Study Says Business ‘Front Groups’ on Rise : Lobbying: Ralph Nader organization says the corporate bodies hide behind deceiving names. Officials of some associations deny charges.

Special interest organizations that are “front groups” for corporations have mushroomed in the United States over the last 20 years and are confusing and deceiving a public unaware of their affiliations, an organization founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader charged Saturday.

The groups often adopt names that make them appear to be grass-roots organizations promoting public welfare when they are sponsored by corporations to publicly advance their own agendas, the organization, known as Essential Information, contended in its report, which was compiled by two college students.

“Increasingly, big business corporations are creating ‘front groups’ to influence legislators, the media and America’s consumers,” said Mark Megalli, a sophomore at Yale University, and Andy Friedman, a Brown University junior, in the 186-page report.

“These corporate front groups advertise, hold conferences, publish newsletters and reports, write editorials and appear on talk shows in an effort to sway public opinion toward the industry viewpoint,” the report said.

Officials of some of the 36 groups cited in the study say they make no secret of their funding and argue that it does not necessarily determine their positions.

In a typical response, Doreen L. Brown, president of Consumers for World Trade, said her group does receive “some funds from corporations and trade associations” but is not a corporate front group. The organization pushes for “a more open trading system and less protectionism for consumers--to keep prices down,” she said. While many of its board members are corporate executives, “they never ask us to do something because it’s good for” their firms, she said.

The report said that before such organizations became common, big business delivered its messages through traditional lobbies with names that clearly revealed their positions--the Beer Institute, the National Coal Assn., the Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute, for example.

Today, however, the new interest groups include:

--The National Wetlands Coalition, which the study said is supported by a group of oil companies and real estate developers seeking to defeat wetland protection legislation.

--Citizens for Sensible Control of Acid Rain, which the study found to be a group of coal and utility firms seeking to counter the environmental lobby.

--The Coalition for Vehicle Choice, which the study said is funded by auto companies to combat fuel-economy legislation.

The study said some groups adopt “scientific-sounding names,” but “often disregard compelling scientific evidence to further their own viewpoints, arguing that pesticides are not harmful, saccharin is not carcinogenic or that global warming is a myth.”