subpoenas, etc., you become quiet as a church mouse.”
Sen. Whitehouse has featured The Heartland Institute in many of his speeches to an empty chamber on the Senate Floor. (Here is one, in which Sen. Whitehouse lied about Heartland’s funding and work on smoker’s rights and Environment & Climate News with the protection from slander on the public’s Senate floor. And here is one of Heartland’s reactions.)
Taylor said he will happily testify in the Senate before Sen. Whitehouse whenever he is called by him to do so.
“Even though you have no power to back up your public chest-pounding, I will graciously look favorably upon answering all your silly questions and provide all the information you desire if you first truthfully answer my questions for you.”
Taylor’s questions to purported climate expert Whitehouse include the following, with many citing reports from the from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):
Were temperatures warmer or colder than today when human civilization first arose 6,000 years ago?
- Are you familiar with the objective data showing a substantial overall decline in severe weather events and resulting human deaths as our planet modestly warms?
- Were temperatures warmer or colder than today as civilization and human health and welfare flourished during the Medieval Warm Period 1,000 years ago?
- Were temperatures warmer or colder than today during the extreme weather events, plagues, famines, and human catastrophe of the Dark Ages 500 years ago?
- Are you familiar with Affordable, Reliable, and Clean: An Objective Scorecard to Assess Competing Energy Sources, documenting how wind and solar power are uniquely destructive to land conservation, animal species, clean water, clean soil, and the overall environment?
- Are you familiar with the human misery and environmental devastation caused by the mining and refining of rare earth minerals and other necessary materials for wind and solar equipment?
In light of the cheap shots and lies Whitehouse has told about The Heartland Institute, Taylor also asked these questions in his official response sent to his office:
- How have the energy and climate positions you have promoted benefited your many corporate political donors?
- How have the energy and climate positions you have promoted benefited your spouse’s employer, your spouse’s finances, and your spouse’s professional interests?
- Have you ever chosen to be a long-term member of any social club that was NOT Whites Only?
Sheldon Whitehouse belongs to a beach club that is reportedly “all white”, meaning they have no members that are people of color in an age where that is extremely rare. Democrats in Congress and around the country consider that problematic and proof you are racist. In 2023, Sheldon Whitehouse took the lead in opposing an amendment that would have denounced a statement calling Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas a “house slave” in a hearing on Supreme Court ethics.
Read the full letter from James Taylor to Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse here.
For more comments or to book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 312/731-9364.
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