The group’s unorthodox practices occasionally stirred controversy. In 1990, the organization created a spin-off, Citizens for the Environment, which called acid rain and other environmental problems “myths.” When the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette investigated the matter, it discovered that the spin-off group had “no citizen membership of its own.” One insider said the main organization’s membership claims were deceptive as well. “They always said they had 250,000 members,” he later recalled, but when he asked if that meant they carried cards or paid dues, he was told no, it just meant they’d
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