{"id":4721,"date":"2015-06-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www-prod.greenpeace.org\/usa\/state-policy-network-spn\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T07:44:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:44:33","slug":"state-policy-network-spn","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/usa\/climate\/climate-deniers\/front-groups\/state-policy-network-spn\/","title":{"rendered":"State Policy Network (SPN)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Koch Industries Climate Denial Front Group<\/span>
$128,551 received from Koch foundations, 1997-2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

The State Policy Network (SPN)<\/strong> is both an organization and a network of state level think tanks and policy organizations that act as a coordinated front for a variety of corporate priorities including delaying action to mitigate global warming.<\/div>\n
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Despite State Policy Network CEO Tracie Sharp<\/a>‘s insistence that SPN’s member organizations are “fiercely independent<\/a>” and focused on their states’ issues, she has privately told the CEOs of SPN member organizations that SPN issue-based “grants are driven by donor intent<\/a>.” SPN’s cut-and-paste style of advancing corporate campaigns was the feature of a New Yorker<\/a><\/em> article comparing the State Policy Network to IKEA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The State Policy Network has promoted climate science denial conferences hosted by the Heartland Institute<\/strong><\/a> and circulated<\/a> unscientific reports from Heartland’s “Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change.” Heartland’s “Climate Change Reconsidered” reports are authored by career climate deniers such as S. Fred Singer<\/a> and Craig Idso<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coordinating around model state legislation<\/a> introduced by politicians in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC, an SPN member), the State Policy Network has attacked renewable portfolio standard laws<\/a> in at least 15 states in 2013 and 2014, most notably in Kansas<\/a>, North Carolina<\/a> and Ohio<\/a>. While ALEC politicians like Troy Balderson and Bill Seitz succeeded in freezing Ohio’s RPS<\/a> law and ALEC national chairman John Piscopo watered down the Connecticut RPS<\/a>, these attacks have largely failed<\/a> across the country. Clean energy incentives are popular because of the jobs and economic benefits in RPS states<\/a>, and because of false data used by SPN affiliates<\/a>to justify the RPS repeal attempts.<\/p>\n

The Charles G. Koch Foundation is a member<\/a> of the State Policy Network.<\/p>\n

ALEC and The Heartland Institute founded the State Policy Network<\/a> through a predecessor called the Madison Group.\u00a0 Allegedly<\/a>, President Ronald Reagan suggested to South Carolina building supply billionaire Thomas Roe that he create state-level organizations modeled off of the Heritage Foundation. Today, Heartland, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Heritage are allSPN members<\/a>, and all have coordinated to block solutions to global warming.<\/p>\n

The following Koch-funded State Policy Network member organizations<\/a> are involved in coordinated public relations campaigns to promote unscientific doubt over global warming and delay policies to address the problem:<\/p>\n