Center on Climate and Environmental Policy

Environment


The Heartland Institute is "the world’s most prominent think tank promoting skepticism about man-made climate change.”

The Economist, May 26, 2012

Heartland's Center on Climate and Environmental Policy produces an ambitious program of research and educational projects in defense of free-market environmentalism — which includes a petition to rein in the EPA that has gained more than 17,000 signatures.

Heartland has assembled a team of leading scientists and economic experts to participate in the production of books, videos, a monthly public policy newspaper, events, and other public relations activities.

The environmental movement needs voices devoted to sound science and market-based, rather than government-based, solutions to environmental problems. The nation's air and water quality, the safety of its food, and the health and productivity of its forests all depend on bringing the best-available science and economic research to bear on protecting the environment.

Heartland has organized and hosted eight International Conferences on Climate Change since 2008, events that attracted extensive international attention to the debate taking place in the scientific community over the causes, extent, and consequences of climate change.

Press Releases: Environment

Ideas

  • Carbon Tax

    Carbon taxes are job killers. Energy cost is tightly correlated with economic growth, and any increase in the price of energy has negative impacts on job creation, per-capita income, and growth in GDP. Since 80 percent of energy consumed in America comes from fossil fuels, a carbon tax would raise energy costs across the board, hurting every industry and every consumer.
  • Hydraulic Fracturing

    New natural gas discoveries in shale rock formations and rapid technological advances to recover the gas have improved the U.S. domestic energy outlook. Shale extraction has proven remarkably safe for the environment and the newfound abundance of domestic natural gas reserves promises unprecedented energy prosperity and security.
  • Global Warming: Not a Crisis

    How much of the warming of the second half of the twentieth century was natural and how much was man-made? Did the warming continue into the twenty-first century? What are consequences of moderate warming? What, if anything, should be done? These are all legitimate questions that people all around the world are asking. The Heartland Institute, “a major force among climate sceptics” (according to the science journal Nature), publishes books and studies, produces videos, and hosts international conferences on this important topic.