The Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise or CDFE is a wise use

Wise use

The wise use movement in the United States is a loose-knit coalition of groups promoting the expansion of private property rights and reduction of government regulation of publicly held property. This includes advocacy of expanded use by commercial and public interests, seeking increased access to...

 think tank

Think tank

A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

 which describes itself as "an educational foundation for individual liberty, free markets, property rights and limited government".

CDFE was founded in 1974 by Alan Gottlieb

Alan Gottlieb

Alan Merril Gottlieb is an American author, conservative political activist, and businessman.-Personal:He was born a first child to Seymour and Sherry Gottlieb on May 2, 1947 in Los Angeles. Gottlieb graduated from the University of Tennessee in the summer of 1971, after a five year course, with a...

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Executive Vice-President: Ron Arnold

Ron Arnold

Ron Arnold has been the Executive Vice-President of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise since 1984. He is a prolific writer on natural resource issues and one of the most effective adversaries of the environmental movement, according to the Environmental Grantmakers Association, which...

Challenge to 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Status of the Environmental Working Group

As part of being an effective front for corporations, on February 8, 2002, the Center filed a complaint with IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti, claiming that the EWG's "excessive lobbying and politicking" activities are "clearly illegal and should (at a minimum) result in revocation of the organization's tax-exempt status."

The complaint charges that the group hid its political-lobbying expenditures, failed to register as a lobbyist in California, submitted false or misleading reports with the IRS and acted as a political-action organization in violation of Section 501(c)(3) rules. Ron Arnold stated "The Environmental Working Group is not what it seems. Its goal is not protecting the environment. Its goal is power--political power."