Niskanen Center

The Niskanen Center for Public Policy is the 501(c)(4) lobbying arm of the Niskanen Center.

Carbon Tax Advocacy

The Niskanen Center is a major proponent of a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. The group is credited with assisting then-Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) with introducing a carbon tax bill in 2018; the bill was rejected by the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, which later introduced a successful resolution “expressing the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would be detrimental to the United States economy.” ^{4 5}

Controversies

ExxonMobil/Suncor Lawsuit (2018)

In April 2018, the City of Boulder, Colorado and County of San Miguel, Colorado filed a lawsuit against oil and natural gas companies ExxonMobil and Suncor, accusing them of being “fossil fuel-producing corporations” which negatively impact the climate. ⁶ The Colorado communities were represented in the lawsuit by a joint climate group which included Hannon Law Firm, a group that litigates environmental lawsuits and whose founder Kevin Hannon served as chief outside legal counsel, the environmentalist nonprofit EarthRights International, and the Niskanen Center. ^{7 7} The joint climate group claimed that ExxonMobil and Suncor were culpable for over $100 million in climate damages—including wildfires, flooding, road maintenance, landscaping, and individuals work efficiency.⁸

According to two environmental experts, Randal O’Toole and Robert Bradley Jr., individuals who had known William Niskanen, the Center’s involvement in the lawsuit went directly against the memory of Niskanen and what he believed with regards to climate-policy. ⁹ William Niskanen stated that “the case for a global warming treaty is shockingly weak” and also that he had “never bought into climate alarmism.” ⁹

Criticism of Pro-Life Legislation

In May 2019, Niskanen Center’s Vice President for Research Will Wilkinson criticized a pro-life bill passed by Republican lawmakers in Georgia, calling it “so unconstitutional in so many ways.” ^{10 11} Commonly referred to as a “heartbeat bill,” the law prohibits performing abortions if the doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat (usually occurring six weeks into the pregnancy), except in cases of rape and incest or where an abortion could prevent the mother from dying in childbirth. ¹² Wilkinson claimed that the bill was not designed to successfully take on the 1973 Roe V. Wade Supreme Court decision and restore decision making on abortion laws to the state level, but was rather purposely designed to get overturned so Republicans could energize their base and keep voter turnout high indefinitely. ¹⁰

Criticism of Trump Judicial Nominees

In May 2019, the Washington Post published an article about Trump administration judicial nominees refusing to comment on whether they support Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court decision that ended segregation in schools, or any other court cases in order to avoid being led down the slope that would obligate them to answer if they support Roe v. Wade. ¹³ In a tweet, Niskanen Center president Jerry Taylor shared the article and characterized Republican judicial nominees as intentionally not supporting Brown v. Board, stating that any nominee who does not support that decision “has no business being on the court.” ¹⁴

El Paso v. Trump (2019)

In May 2019, a lawsuit against President Trump entitled El Paso v. Trump was filed in the Western District of Texas by El Paso County and left-of-center nonprofit Border Network for Human Rights. The suit was intended to oppose the use of emergency funds for border wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Niskanen Center joined the plaintiffs’ counsel team, which included Protect Democracy, Laurence Tribe, and Stuart Gerson.

Protect Democracy is left-of-center litigation nonprofit organization created by a former staffer in the Obama administration to oppose the policies of President Trump. ¹⁵ Laurence Tribe is a distinguished Harvard legal professor who has become well-known on Twitter for his fevered opposition to Trump, having shared multiple fabricated conspiracy theories about the President. ¹⁶ Stuart Gerson was assistant attorney general for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice under President George H.W. Bush and was acting attorney general under President Bill Clinton. Gerson currently works at a law firm representing clients in the health care industry. ¹⁷

Resignation of Jerry Taylor

On September 6, 2021, Jerry Taylor resigned as president of the Niskanen Center as a result of domestic abuse allegations made against him by his ex-wife. ² The incident took place in June 2021, and publicly surfaced later that year when POLITICO obtained records of Taylor’s misdemeanor arrest. Taylor denied the accusations and claimed he only plead guilty in exchange for a deal that the charges against him would be dismissed after he successfully completed a domestic violence and substance abuse prevention program. ² When the board at the Niskanen Center was made aware of the allegations, Taylor was placed on administrative leave, and Taylor resigned shortly thereafter. ²

Niskanen Center for Public Policy

Also see Niskanen Center for Public Policy (Nonprofit)

The Niskanen Center for Public Policy is the 501(c)(4) lobbying arm of the Niskanen Center created in 2016. The Center for Public Policy is also headed by Jerry Taylor.

According to a 2019 donation history document on Niskanen Center’s website, the Center for Public Policy reported three grants from funding groups on the political Left for advocacy: ¹⁸

• Open Society Foundations: $500,000 in 2017 for “Immigration and Foreign Policy Departments advocacy”
• Democracy Fund Voice: $175,000 in 2018 for “Open Society Project advocacy”
• Sall Family Foundation: $200,000 in 2018 for “Climate policy advocacy”

Additionally, the left-wing Environmental Defense Action Fund reported a $10,000 grant to the Niskanen Center for Public Policy in 2015. ¹⁹

Funding

Financial Overview

The Niskanen Center’s financial overview from 2015 to 2018 is available below: ²⁰

Contributors

The Niskanen Center has received grants from a number of center-left foundations, funding groups, donor-advised fund providers, and at least one limited liability company (LLC), Arnold Ventures, associated with the John and Laura Arnold Foundation (also a Niskanen Center donor). The following are known grants to the Niskanen Center: ²¹

A 2019 donation history published by the Niskanen Center noted $5.3 million in grants to the Center between 2017 and 2019. A later list of contributors from early 2022 brought the total known contributions to over $16 million. ^{22 23} In addition, Niskanen received $50,000 from the Hopewell Fund in 2016 for “civil rights, social action, [and] advocacy.” The Hopewell Fund is a left-wing nonprofit run by Arabella Advisors, a for-profit consultancy that manages three other left-wing nonprofits in a multi-billion-dollar “dark money” network. ²⁴ The following grant data is from the Niskanen Center’s website and not every grant has been substantiated as of April 2022 (see above chart for known grants to the organization):

Leadership

Founder and President

Jerry Taylor was the founding president of the Niskanen Center. A self-described “libertarian,” Taylor previously worked in various senior roles with the center-right Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, where he was at various points director of natural resources studies, assistant editor of the Institute’s magazine Regulation, senior fellow, and vice president. Taylor also worked as director for energy and environment at the center-right American Legislative Exchange Center (ALEC). ²⁵ In 2018, his total compensation was $233,464. ²⁶

In March 2015, Taylor authored a report entitled The Conservative Case for a Carbon Tax in which he argued that “conservatives should make a carbon tax a centerpiece of their environmental policy agenda” instead of debating the merits of man-made climate change or global warming theory. Taylor wrote: ¹

The political question is not whether government should act to control the emission of greenhouse gases. That question has been settled for the foreseeable future. The relevant political question is how government should control greenhouse gas emissions.

A carbon tax advocate, Taylor has stated his support for a plan proposed by the Stanford Energy Modeling Forum which would enact a $65 per ton tax on carbon dioxide emissions by 2022, rising to $296 per ton in 2045. Taylor has claimed that the total cost to the U.S. economy from this plan “would be less than 0.2 percent of GDP.” ²⁷

Taylor’s brother, James Taylor, is senior fellow for environment and energy policy at the center-right Heartland Institute. Taylor has described a “‘revenue neutral’ carbon tax [as] a costly myth.” ^{28 29}

Taylor resigned in September 2021 after pleading guilty to domestic abuse charges made by his ex-wife. ² The Niskanen Center’s co-founder Joe Coon, stepped in as interim president.

Advisory Board

According to its 2018 annual report, Niskanen’s advisory board consisted of the following individuals, who were affiliated with the listed organizations at that time: ³⁰

• Mindy Finn, Stand Up Republic
• Evan McMullin, Stand Up Republic
• George P. Shultz, Hoover Institution
• David Frum, Senior Editor of The Atlantic
• Yuval Levin, National Affairs
• Reihan Salam, National Review
• Eli Lehrer, R Street Institute
• Eliot Cohen, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Relations
• Anat Admati, Stanford University
• Brandon Arnold, National Taxpayers Union
• Radley Balko, Journalist and Author
• Tom Nichols, Author
• Virginia Postrel, Author and Columnist
• Stuart Butler, Brookings Institution
• William A. Galston, Brookings Institution
• Benjamin Wittes, Brookings Institution
• John H. Cochrane, Hoover Institution
• Tyler Cowen, Mercatus Center
• J. Bradford Delong, University of California at Berkeley
• Daniel Drezner, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
• Jacob T. Levy, McGill University
• Alexander McCobin, Conscious Capitalism
• Mark S. Weiner, Rutgers University
• Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan
• Matt Zwolinski, University of San Diego

Documents

The Niskanen Center’s Form 990 IRS filings for 2016 through 2019 are available here:

• 2018 Form 990
• 2017 Form 990
• 2016 Form 990
• 2019 Form 990

The Niskanen Center’s 2017-2018 annual report is available here.

The Niskanen Center’s 2020 annual report is available here.