Is Ethan Allen Institute Trying To Hide Its Climate Denying History?

The “Vermont Legislator Roll Call Profiles” published by the Ethan Allen Institute on Tuesday had at least one notable omission: the 25-5 roll call vote on Senate Resolution 7 recognizing climate change science. This omission leads us to ask, “What’s EAI afraid of?”

The Ethan Allen Institute has a documented history of denying climate change and opposing clean energy development – including the testimony presented by the Institute’s founder and current Vice President, John McClaughry, before a Senate committee this spring suggesting there is “no scientific evidence” for manmade global warming.

It’s fishy. If John McClaughry had enough conviction to come all the way to the State House to testify against the science of global warming and S.R. 7, why not include the vote in the Institute’s legislative scorecard?

Is it possible that he no longer wants to highlight his (or Ethan Allen Institute’s) extreme, anti-science views on the topic?

“A craze.” “Increasingly dubious.” A theory to be “thrown in the recycling bin, along with phrenology, Lysenkoism, spooks, and goblins.” That’s how the Ethan Allen Institute has described the virtual consensus in the scientific community about the cause and the threat of unchecked global warming.

The twenty-five state senators who voted in favor of the resolution deserve credit for recognizing that global warming is real and it’s time to take action to stop it. The climate deniers at EAI aren’t about to give them that credit, but it looks like they may no longer be interested in highlighting their own founder’s ignorance on the topic either.

 

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