Joseph Bast

Joseph L. Bast
Born	1958 Kimberly, Wisconsin
Nationality	American
Occupation	Executive
Known for	Presidency of the Heartland Institute, author of a number of pro-smoking books

Joseph L. Bast is the co-founder (along with David M. Padder), current president and CEO of the Heartland Institute. He has been president and CEO since 1994. He attended the University of Chicago for eight years but did not complete his degree. He has testified before the Environment Committee of the Iowa House that "The benefits of a modest warming would outweigh the costs – by $8.4 billion a year in 1990 dollars by the year 2060, according to Robert O. Mendelsohn at Yale University..." From 1984 to 1987 he was publisher and co-editor of Nomos: Studies in Spontaneous Order, a bimonthly magazine on contemporary issues. Created the nonprofit organization (Nomos Press, Inc.) that produced the magazine and did most article solicitation, editing, production, and advertising sales. From 1992 to 2003 he was founder and publisher of Intellectual Ammunition, a bimonthly magazine on public policy issues delivered to state legislators, journalists, and think tank executives. The magazine featured columns provided by researchers on the staffs of ten of the nation’s leading think tanks. From 2002 to 2013 he was founder and publisher of Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly, a biweekly newsletter sent to journalists, policymakers, and opinion leaders. From 2006 to 2012 he was founder and publisher of IT&T News, a monthly newspaper providing research and commentary on information technology and telecommunication issues. He is also the founder and publisher of five national monthly newspapers: School Reform News, featuring news about pro-market school reform efforts; Environment & Climate News, devoted to free-market environmentalism; Health Care News, describing market-based approaches to improving the quality and reducing the cost of health care in the U.S.; Budget & Tax News, reporting on efforts to reduce taxes and government spending; and FIRE Policy News, covering finance, insurance, and real estate. He has been married to Diane Bast for approximately 30 years, and currently lives in the Chicago suburb Palatine, Illinois. He is the author of a Heartland Institute policy brief entitled "The myth of the 98 percent," which asserts that the surveys on which the claim that 97-98% of climate scientists believe humans are causing global warming is based are flawed, and specifically: "both [the Doran survey and the Anderegg survey] fail to prove what those who cite them believe or allege." He has also written an article in the Independent Review, the journal of the Independent Institute, regarding the effectiveness of school vouchers. He is also the author of an article entitled "Joe Camel is Innocent!", in which he claims that Joe Camel is not an advertising campaign directed primarily at children because "...cartoons are used to pitch scores of products that could only be of use to adults." Critics of Bast's statements regarding the tobacco industry include global warming advocacy group Forecast the Facts, who have said, "Heartland’s scientifically and morally indefensible advocacy on smoking is no surprise given that a significant portion of its funding has come from tobacco companies. In the past two years, Altria and Reynolds American contributed $90,000 and $110,000 respectively."

Awards

He has received "the 1994 Roe Award from the State Policy Network, the 1996 Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award, the 1998 Eagle Award from Eagle Forum, and the 2004 Champion of Liberty Award from the Libertarian National Committee." He was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel by Gov. Paul E. Patton in 1996, elected a member of the Philadelphia Society in 2002, and elected to the board of directors of the American Conservative Union in 2007. He received the Edward Bushel eternal vigilance award from the Libertarian Party of Illinois in 2000.

Books

He was one of the authors of the NIPCC 2011 interim report "Climate Change Reconsidered", as was his wife. He is also the author of the book "Please Don't Poop in my Salad," published in 2006. His other books include Rebuilding America's Schools (1990), Why We Spend Too Much on Health Care (1992) Eco-Sanity: A Common-Sense Guide to Environmentalism (1994) and Education & Capitalism (2003).