An October 30, 2006 piece by Eric "SciGuy" Berger notes ACSH's trans fat position:
Trans fats are, indeed, bad for you. But so are a lot of things we eat. Here's a measured report on the scientific evidence from the American Council on Science and Health:
Based on the effects of TFAs on lipid levels, it has been estimated that replacing all of the TFAs from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils in the U.S. diet with unsaturated fatty acids could lead to as much as a 3 to 6 percent reduction in heart disease risk. This value should be regarded only as a rough estimate because there are multiple sources of uncertainty in the data used to calculate it. Moreover, the reduction achievable in practice is likely to be substantially lower than calculated estimates because unsaturated fatty acids cannot replace TFAs in some food applications for reasons related to texture or stability.
Testimony given at the hearing today by the council's president, Elizabeth Whelan, is still more to the point. The organization, by the way, does receive some funding from food companies, but it's run by scientists, and has a pretty good reputation for promoting healthy activities. The testimony is worth reading in its entirety