April 20th - James Taylor,
Vice President, Heartland Institute
Vice President, Heartland Institute
The solar power industry has launched a movement to amend the Florida Constitution to require state officials to “encourage and promote” solar power and give the solar power industry an exclusive monopoly right to generate and sell small-scale solar power in Florida. The solar power industry is targeting Florida Tea Party groups to support the amendment as a “free market” initiative, even though the amendment would raise electricity costs, increase subsidies, increase taxes, create a new monopoly structure, and do nothing to break up existing utility monopolies. Learn all the facts about the proposed amendment, the anti-free market efforts of the solar power industry, and the leftist billionaire who is funding the amendment drive.
_____________________________________ The Heartland Institute is a 31-year-old national nonprofit research organization dedicated to finding and promoting ideas that empower people.Founded: Heartland was founded in Chicago in 1984.
Mission: Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Staff: A full-time staff of 31, including 23 working in the Chicago office. Joseph Bast is President and CEO. Herbert Walberg is chairman of the board. Policy Advisors: Approximately 235 academics and professional economists participate in its peer-review process, and more than 160 elected officials serve on its Legislative Forum. Publications: Heartland sends four monthly public policy newspapers addressing the major domestic public policy issues to every national and state elected official in the U.S. and thousands of civic and business leaders. It also produces books, policy studies, and booklets. Communications: We appeared in print and on television or radio at least 755 times in 2013. We host 16 Web site which generated more than 2.4 million page views. We published 234 podcasts on iTunes in 2013, which were downloaded or listened to a total of 737,386 times. Our Facebook page registers more than 63,000 fans and more than 20 million impressions in 2013. Government Relations: Our government relations staff made more than 1.2 million contacts with elected officials in 2013. Of those contacts, 20,188 were one-on-one in person, by phone, or by one-to-one emails. These were virtually all educational contacts; The Heartland Institute only rarely lobbies for or against pending legislation. Survey Results: A telephone survey conducted in 2014 found 77 percent of Republican state legislators and 72 percent of Democratic state legislators read one or more Heartland newspapers "sometimes" or "always." Two-thirds of state legislators (70 percent of Republicans and 62 percent of Democrats) said they found Heartland's newspapers a "useful source of information." Thirty-nine percent of Republicans and 30 percent of Democrats reported a Heartland publication changed their opinion or led to a change in public policy. Approximately 160 elected officials -- Democrats as well as Republicans -- serve on Heartland's Board of Legislative Advisors. Funding: Approximately 8,300 supporters contribute to an annual budget of $6 million. Heartland does not accept government funding. Contributions are tax-deductible under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contact information: One South Wacker Drive #2740, Chicago, IL 60606, phone 312/377-4000, email think@heartland.org. |
James Taylor is Vice President at the Heartland Institute, a national public policy organization whose mission is to “discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems.” He is also an adjunct scholar and policy advisor for the James Madison Institute
James was a primary author of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s national energy plan when Gov. Perry ran for the presidency in 2012. James is a primary author of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s America Next energy plan that Gov. Jindal released this past September. He has also advised 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s top staff on energy and environment issues. James writes a regular column on free-market energy and environment issues for Forbes.com. He served as Communications Director for the free-market website Florida Media Trackers. He also hosted Tampa conservative talk radio station WGUL’s weekly radio program Inside Florida Politics. James has discussed free-market energy and environment policy on Fox News Channel, CNN, CBS Evening News, The Blaze, and many other national television networks and programs. He has been interviewed on-air by Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Neil Cavuto, Stuart Varney, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Levin. He has been published and quoted in just about every major newspaper in the country. He also makes regular appearances on many national conservative talk radio programs. James has lived in the Tampa Bay area for the past 20 years. |