Ed Feulner was a conservative giant

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Rarely has there been an entrepreneur who dedicated as much of his life to making the world a better place through principled public policy solutions and had such a lasting, positive impact on the world as Edwin J. Feulner, PhD., founder and longtime president of the Heritage Foundation.

Known more often as Ed or EJF to those of us who had the honor of working for him and calling him a friend, Ed Feulner was a legend in both American conservative circles and globally. He championed free enterprise, civil society, and prosperity through the principles of individual liberty and human flourishing. 

I had the honor of serving as Ed’s chief of staff at The Heritage Foundation from 2001 to 2005. He was my boss, then he was my mentor, and over the years he became a dear friend.  

When Ed founded Heritage, he did so with a clear and concise mission: to help members of Congress make more principled and informed policy decisions. Heritage broke new ground by providing clear, concise talking points and short backgrounders that policymakers on Capitol Hill and in the administration could count on, before they had to vote. Their ideas were so credible and marketable that President Ronald Reagan placed a copy of Heritage’s “Leadership for America” book at every seat for his first Cabinet meeting. 

Over the years, Heritage has become known as the standard bearer of conservative ideas. Often less known is that the man who made it happen was Ed Feulner, and that was by his own design. Ed could have tried to focus all attention on himself or Heritage, seeking to take credit for all the conservative wins, but he truly believed what President Reagan often said: It’s amazing what you can get done when you’re not worried about who gets the credit.

Ed Feulner was more interested in building a lasting conservative movement than building his personal brand. Because of this approach, Heritage became the go-to source for principled, conservative policy solutions in the United States and globally. Arguably, more than any other organization, Heritage has been responsible for expanding the conservative movement around the world. 

Unabashedly conservative, Ed was not afraid to work with people and organizations with different viewpoints. He was always the happy warrior for conservative ideas, looking not just to preach to the choir but to grow it. He also believed in the competition of ideas, and that this competition creates better outcomes for all. 

That is the foundation on which my organization, the Conservative Coalition for Climate Solutions, was built. When I decided to start C3 Solutions, Ed was one of the first people I talked to. He had a lot of questions, and by the end of the conversation, he was more than willing to help. 

Ed understood the opportunity we had to change the conversation. While far-left environmentalists had often used climate change to attack personal freedom, capitalism, and implement mandates, conservatives could flip the script. We can demonstrate a more effective approach to climate that exalts economic freedom, prosperity, and human flourishing. 

For too long, the climate discussion had been a one-sided issue; the only “solutions” from the left seemed to be keeping fossil fuels in the ground and opposing nuclear energy (ironically, the cleanest firm power source). The far left claimed, and still does, that solar and wind could supply all of our power needs. While they certainly have an important role to play, in reality, fossil fuels, especially natural gas, have been instrumental in helping lift people out of poverty and care for the environment. In some of the poorest places in Africa, a fossil fuel like propane can literally save women’s and children’s lives from air pollution or bodily harm — if they can only access it. 

For the world to achieve any meaningful climate solutions, they must be rooted in economic freedom. As Ed wrote in our 2022 Free Economies are Clean Economies report, “Everyone everywhere wants a clean environment. We all breathe the same air and drink the same water. Pollution anywhere eventually becomes pollution everywhere. The question is how to deliver a cleaner environment. As you will read in the following pages, the answer is an environmental ’race to the top’ using an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy patterned on our decades-old race toward economic freedom.”

TRUMP LEADS, THINK TANKS FOLLOW

The world needs more optimistic and selfless warriors like him, people who are more concerned about creating prosperity than hoarding credit. We will miss Ed Feulner, but he has shown us that the path to success is through freedom and opportunity. 

He influenced everyone from presidents of the United States to conservatives around the world. I’m blessed to have worked for him, and even more blessed to have called him a friend. I know what Ed would tell us now: Onward!

Drew Bond was Chief of Staff to Ed Feulner at The Heritage Foundation from 2001–2005

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