Steven F. Hayward
Credentials
- Ph.D., American studies; M.A., government, Claremont Graduate School
- B.S., Business and Administrative Studies, Lewis and Clark College
Source:[1]
Background
Steven F. Hayward is a conservative writer and journalist covering issues including environmentalism, law, economics, and public policy. He is a regular blogger at Power Line.
Hayward is associated with numerous conservative think tanks including the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) where he is a senior fellow in environmental studies, and the American Enterprise Institute where he was formerly a Weyerhaeuser Fellow. He is also listed as a Board Member and Treasurer of the Donors Capital Fund (DCF), a group that works with DonorsTrust to give hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to numerous groups questioning mainstream climate science. [2], [3]
The American Enterprise Institute and Pacific Research Institute are both heavily funded by oil billionaires Koch Industries, and Richard Mellon Scaife.
Stance on Climate Change
“The planet is warming. Human beings are playing a substantial role in that warming. How large that warming is going to be and how we ought to respond to it is still an open question.” [4]
Key Quotes
“… we cannot rule out the possibility that the changes of recent decades are part of a natural rebound from the 'Little Ice Age' that followed the medieval warm period and ended in the 19th century.” [5]
“True, Heartland’s board documents reveal seven-figure contributions for their climate work from one 'anonymous donor,' but environmental organizations take in many multiples of Heartland’s total budget in anonymous donations washed through the left-wing Tides Foundation.” [6]
“As with Three Mile Island, the hysteria of the media and the political class over the Deepwater spill is likely to lead to increased risk and adverse environmental tradeoffs.”
“Even if the costs of the spill exceed $15 billion (to be borne by BP) as now seems likely, the benefits of continued offshore oil production still exceed the costs by a wide margin. Economist Peter Passell estimates a net economic benefit of nearly a trillion dollars from continued offshore production. This will not be a popular position to hold so long as live streaming video of the oil spill continues and the media continue to cover the spill in a state of near hysteria. But it is at precisely such times that rational analysis needs to be heard.” [7]
“In any event, it has never been true that we ignore mainstream science; and anyone who reads AEI publications closely can see that we are not 'skeptics' about warming. It is possible to accept the general consensus about the existence of global warming while having valid questions about the extent of warming, the consequences of warming, and the appropriate responses.” [8]
“A sensible climate policy would emphasize building resilience into our capacity to adapt to climate changes–whether cooling or warming; whether wholly natural, wholly man-made, or somewhere in between.” [9]
Key Deeds
April, 2011
Steven Hayward is the author of the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) publication titled the Almanac of Environmental Trends(PDF) which is published every year on Earth Day.
The corresponding website, environmentaltrends.org, describes itself as a “web-based almanac of current trend information and analysis.” Notable among the website's staff, other than Hayward himself, is climate change skeptic Kenneth P. Green who is associated with a number of think tanks including AEI, the Fraser Institute, and the Reason Foundation.
According to the print version of the PRI Report, the chief drivers of environmental improvement are economic growth, constantly increasing resource efficiency, technological innovation in pollution control, and “the deepening of environmental values among the American public.” It paints a less favorable picture for government policy, which Hayward describes as a “a lagging indicator, often achieving results at needlessly high cost, and sometimes failing completely.”
The report includes sections on Air Quality (Advocacy Groups “distort air quality data to reinforce public anxiety”), Energy (We have lots of fossil fuels so we shouldn't worry), Climate Change (the science isn't settled), Water Quality (consistently improving), Toxic Chemicals (the EPA's regulations for toxic chemicals are “out of all proportion”) Forests and Land (we have lots of trees, so we shouldn't worry), Biodiversity (it's “impossible to draw definite conclusions” about species loss, but there are “stable or improving fish and bird habitats”), and Public Opinion (people aren't as worried about the environment).
In his report, Hayward asserts that one of the factors skewing public opinion on environmental quality in the U.S. is environmental advocacy groups “… for whom good news is bad news.”
According the section of his report on “Climate Change,” Hayward suggests that climate change has natural causes:
“The historical record suggests that climate shifts can happen suddenly, for reasons that remain unclear. The argument that currently observable climate changes are outside the range of normal climate variability is a key tenet of the climate campaign, and despite the incessant refrain about the “consensus” that “the debate is over,” this core question is far from settled.”
March 15, 2010
Hayward promoted the “Climategate” controversy in an article for TheWeekly Standard. [5]
According to Hayward, “Skeptics have known and tried to publicize all of these contrarian or confounding scientific findings [that climate change is natural], but the compliant news media routinely ignored all of them, enabling the IPCC to get away with its serial exaggeration and blatant advocacy for more than a decade.
August 24, 2007
Hayward starred in a Pacific Research Institute video titled “Inconvenient Truth or Convenient Fiction: Sorting out Sense from Nonsense on Global Warming.” [4]
July 5, 2006
Hayward was a co-author of a July 2006 letter sent by the American Enterprise Institute to an unknown number of scientists, looking for someone - at a rate of $10,000 for 10,000 words - whose review “thoughtfully explores the limitations of climate model outputs as they pertain to the development of climate policy.”
The Guardian reported on the AEI study here. [10]
February 4, 2001
Hayward signed a letter to President Bush requesting that he withdraw from the “Climate Action Report 2002,” and that the report be rewritten based on “sound science.” The letter also recommends that Bush “dismiss or re-assign all administration employees who are not pursuing your agenda, just as you have done in several similar instances.” [15]
Affiliations
American Enterprise Institute (AEI) —F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow and Scholar. [1]
Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)— Member, Board of Advisors. [11]
Donors Capital Fund (DCF) — Director and Treasurer (PDF). [2], [3]
Pacific Research Institute — Senior Fellow, Environmental Studies. [12]
Property and Environment Research Center (PERC)— Director. [13]
Reason Magazine— Contributing Editor, 1990 - 2001. [1]
Heritage Foundation— Bradley Fellow, 1997-98; Henry Salvatori Fellow, 1993-94. [1]
Golden State Center for Policy Studies— Director, 1987 - 1991. [1]
Intercollegiate Studies Institute— Richard M. Weaver Fellow, 1985-86. [1]
Claremont Institute— Director of Journalism, Public Research Syndicated, 1984-87.[1]
Mont Pelerin Society— Olive Garvey Fellow, 1990 - 1992. [14]
Publications
Steven F. Hayward contributes to numerous magazines including:
Books
- Almanac of Environmental Trends. Pacific Research Institute, April 2011.
- The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980.
- The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counter-Revolution, 1980-1989 (CrownForum books).
- Churchill on Leadership, and Greatness: Reagan Churchill, and the Making of Modern Statesmen.
Resources
“Steven F. Hayward,” Profile at the American Enterprise Institute. Accessed March, 2012.
Form 990 for Donors Capital Fund, Inc. (PDF - 2010).
“Board of Directors,” donorstrust.org. Accessed March, 2012.
“Inconvenient Truth or Convenient Fiction: Sorting out Sense from Nonsense on Global Warming,” Pacific Research Institute, August 24, 2007.
Steven F. Hayward. “In Denial The meltdown of the climate campaign,” The Weekly Standard, Mar 15, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 25.
Steven F. Hayward. “Why the Climate Skeptics Are Winning,” The Weekly Standard, Mar 5, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 24.
Steven Hayward. “How to Think About Oil Spills: The perils of overreaction,” The Weekly Standard, Jun 21, 2010, Vol. 15, No. 38.
Steven F. Hayward. “Scenes from the Climate Inquisition,” The Weekly Standard, Feb 19, 2007, Vol. 12, No. 22.
Steven F. Hayward. “Acclimatizing: How to Think Sensibly, or Ridiculously, about Global Warming,” National Review, May 22, 2006. Republished by the American Enterprise Institute. Archived February 4, 2007.
Ian Sample. “Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study,” The Guardian, February 2, 2007.
“CFACT Board of Advisors,” cfact.org. July 8, 2009.
“Steven F. Hayward, Ph.D,” Profile at Pacific Research Institute. Accessed March, 2012.
“PERC Board,” Property and Environment Research Center. Accessed May, 2012.
“Steven Hayward: Adjunct Fellow,” Ashbrook. Accessed March, 2012.
“Joint Letter To President Bush On The EPA's Climate Action Report,” Competitive Enterprise Institute. June 7, 2002.
“Steven F. Hayward,” SourceWatch.
“Steven F. Hayward,” Wikipedia.