GM Halts Funding For the Heartland Institute

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"General Motors has pulled its funding of the Heartland Institute, after an aggressive campaign targeted the company’s financial contributions.

Forecast the Facts, an advocacy group focused on increasing awareness of climate change, targeted GM after leaked documents revealed the Heartland Institute’s strategy to promote global warming denial in schools. The documents also disclosed the companies that fund the organization. Forecast the Facts collected more than 20,000 signatures — 10,000 of them from GM car owners — calling on the automaker to pull its funding. "

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"“We followed up with Climate One last week on our discontinuing funding of Heartland, and we’ve communicated that outcome to Heartland directly,” GM’s Executive Director of Global Communications Greg Martin told TPM in an email Friday. ”As Dan Akerson said at his Commonwealth Club appearance, we’ll continue to run our business as if climate change is real and believe we have a role to play in developing new cars, trucks and technologies that can make a difference.”

Forecast the Facts celebrated the company’s decision, saying that it’s a small, but important, step. “GM’s decision sends an important message,” Souweine told TPM.

“While this one act on its own won’t shift the debate on climate change, the more that institutions like GM take this stand and say climate change is real and climate change denial is not OK, the more we push that outside the frame of what’s a reasonable position to take.” "