Joseph Bast was a co-founder of the Heartland Institute in 1984, and he served as the executive director until 1994. From 1994 until 2017, he served as the CEO and president, and then as CEO until 2018. Dr. Tim Huelskamp succeeded him as both CEO and president.
On Climate Change
Bast focused his researching and writing career on climate change and energy policy, and he is the writer or editor of 21 books, monthly newsletters, and other publications to that effect. He is the editor of “Climate Change Reconsidered,” a publication by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, which claims that it is “not biased towards the assumption that greater government activity is necessary” in regards to climate change.
One of Bast’s more public campaigns during his time at the Heartland Institute was the “Unabomber campaign”, which he signed off on and believed that it was a success. In terms of the efficacy of the political work of the Heartland Institute, Bast said in Heartland’s daily podcast that:
“I think we’re the reason President Trump discovered, or concluded that climate change is not a real problem and not a crisis facing the country, and that by running on that—by defending coal miners for example—he could appeal to a very big base in the United States. People who expected all along that global warming was junk science, that they would rather have good jobs and inexpensive energy than pursue some liberal dream of, you know, replacing all fossil fuel with wind and solar power.”
Associates
Bast’s wife, Diane Carol Bast, also served as a senior editor, executive editor, finance manager, and member of the board of directors until 2018. Bast also helped found the State Policy Network, a series of conservative and right-leaning think tanks, in the early 1990s.
See also:
Diane Carol Bast
Climate of Denial