Steve Milloy

Career Summary

Steve Milloy is a recognized leader in the fight against junk science with more than 33 years of experience, and is credited with popularizing the term “junk science.” He is the founder and publisher of JunkScience.com, and an environmental and public health consultant. Mr. Milloy is a biostatistician and securities lawyer who has also been a registered securities principal, investment fund manager, non-profit executive, coal company executive, and a print/web columnist on science and business issues. Mr. Milloy served on the EPA transition team for the Trump administration and serves on the board of several not-for-profit organizations including the Heartland Institute and the American Energy Institute.

WINNING! Steve Milloy congratulates EPA administrator Scott Pruitt following Pruitt’s announcement of a rulemaking to end secret science at EPA, a cause Milloy has spearheaded for more than 20 years. April 24, 2018.

Mr. Milloy has authored the following books:

Scare Pollution: Why and How to Fix the EPA, Bench Press 2016 — No. 1 Best Seller, Public Affairs, Amazon.com;
Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them, Regnery 2009 — an Amazon.com Top 100 seller;
Junk Science Judo: Self-defense Against Health Scares and Scams, Cato Institute, 2001;
Silencing Science, with co-author Michael Gough, Cato Institute, 1999 — an Amazon.com Top 100 seller (reaching #66);
Science Without Sense: The Risky Business of Public Health Research, Cato Institute, 1995;
Science-Based Risk Assessment: A Piece of the Superfund Puzzle, National Environmental Policy Institute, 1995;

Mr. Milloy has also authored over 1,000 articles/columns published in major newspapers/web sites, including the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, FoxNews.com, Financial Times, National Post (Canada), USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, New York Post, New York Sun and other print and web outlets.

Mr. Milloy was the co-founder and managing principal of Free Enterprise Action Fund (2004-2009), the first pro-free enterprise activist mutual fund, which merged with the Congressional Effect in July 2009.

More WINNING! Steve Milloy and Marc Morano celebrate at EPA HQ before the announcement of EPA’s rulemaking to end secret science. April 24, 2018

About JunkScience.com

Since April 1, 1996, JunkScience.com has led the fight against junk science, including being named:

a “Top Resource” and one of the “Most Popular” health news web sites by Yahoo!;
“One of the 50 Best Web Sites” by Popular Science (August 1998), which stated: “Noted junk science expert Steven Milloy leads a spirited debate over the latest ‘scientific’ revelations regarding environmental, health and nutritional hazards, among other topics”; and
a “Hot Pick” by Science, April 1998: Vol. 280 no. 5361 p. 171., which noted: “Self-appointed bad science debunker Steve Milloy skewers studies on everything from the risks of diet drugs to global warming on The Junk Science Home Page (http://www.junkscience.com/). Although Milloy’s acerbic wit makes some researchers’ blood boil, others find many of his points valid—or at least entertaining.

Matt Drudge & Steve Milloy at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner 2003

Steve Milloy with Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt, December 2019.

Endorsements

The following notable individuals and/or organizations have endorsed Milloy’s work:

Pre-eminent Scientists and Public Health Heroes

Philip Abelson, Phd, Editor, Science, 1962-1984, winner of the National Medal of Science, Co-discoverer of Neptunium. “… Milloy is one of a small group who devotes time, energy and intelligence to the defense of truth and science. His current book deserves widespread reading, quotation and responsive action,”‘ from the back cover of Junk Science Judo.
Donald H. Henderson, M.D., Deans, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, 1977-1990, Director, UN Global Smallpox Eradication Program, National Medal of Science. “(Milloy’s Silencing Science is) a perceptive and eminently readable book… remarkable insights into the manipulation of science for other than laudable ends,” from the back cover of Silencing Science.
Frederick Seitz, PhD, First President, National Academy of Sciences. “This valuable book (Junk Science Judo) deals in a thorough manner with one of the serious scientific problems of our times, the intentional distortion of the methods of science in attempts to reach conclusions that are not justified by qualified scientific research…,” from the back cover of Junk Science Judo.

Statesmen & Business Leaders

Steve Forbes, President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes. “Green Hell is the `inconvenient truth’ on extremist, growth-killing environmentalism. A must-read for those interested in keeping America free and prosperous,” from the back cover of Green Hell. About the Free Enterprise Action Fund: “… it’s precept is a sound one,” from “Fact and Comment,” Forbes, April 24, 2006.
Jonathan Hoenig, CapitalistPig Asset Management. “Green Hell… is a brash and gutsy repudiation of the environmental dogma now integrated into almost every aspect of modern life… Throughout this bold, tightly written, well-researched book, Milloy illustrates the overriding goal of the Green movement: Not to preserve nature for man, but to protect nature from man. Green Hell astutely unmasks the dangerous ramifications of that philosophy,” from Not Easy — or Smart — Being Green, May 9, 2009.
Vaclav Klaus, President of the European Union and President of the Czech Republic. “(Green Hell) describes why the world can’t afford to fall for global warming alarmism and environmental hysteria. Steve Milloy shows how to avoid the environmentalists’ vision of our future,” from the back cover of Green Hell.

Steve Milloy on a FreedomWorks discussion panel with Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sep 2009.

Media

Nature Climate Change. Milloy is “perhaps the nation’s most influential climate science contrarian.”
Energy & Environment News. Milloy is “powerful,” from “Wheeler listens to industry about high-emission rigs,” September 11, 2018.
Barron’s. (Green Hell is a) “convincing book,” from Big Questions, Five Good Answers, February 5, 2011.
Fred Barnes, Executive Editor, the Weekly Standard. “Green Hell explains why Americans can’t afford to fall for Al Gore’s `the debate is over’ line on global warming. While we’re all for the environment, Green Hell explains why we need to oppose the environmentalists,” from the back cover of Green Hell.
Neil Cavuto, Fox News. “Steve Milloy wrote the definitive book on [modern environmentalism]…”, September 1, 2011. “[Milloy] fill[s] a valuable role [debunking junk science], October 31, 2012.
Peter Foster, National Post (Canada) columnist: “‘Thank Gaia for Steve Milloy…,” from “Breaking out of green hell”, June 19, 2009.
Daniel Gross, Slate. “Milloy… made a spectacle at the annual meeting of Goldman Sachs,” from “Thank you for investing,” Slate.com (May 4, 2006)
Investor’s Business Daily. “… so long as (the corruption of science) continues, it’s a threat to future discoveries of real merit as well as to our freedoms. Daylight helps, as does transparency-encouraging critical websites, such as Steve Milloy’s junkscience.com,” from a A Banner Day for Junk Science, January 6, 2011.
Nuclear Street:“Sometimes a guy has to step back, take a long deep breath and reassess everything he thought he knew as fact. Some people conduct this exercise without even thinking, critically examining all that floats their way with the dispassionate eyes of an objective observer. Christopher Columbus did it. Galileo Galilei did it. Charles Darwin did it. Albert Einstein did it. And the world has not been the same since. Now, Steve Milloy does it…,” from NS Book Review of Green Hell, July 2, 2009.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “Kudos to JunkScience.com’s Steve Milloy for debunking suspect blame-mankind research behind demonization of humanity’s mercury emissions,” from … Vapors over vapors, April 21, 2011.
Popular Science. “… made an impact,” from “The Battle,” July 2012.
Rolling Stone. Milloy is a “leading debunker” of global warming alarmism, from the November 17, 2005 issue.
John Stossel, correspondent, ABC News and Fox Business News. “I wish Junk Science Judo had been available when I was doing daily consumer reports. It hits the nail on the head about the media’s role in health scares and scams. I wish all consumer and reporters would read it,” from the back cover of Junk Science Judo.
Washington Post. Junkscience.com is “popular.” (Feb. 21, 1999, October 12, 1999).
RepublicanAmerican (Waterbury CT). “The invaluable Steve Milloy…,” (from “Asthma Illusions Fading,” January 15, 2013).
Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post. JunkScience is “well read.” (Twitter, February 18, 2013).

Four Horsemen of the Climate Hysteria Apocalypse. L to R: Marc Morano, Chris Horner, Tony Heller and Steve Milloy at a 2018 Cooler Heads Coalition meeting.

Miscellaneous

Jane Orient, Executive Director, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “[Milloy] has written so eloquently about rational risk assessment, debunked damaging myths,” from “Investing in Sin,” The New Republic (July 3, 2006).
Belle Monappa Hegde, renowned physician and former Vice-Chancellor of Manipal University (India). “[Science Without Sense is] A beautiful small booklet by a leading American epidemiologist, Steven Milloy…”, British Medical Journal, October 21, 2004. See also BMJ (February 1, 2001).
Marc Morano, ClimateDepot.com. “(Milloy is) the godfather,” from This Man Wants to Convince You Global Warming Is a Hoax, Esquire, March 30, 2010.
Dick Morris, Fox News commentator and political consultant: “Regardless of whether you believe global warming is a fraud, the fact is that the current depression, the past spike in oil prices, and the coming technology of electric cars are all going to solve whatever problem exists. Liberals want to use climate change as an excuse to take over the economy and regulate everything and this book exposes their plans,” from the back cover of Green Hell.
Penn Gillette of Penn & Teller. “(Silencing Science) is a way funny book written by heroes,” from the back cover of Silencing Science.
Rich Trzupek, FrontPageMag.com. “…Milloy is a hero. Using his website, junkscience.com, to deliver his message, Milloy has been a key soldier in the front lines of the battle to maintain the kind of healthy skepticism that is a critical component of scientific endeavor. It’s not overstating the case to say that Milloy, along with Climate Audit’s Steve McIntyre and Joe Bast’s Heartland Institute, laid the groundwork for an increasingly skeptical public to ask the tough, uncomfortable questions that are making global warming zealots squirm…”, from “The Heretics”.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “[JunkScience.com] definitely provides ‘food for thought'”, from US EPA, Web Site Guide to Global Climate Change, July 1999.
Wikipedia. “Milloy has popularized the use of the term ‘junk science’ in public debate…” from Wikipedia entry for Steven Milloy.

Opponents

Refused-to-be-identified ‘policy expert’. “Game respect game.” Climatewire, June 12, 2018.
Greenpeace. Milloy is a “celebrity denier… arguably one of the very first global warming deniers… at the heart of that campaign.”
George Monbiot, The Guardian. Steve Milloy is one of the “Top 10 Climate Change Deniers.”
Greenpeace. “Steve Milloy has been a central climate denier…”

Media Matters. Steve Milloy is part of the “Climate Denial Machine.”
Kelly Rigg, Executive Director, Global Campaign for Climate Action. An “icon of the denialsphere.”
Kevin Weiner, Director, National Education Policy Center. “Stellar [climate denial] credentials.“
Adam Kanzer, Domini Social Investments. Amazed at the media attention the tiny Free Enterprise Action Fund was able to muster, Kanzer said, “What other $5 million investment fund is getting press? They don’t even have a ticker symbol.”
Steve Brodner/American Prospect. Milloy named one of the “Mad Men of Climate Denial.”
John Ehrenfeld/The Blue Route. No climate denier is “more dangerous than Steven Milloy… the disturbingly credible Steven Milloy.” (November 1, 2014)

Milloy at first the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference, March 2008, with Kim Strassel (WSJ) and Mindy Lubber (Ceres)

Media Appearances, Speeches, and Other Activities

Mr. Milloy:

Has appeared on local, national and international television and radio including: ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and Good Morning America; CCTV’s The Heat; CNBC’s Kudlow & Co. and SquawkBox; CNN’s Crossfire, Glenn Beck and Talk Back Live; CNNfn; CNN International’s Insight; MSNBC’s News with Brian Williams; FOX Business Channel’s Bulls & Bears, Cavuto, Dagen & Connell, Freedom Watch, Lou Dobbs, Money with Melissa Francis and Varney & Co.; FOX News Channel’s Glenn Beck, Fox Report with Shepard Smith, Fox and Friends, The O’Reilly Factor, Special Report with Brit Hume, Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld, and Your World With Neal Cavuto; Comedy Central’s The Daily Show; National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation, the Glenn Beck Program, the G. Gordon Liddy Show, the Dennis Miller Show and many other national and local television and radio programs.
Has testified on risk assessment and Superfund before the U.S. Congress and has lectured before numerous organizations.
Was a featured panelist at the Wall Street Journal‘s first ECO:nomics conference in 2008; and
Was a member of the judging panel for the 2004 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Journalism Awards: Online Category’.
Was the luncheon keynote at the 25th anniversary celebration of the National Association of Scholars. Address broadcast on C-SPAN on May 27, 2013.
Steve Milloy delivers the C-SPAN broadcasted luncheon keynote address at the National Association of Scholars 25th anniversary celebration, March 2, 2013.

Wins, Accomplishments and Memorable Moments (under development)

The report that started it all: “Choices in Risk Assessment.” Following the end of the Cold War, the Department of Energy (DOE) faced clean-up costs for its nuclear weapons sites amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars. The high costs would largely have been incurred because of EPA standards that essentially would have required the former weapons sites be returned to “Garden of Eden” status. At the time, the DOE took the EPA standards so seriously that it was actually developing essentially a giant vacuum cleaner to suck-up the top layer of sand at the Nevada Test Site (approximately 5,400 square miles in size), decontaminate it and replace the sand. Overwhelmed by the magnitude of the clean-ups, the Bush administration DOE commissioned Milloy in 1992 to lead an investigation into whether EPA clean-up standards were based on science or politics. Milloy’s team of science and policy experts (called the Regulatory Information Analysis Project) compiled a report titled, “Choices in Risk Assessment: The Role of Science Policy in the Environmental Risk Management Process.” Completed in the fall of 1994, the report concluded that environmental policy was largely based on politics, not science. But when the report was completed and circulated for review within the Clinton administration-run DOE, the report was flagged as politically incorrect and Milloy was ordered by staffers of Clinton appointee Carol Henry (a former EPA staffer) to keep the report secret. Sacrificing his business relationship with the Clinton DOE, Milloy disobeyed the order and released the report, which was subsequently featured in a Wall Street Journal editorial. The attention that “Choices in Risk Assessment” garnered coincided with the Republican takeover of 104th Congress and congressional focus on regulatory reform, vaulting Milloy into the regulatory reform debate about to take place on Capitol Hill. Milloy testified before the U.S. Senate about risk assessment in the context of DOE clean-up on March 6, 1995. The DOE never wound up spending hundreds of billions of dollars to clean up its weapons sites. No word on what ever happened to the giant NTS vacuum cleaner.

Discovered that no human had actually ever been harmed by any Superfund (i.e., toxic waste) site. Following the publication of Choices in Risk Assessment, Miloy was commissioned by the National Environmental Policy Institute to study EPA’s expensive, controversial and failing Superfund program. Milloy’s resulting book, “Science-Based Risk Assessment: A Piece of the Superfund Puzzle” published the discovery that, despite popular environmental lore, no human had actually been injured from living on or near a Superfund site. Milloy also estimated that Superfund costs could be reduced by at least 60 percent if EPA risk assessment was driven more by science than politics. “Science-Based Risk Assessment” put Milloy in front of Congress two more times. The book was endorsed by Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.), then-Chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works and the Wall Street Journal in an April 18, 1995 editorial “… the first study of how much money real risk assessment could save in just one program, Superfund.”

Our Swollen Future. In March 1996 the book “Our Stolen Future” helped launch the scare about so-called “endocrine disrupters” or “environmental estrogens.” Milloy parodied the book with an illustrated mock interview of the lead author on 60 Minutes entitled “Our Swollen Future.”

Prevented the EPA from Stalin-izing statistical significance. In May 1996, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed to update its guidelines for conducting cancer risk assessments. Milloy discovered that the EPA surrepticiously deleted the requirement that epidemiologic data be statistically significant before they can be used to infer cause-and-effect relationships. Statistical significance was a sore spot with the EPA since it had given the EPA fits with respect to the epidemiologic studies on secondhand smoke. When Milloy asked the EPA whether it intended to delete the requirement or whether the omission was innocent, the EPA denied the requirement had been deleted. When other members of the public inquired about the deletion/omission, the EPA denied it. When members of Congress inquired about the deletion, the EPA again denied it. The persistent Milloy publicized the issue to great effect and and brought the issue before the EPA’s Science Advisory Board which rejected the EPA’s denials. In its review letter to EPA administrator Carol Browner, the SAB wrote in polite bureaucrat-ese: “There is (in the proposed guidelines) no explicit statement in the proposal that statistical significance should be a basic requirement for determining causality. This lack of an explicit statement has been interpreted as misleading and implying there is a hidden intent to eliminate statistical significance as a consideration in assessing causality. Adding appropriate and specific language concerning statistical significance should rectify this problem.” When the guidelines were finalized in 2005, the statistical significance requirement had been reinstated in Section 2.2.1.7 Evidence for Causality: “The general evaluation of the strength of the epidemiological evidence reflects consideration not only of the magnitude of reported effects estimates and their statistical significance, but also of the precision of the effects estimates and the robustness of the effects associations.”

Ousting the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Right before the January 1999 Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton over whether the President had lied when he denied having sex with Monica Lewinsky, the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) was preparing to defend President Clinton by publishing in its January 20, 1999 issue an opinion survey purporting to show that the public didn’t consider oral sex to be sexual intercourse. Milloy learned of the study’s imminent publication five days ahead of publication (January 14, 1999) and broke the news on JunkScience.com. The Washington Times picked up the story, made inquiries at the American Medical Association, and published on its front page a story titled, “AMA Releases Old Survey on Oral Sex Just in Time for President’s Trial.” Within 24 hours, JAMA editor George Lundberg was fired. In firing Lundberg, the American Medical Association stated, “Dr. Lundberg, through his recent actions, has threatened the historic tradition and integrity of the Journal of the American Medical Association by inappropriately and inexcusably interjecting JAMA into a major political debate that has nothing to do with science or medicine. This is unacceptable.” but Lundberg had long used JAMA a vehicle to publish junk science. The study in question, as an example, was a stale, eight-year old study of college students that Lundberg dusted off and rushed to publication in a misquided effort to involve JAMA in President Clinton’s impeachment trial. Lundberg’s firing sent shock waves throughout the medical journal community.

Fighting ‘secret science’. Fighting ‘Secret Science’. JunkScience.com was instrumental in the fight for “data access” — the right of the public to review taxpayer-funded scientific data used to support federal regulation. Here’s one way that JunkScience.com helped. Science magazine reported on April 2, 1999:

“Scientists opposing a controversial data-access proposal appear to be headed for a lopsided win in an unusual skirmish–even as their opponents are raffling off prizes to gain allies. Acting on legislation pushed by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in January released a controversial proposal to require taxpayer-funded researchers to hand over their raw data to anyone who files a request (Science, 12 February, p. 914). The agency gave the public until 5 April to comment, sparking a furious letter-writing campaign both for and against the proposal. Last month, rule opponents–including most scientific societies–were alarmed to discover that the other side was ahead in the comment contest, in part because it was offering a creative incentive: People who used the Junk Science Web page (www.junkscience.com) to write to OMB could win a subscription to an environmental policy newsletter or the electronic Wall Street Journal. But the tide has turned in the last few weeks: The 1600-and-counting comments OMB has received so far are running 4 to 1 against the rule, says the Washington-based American Association of Universities. Whether the landslide will persuade OMB to rewrite the proposal, however, won’t be known until later this year, when it must finalize the rule.”

But JunkScience.com didn’t give up. Two weeks later, Science reported,

“In an 11th-hour campaign to tip the scales in their favor, supporters of a controversial new data-access law flooded the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in early April with letters supporting its implementation. Many scientists oppose the provision, pushed by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), which would force taxpayer-funded researchers to hand over raw data to the public on request (Science, 2 April, p. 23). But when a public comment period closed on 5 April, supporters appeared to have cranked out the majority of more than 10,000 comments sent to OMB, although no exact count was available.”

COP-ped the IPCC’s URL. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s third annual “conference of the parties” of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-3) was held in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997 and was hosted at http://www.cop3.org. The fourth conference of the parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-4) was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in November 1998 and was hosted at http://www.cop4.org. The fifth conference of the parties parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-5) was held in Bonn, Germany — but couldn’t be located at http://www.cop5.org. Why not? Because Milloy bought that address and pointed it at Junkscience.com. The IPCC was forced to construct the web site for the COP-5 conference at the less findable http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop5/.

Debunking dioxin hysteria courtesy of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Prompted by Ben & Jerry’s claim on its ice cream packaging that there is no safe level of exposure to dioxin, Milloy and Dr. Michael Gough tested Ben & Jerry’s World’s Best Vanilla ice cream for dioxin and found that a single scoop contained 200 times the amount of dioxin that the EPA said was safe, thereby debunking dioxin hysteria once and for all. Around the time the study was published, the EPA was proposing to classify dioxin as 10 times more carcinogenic than previously considered. That would have made a single scoop of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream contain 2,000 times more dioxin than the EPA considered to be safe. Milloy testified before the EPA Science Advisory Board about the study, which had also been presented at the poster session of the Dioxin 2000 conference. The study also made the front page of the Detroit News upon its release. Ben & Jerry’s howled about the study and JunkScience.com on its web site for years.

Gough M and Milloy S, “Dioxin in Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream“, JunkScience.com, November 8, 1999.
“Food rules out of sync, study says: Dioxin in ice cream safe, but far exceeds federal standards’, Detroit News, November 7, 1999, page A1.
“Ben & Jerry’s dioxin surprise,” National Post (Canada), November 11, 1999.
A Scoop of Debunkey Monkey, Please, FOXNews.com, July 8, 2000.
2000 CERES Report, Section 6, Environmental Performance, BenJerry.com, 2000.

Debunking low-level radiation hysteria courtesy of the U.S. Capitol Building. To expose and debunk low-level radiation fears and over-regulation, Milloy and Dr. Michael Gough measured levels of ionizing radiation emitted in the U.S. Capitol and Library of Congress buildings. Dose rates measured exceeded background radiation levels, ranging as high as 30 microrems per hour. This rate is: (1) up to 550 percent greater than the typical dose rate “at the fence line” around nuclear power plants; (2) about 13,000 times greater than the average individual dose rate from worldwide nuclear power production and the Chernobyl accident; and (3) exceeds the dose rate associated with the radiation protection standards proposed for the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste facility by as much as 65 times. Cancer risk for these exposure levels, based on the linear no-threshold (LNT) model of carcinogenesis, qualified the U.S. Capitol Building as a Superfund (toxic waste) site under U.S. EPA guidelines. Based on a letter transmitting these results to Yucca Mountain opponent Sen. Harry Reid, the Architect of the Capitol conducted a survey of the U.S. Capitol Building, pronouncing the building safe. The story was reported in Roll Call (April 16, 2001) and Milloy responded (April 23, 2001). Milloy was also later interviewed on FOX News Channel’s Special Report in August 2005.

Milloy S and Gough M, Radiation Sources at the U.S. Capitol and Library of Congress Buildings, JunkScience.com, March 2001.
Letter to Harry Reid, March 27, 2001.
Architect Deals With Fallout Site Posts Misleading Report on Capitol Radiation, Roll Call, April 16, 2001.
JunkScience report is accurate, Roll Call, April 23, 2001.
Milloy S, Holy Isotopes! Radiation Levels at Capitol 65 Times EPA Standards for Facility, FoxNews.com, May 4, 2001. See also Milloy S, “Nuclear Power, Capitol Radiation, Washington Times, May 8, 2001.
FoX News Milloy interview August 10, 2005: Transcript | Video (via MediaMatters.org)

Co-invented world’s first global thermometer. See World’s First Global Thermometer, FoxNews.com, May 20, 2005.

Not quite the cover of Rolling Stone — but close enough! Milloy was listed along with President George W. Bush, ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond, “State of Fear” author Michael Crichton, Sen. Jim Inhofe and CEI’s Myron Ebell as a “leading debunker” of global warming. See nearby image.

First skeptic to challenge Al Gore to climate debate. As reported on JunkScience.com on Jan. 6, 2006:

Junkman meets Al Gore! I met former vice president and global warming alarmist-in-chief Al Gore today [Jan. 4]. In a private conversation that took place following an abbreviated version of his global warming presentation, I suggested to him that he use his considerable clout with the global warming gang to convince them to put up some scientists for a genuine debate on climate science. He thanked me for the suggestion but didn’t seem too enthusiastic about it. Later one of his handlers [Betsy Taylor of came up to me and indicated there may be some interest on his part.

JunkScience.com then reported on Jan. 18, 2006:

A couple of weeks ago Junkman and Al Gore met at a function where Al presented a short version of his global warming shtick. During a brief conversation afterwards Junkman floated the idea of a genuine debate between advocate and sceptic climate scientists, a proposal that was at first brushed off and then declared interesting [by Gore handler Betsy Taylor of the Center for a New American Dream]. Subsequent e-mail traffic between [the] Junkman and Taylor expanded the idea to perhaps a C-Span televised event, possibly moderated by Al himself.

Well, don’t hold your breath. What could have been unprecedented and riveting television won’t happen as AGW advocates have decided to “take a pass” on the debate suggestion.

After the JunkScience.com’s first-ever challenge to Gore, other skeptics and groups (like the Heartland Institute) echoed the challenge, including in newspaper ads featuring photos of Steve Milloy, Lord Christopher Monckton, Christopher Horner and others (as in the ad above which includes Dennis Avery).

DDT T-shirts Released. In January 2006, JunkScience.com began selling/distributing T-shirts reading “DDT: A Weapon of Mass Survival.” The DDTees eventually found their way to Uganda where they were a big hit among anti-malaria workers.

First global warming skeptic shareholder resolution. On behalf of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, Milloy drafted and successfully lawyered through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission the first climate skeptic shareholder resolution over the vigorous challenge of the General Electric Co. Though the resolution didn’t pass at the shareholder meeting, it did garner enough votes to compel GE to include it on the ballot for the following year. Milloy continued to successfully defend the FEAF’s global warming resolution in 2007 and 2008.

‘Live Earth’ invasion and first JunkScience.com air raid. Milloy engineered an invasion of Al Gore’s “Live Earth” global warming concert on July 7, 2007. Under the name “DemandDebate.com” (so-called because Al Gore famously insisted that the debate over global warming was “over”), Milloy sponsored a group of free-market oriented college students (BureauCrash) to attend the “Live Earth” concert to spread the DemandDebate.com message. The students wore DemandDebate.com T-shirts bearing the slogan “I’m more worried about the intellectual climate.” The students took inflatable globe beach balls, bearing the “intellectual climate” phrasing, into the event and let them loose. On live TV coverage of the event and while rock bands played, the DemandDebate.com beachballs were visibly tossed around the crowd, making it into the mosh pit and even on stage. When Al Gore came out to address the crowd, an air plane bearing a banner reading “Don’t believe Al Gore. DemandDebate.com” flew over the stadium. The pilot, listening to the event on his satellite radio, revved his engine the moment Al Gore began to speak. Another aerial banner reading “Don’t trust Al Gore. DemandDebate.com” also flew in what can be regarded as the first anti-junk science air raid in history. The air raid was noted by media including CNN, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Rush Limbaugh (July 9, 2007 radio broadcast). According to a report in The Record (Bergen County, NJ), “Live Earth” headliner John Mayer “… spent most of his post-performance press conference angrily wondering why people would buy into (DemandDebate.com’s) line of reasoning….”

BureauCrash video of beachball distribution
DemandDebate.com T-shirt spotlighted on CNBC’s Squawk Box, July 13, 2007.

$500,000 Ultimate Global Warming Challenge. On August 6, 2007, JunkScience.com announced via YouTube video an offer of $150,000 to anyone who could scientifically prove that human were causing catastrophic global warming. The prize money increased to $500,000, but when the contest ended on February 1, 2009, no one had submitted a winning entry.

Produced YouTube video “Al Gore Debates Global Warming.” In response to Al Gore’s continued refusal to debate the science of global warming, Milloy “made” him debate in a unique YouTube video that blended clips from Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and Martin Durkin’s The Great Global Warming Swindle. The 8-minute video released in October 2007 was a rousing success garnering more than 450,000 views and 20,000 comments.

Denouncing Al Gore’s Nobel Prize on FOXNews. On November 7, 2007, FOX News’ Special Report featured a quote from Steve Milloy about Al Gore’s newly won Nobel Prize during the program’s Grapevine segment. Click for the YouTube clip.

Fool-Aid T-Shirt. In January 2008, JunkScience.com began distributing Fool-Aid T-shirts.

Banned from CNBC by order of the GE CEO. As a featured panelist at the first Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference in March 2008, which also featured General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, Milloy was scheduled for a televised debate with fellow conference panelist and CERES head Mindy Lubber. The debate was to be moderated by CNBC host Melissa Francis. Though Milloy’s Free Enterprise Action Fund had vigorously campaigned for almost three years against GE’s support for global warming legislation, including at shareholder meetings where Immelt was publicly questioned, Milloy chatted amiably with Immelt for about 45 minutes at a pre-conference cocktail party, during which time Milloy mentioned to Immelt that he was scheduled to appear on GE-owned CNBC during the conference. Before Milloy’s CNBC appearance, however, Immelt was grilled by free market supporters during the conference’s opening event. Immelt received such a hard time that Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, who witnessed the public drubbing, confessed to a Wall Street Journal host that what happened to Immelt had kept him up all night. When Milloy showed up for his debate with Lubber, he was told that he had been replaced by a Wall Street Journal staffer. Though he had appeared on CNBC many times before Immelt’s ban, Milloy has not appeared on CNBC since.

Proposed shareholder proposal to end all shareholder proposals at ExxonMobil annual meeting, May 28, 2008. As ExxonMobil was annually beset by nuisance shareholder proposals from radical environmental groups seeking to get the company to stop selling petroleum products, Milloy’s Free Enterprise Action Fund exercised its right as shareholder to propose that ExxonMobil ban future shareholder proposals. Fearing backlash from the forces of political correctness, ExxonMobil unsuccessfully requested the Fund to withdraw the proposal and ultimately recommended to its shareholders that they vote against the proposal, which necessarily went down to defeat. However, as can be heard in the YouTube video below, ExxonMobil positioned Milloy as the first shareholder to present a proposal at its 2008 meeting. Milloy was introduced by ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson and received a hearty round of applause from shareholders after his 4-minute manifesto against “poseur shareholders”.

Exposed Obama environment/energy ‘czar’ Carol Browner as a member of Socialist International. On January 2, 2009, JunkScience.com exposed Carol Browner, who had just been appointed by President-elect Barack Obama to be the top White House adviser for environment and energy, JunkScience.com exposed Browner as a member of Socialist International. A week later (Jan. 9), Milloy then exposed Socialist International’s effort to expunge all mention of Browner from its web site. See JunkScienceArchive.com for details and images. For more read Milloy’s Jan. 15, 2009 Foxnews.com column “Browner Redder than Obama Knows.” The outing was widely reported in the media.

Spurred Congressional probing of Al Gore’s financial conflicts of interest, resulting in false Congressional testimony by Gore. Milloy’s April 24, 2009 Human Events column, “Questions for Al Gore,” inspired Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Steve Scalise (R-La.) to interrogate Al Gore during his same-day testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in favor of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. Gore lied to Blackburn about donating all his climate-related profits to non-profit advocacy groups. Gore lied to Scalise about not having any business relationship with Goldman Sachs. Gore was not, however, under oath. Clips of these exchanges have been repeatedly used in various media.

Climategate Billboard. Following the breaking of the Climategate story, Milloy helped the Commonwealth Institute erect a billboard reading “Penn State. Climategate. Investigate.”, during Pennsylvania state legislators (driving into the state capital of Harrisburg, PA) to push Penn State to investigate the involvement of Penn State professor Michael Mann in Climategate.

National Tea Party Convention. Milloy was a featured speaker at the February 2010 National Tea Party Convention held in Nashville, TN. Other featured speakers included Sarah Palin and Andrew Breitbart.

“Carbon Criminal” campaign infuriates a U.S. Senator and impresses a major CEO. The 111th Congress’ push for cap-and-trade was heavily lobbied by the U.S. Climate Action Partnership – a coalition of big businesses and environmental activist groups. JunkScience.com developed its “Carbon Criminal” campaign featuring “Wanted” posters for 11 of the USCAP member company CEOs. JunkScience.com also commissioned a bobblehead of Exelon Corp. CEO John Rowe as the “Carbon Bandit.” Rowe had publicly boasted of the billions of dollars in windfall profits Exelon anticipated making from cap-and-trade. Rowe was presented with the bobblehead after his testimony before the Senate for Environment and Public Works. Weeks later, EPW Chairman Barbara Boxer attacked JunkScience.com’s “Carbon Criminal” campaign in a December 14, 2009 speech on the Senate floor. During a March speech (video/transcript) at the American Enterprise Institute in which he surprisingly called for the 112th Congress to take no action on energy, Rowe set his bobblehead on the speaker’s podium, and waved it around calling it a “cherished memento.” Finally, being the “Carbon Bandit” seems to have been one of Rowe’s top lifetime achievements. In an October 24, 2011 “Weekend Interview” Rowe gave to the Wall Street Journal, Rowe described himself as follows:

“We’re the biggest nuclear power plant operator and we are by far the biggest company that actually sells all of its generation in competitive markets. And we are almost the last real champion of competitive markets in the utility industry,” says Mr. Rowe, who has run one power company or another since 1984. “I am the old man of the industry,” he says, and he plans to retire soon. “And I was the carbon bandit,” Mr. Rowe continues, with his matter-of-fact, seen-it-all candor.

Ousting a Pitt anti-fracking activist-researcher. JunkScience.com’s spotlight on anti-fracking activist-researcher Conrad Volz led to Volz’s ouster from the University of Pittsburgh. The JunkScience.com article, “Pitt prof caught off base in new frack attack”, exposed Volz’s flawed research and anti-fracking activism — a combo that was too much for Pitt. This Pittsburgh Tribune-Review news report refers to Canada Free Press’ reprint of the original JunkScience.com article.

GE CEO admits error in going green. Through the Free Enterprise Action Fund, Milloy launched a six-year long campaign against General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt’s decision to lobby for climate legislation. On May 3, 2011, Immelt publicly acknowledged that going “green” was a mistake and that he would stop lobbying for comprehensive climate and energy legislation. Milloy’s campaign is described in this Investor’s Business Daily op-ed.

Milloy op-ed used to torpedo American Lung Association at Senate hearing (June 8, 2011). Using this April 2011 Washington Times op-ed by Steve Milloy, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) pressed the American Lung Association (ALA) witness at the June 8, 2011 Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing about ALA shilling for the agency for big bucks. The witness had no response — other than stumbling and bumbling into a promise to get back to the Senator.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) asks EPA to respond to Milloy op-ed at House Hearing (July 26, 2011). Milloy’s July 2011 Washington Times op-ed “Show us the bodies, EPA” forces Rep. Kucinich to seek reassurance from the EPA deputy administrator during a House hearing. Click for the hearing exchange.

Milloy forces prominent climate alarmist to disclose insurance industry employment. Milloy exposed MIT Meteorologist Kerry Emanuel as being in the employ of the insurance industry and discovered that Emanuel failed to disclose that employment in a Jan. 2011 Nature paper. Though Emanuel denied the conflict, Nature forced Emanuel to disclose the financial conflict in his next paper in February 2012.

EPA effort to ‘Stalinize’ grants to Deniergate’s Peter Gleick exposed. Amid the February-March 2012 uproar over Peter Gleick’s admitted fraud in obtaining confidential documents from the Heartland Institute (an event known as “Deniergate”), Milloy exposed EPA grants to Gleick in the amount of $468,000. Following the exposure, Milloy discovered that the EPA had deleted the grants from its Grant Awards Database. Following exposure of the grant deletion, the EPA then restored the missing grants to the data base. EPA subsequently “Stalinized” Milloy’s FOIA request. Congressman Dana Rohrbacher used Milloy’s discoveries to question EPA during a March 2012 hearing on the agency’s FY2013 budget request. EPA later admitted to deleting the grants.

Milloy op-ed cited in Senate hearing (March 22, 2012). After Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) asserted that “documented” evidence existed that ambient air quality was causing premature deaths, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) read an excerpt of Milloy’s July 2011 Washington Times op-ed “Show us the bodies, EPA” during the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on the EPA FY2013 budget. Click for the video (clip begins at about 1:22:53).

Uncovering unethical human experimentation by EPA scientists. Through the Freedom of Information Act, Milloy uncovered unethical human experimentation conducted by EPA scientists. Milloy broke the story in an April 24, 2012 Washington Times commentary, “Did Obama’s EPA relaunch Tuskegee experiments?“. Developing…

JunkScience.com co-sponsored a visit by renown skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton to Denver, Co in April 2012 to speak at the State Assembly Bldg on climate. — JunkScience.com co-sponsored a visit by renown skeptic Lord Christopher Monckton to Denver, CO in April 2012 to speak at the State Assembly on climate.

Op-ed instigates bill to curb conflicts of interest at EPA Science Advisory Board. Milloy’s March 8, 2012 Washington Times commentary (“Clearing the air on the EPA“) about financial conflicts of interest among EPA science advisers inspired the introduction of H.R. 6564, a bill to limit the influence of EPA grantees.

JunkScience forces Juliet Eilperin out of Washington Post environment beat. A 3-year effort to get the Washington Post to do something about environment reporter Juliet Eilperin’s conflict of interest ends in her removal from the Washington Post environment beat. Click for the story.

C-SPAN airs Milloy address before National Association of Scholars. On Memorial Day 2013, C-SPAN broadcast Milloy’s March 1 luncheon keynote (author Tom Wolfe was the dinner keynote) at the 25th anniversary celebration for the National Association of Scholars.

Steve Milloy quote is New York Times headline. From March 18, 2018, following the nomination of Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State.

Film Appearances

Education

Milloy holds:

a B.A. in Natural Sciences, Johns Hopkins University;
a Master of Health Sciences (Biostatistics), Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health;
a Juris Doctorate, University of Baltimore; and
a Master of Laws (Securities regulation) from the Georgetown University Law Center.