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In the early 1990s The National
Center's Center for Environmental
and Regulatory Affairs, originally named the Environmental Policy
Task Force, to counter misinformation being spread to the public
and policymakers by the environmental left.
We seek to counter: 1) those
who disseminate false information about science relating to environmental
policy, 2) those who disseminate misleading information about
science relating to the environment, such as telling the public
that the science is settled on certain issues when respected scientists
disagree; 3) those who believe, contrary to much evidence, that
the only way to solve any social problem is to throw huge amounts
of money and layer after layer of complicated and often counterproductive
regulations at it.
We also provide some balance
in a debate in which persons who disagree with the environmental
left on any issue at all are labeled "anti-environment,"
"tools of big business," and worse, often much worse,
as if environmental policy is the single area of human existence
in which it is a crime to think for oneself.
To do all this, the Center for Environmental
and Regulatory Affairs helps arm conservatives with tools for the
environmental policy debate it had been lacking, among them: 1)
a forum for coordination and sharing of strategy and information;
2) numerous accounts of how environmental regulations work in
practice; 3) explanations of the perspectives of various groups
on environmental issues; 4) a marketing apparatus to help grassroots
environmental activists, persons knowledgeable about environmental
regulations and reputable economists and scientists gain greater
access to the media; 5) a system for countering "junk science"
when it appears, especially in the media, with accurate facts.
The Center for Environmental
and Regulatory Affairs
sponsors and chairs coalition meetings for conservative/free market/sound
science advocates attended by over two dozen organizations. The
Center also produces several major publications, including a book
produced every other year, Shattered Dreams: 100 Stories of
Regulatory Abuse (first published under the title National
Directory of Environmental and Regulatory Victims), containing
the personal accounts of over 100 Americans victimized by excessive
regulations and a media directory of some 150 environmental scientists,
economists and public policy experts. The Center also publishes
a regular newsletter on environmental and regulatory issues, Ten
Second Response, publishes talking points cards, policy papers,
press releases and other succinct publications for the media,
the public and policymakers, and conducts press conferences and
special projects. |
