Pasquale DiFrancesco is a graduate student in Economics at George Mason University and a 2018 Clean Energy Leadership Institute Fellow. He is also the external relations manager at the Mercatus Center. The Mercatus Center is a university-based research center that focuses primarily on economics. Officially, they now accept the science of climate change. However, in a since deleted article published in 2001, the Mercatus Center wrote that “the evidence regarding global warming and human contribution to it is mixed…if a slight warming does occur, historical evidence suggests it is likely to be beneficial. Its current research fellows do not believe that suggested solutions are necessary or will be effective.
In April 2021, DiFrancesco wrote an article titled “Does the U.S. Need Biden’s Clean Energy Industrial Policy to Compete with China?” In the article, he critiques industrial policy, particularly in President Biden’s American Jobs Plan. According to DiFrancesco, the economic consequences of “copying China’s playbook,” despite the fact that China has become the largest producer of wind and solar energy in the world with this playbook, are too large for the American Jobs Plan to be worthwhile. Unlike the research fellows at the Mercatus Center, DiFrancesco does offer an alternative solution: an apparently controversial idea of a carbon tax, though paired with “regulatory reform and an increased international R&D effort to fund technologies.”
The Mercatus Center is 100% privately funded, largely by individual donations. The Mercatus Center has also received $9,285,500 from Koch Foundations from 1997 to 2012. Charles Koch is a board member emeritus of the Mercatus Center. David Koch was a board member before his death. In 2014 alone, the Mercatus Center received $25,000 in donations from ExxonMobil, and received $260,000 from 2007 to 2014.
See also:
Koch Foundations
Climate of Denial