CEI’s Myron Ebell Named “Villain of the Month”

Washington, D.C., March 22, 2001—In recognition of the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Cooler Heads Coalition’s efforts to help prevent the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions, Director of Global Warming Policy Myron Ebell has been honored by the Clean Air Trust as “Villain of the Month” for March. Past honorees include Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), Senator George Voinovich (R-OH), American Electric Power, Exxon Mobil, General Motors, and Cinergy. 

The Clean Air Trust said in its press release that Mr. Ebell earned the distinction because of his “ferocious lobbying charge” leading to President Bush’s decision not to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. Curiously, the Clean Air Trust’s own website does not list carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

The Clean Air Trust’s citation also noted CEI’s pro-consumer energy policies and listed all members of the Cooler Heads Coalition. The Cooler Heads Coalition, which Ebell chairs, includes two dozen public policy institutes and membership organizations that question global warming alarmism and the Kyoto Protocol.

In a letter accepting the award, Mr. Ebell wrote:

I am pleased to receive your award for the recognition it gives to my activities and to the activities of all the groups in the Cooler Heads Coalition in the public debate over global warming and the Kyoto Protocol. We all worked hard to convince President Bush not to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. I don’t know how much we helped him make the right decision, but he did indeed make the right decision, and so we feel very good about our efforts.

Mr. Ebell also promised to try to live up to the honor. 

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. The Cooler Heads Coalition is comprised of more than 20 groups and publishes a bi-weekly report on the politics, science, and economics of global warming.