Heartland Institute CEO Corrects False HuffPost Story

Published October 30, 2017

A story appearing on Friday at HuffPost, a liberal website, claimed The Heartland Institute urged the Trump administration to put a “convicted child sex offender” on a “Red Team” to impartially review the science that underpins United States climate and energy policy. That story is false. The Heartland Institute never recommended that individual for any position, advisory or otherwise. We have asked HuffPost for corrections and retractions.

The list of scientists and other experts obtained by HuffPost was actually just an invitation list sent to the Environmental Protection Agency for an EPA event that was scheduled to take place on June 14, 2017. That event, titled the “EPA Scientific Integrity Annual Stakeholder Meeting,” was subsequently cancelled when EPA’s “Science Integrity Officer,” an Obama administration hold-over named Francesca Grifo, learned skeptics of catastrophic man-caused global warming were planning to attend.

The “convicted child sex offender” was not on any list of scientists or other experts recommended by The Heartland Institute to serve on a Red Team or any other position in the Trump administration.

The shoddy and dishonest reporting by HuffPost, E&E News, and other outlets is shameful and even disgusting, but no different from what we’ve come to expect from the green left.