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</div><div>ntbcw F ctr cda</div><div> =<div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">page 9</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/exxon-denial-and-deception.pdf?a1481f" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/exxon-denial-and-deception.pdf?a1481f</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ExxonMobil - Funding the Skeptics </div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One of the most high profile skeptics in the climate change debate, S. Fred Singer, has recently denied receiving any oil company money, and claimed that his consulting for oil companies was solely “on the subject of oil pricing, some 20 years ago….”59 </div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Yet Exxon’s own documents 60 show that in 1998, the company gave a grant of $10,000 to the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), of which Singer is the founding president, and another $65,000 to the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which promotes and supports Singer’s work.61 In addition, in the past Singer has acknowledged receiving funding from Exxon. 62 According to the Wall Street Journal 63, </div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small;">ExxonMobil also funds the ultra-conservative and anti-environmentalist Frontiers of Freedom Institute, of which Singer is a staff member. Frontiers of Freedom was cited in the American Petroleum Institute (API) 1998 Global Science Communications Action Plan as a possible organization to help operationalize their antiKyoto strategy, to be funded by API and others in the fossil fuel industry. 64 Singer has a history of public attacks on the integrity of the IPCC process.65 </div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He has fabricated quotes from the former chair of the IPCC, Dr. Bert Bolin, in an attempt to suggest that Dr. Bolin had changed his mind about climate change.66 </div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Singer was also the mastermind behind a Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) project that took fifty Republican students from the United States, trained in the skeptics’ arguments, to the climate negotiations in Bonn in 2001, to demonstrate in favor of Bush’s abandonment of the Kyoto Protocol.67 CFACT was also listed in the 1998 API plan mentioned above...</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See www.exxonmobil.com/contributions/ public_info.html. </div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">61 See www.atlasusa.org/highlights/archives/1995/H1995- 02-Environment.html; and http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=3645&method=full.</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> 62 During a 1994 television appearance on Nightline, Singer acknowledged receiving funding from Exxon, Shell, Unocal and ARCO, and that his institute, the Science and Environment Policy Project (SEPP) is partially funded by Exxon. For more information, see http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?ID=3207&method=full. </div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">63 “Conservatives Seek IRS Inquiry on Environmental Group’s Status,” The Wall Street Journal, 21 June 2001. 64 API memo, 1998 – see appendix. 65 See interview with Fred Singer, “Hot </div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div>... =<div style="font-size: small;"><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Academia: The 'Intellectual Raw Materials' for the EV Fight</h3>The Koch network has spent decades investing in colleges and universities, often times funding faculty positions or free market centers and programs and staffing them with ideologically aligned academics. In recent years, this funding has come under considerable scrutiny, and much has been reported on the strings attached to funding of programs like the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/mercatus-center" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Mercatus Center</a> at George Mason University, the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University, and the Department of Economics at Florida State University. By design, this is an “investment in the intellectual raw materials,” as Fink wrote, “that is, the exploration and production of abstract concepts and theories.” The abstract nature of such academic exploration makes it a little harder to see the impact of the Koch network’s investments in universities on a single policy issue as discreet as transportation electrification. But not impossible. ...Indeed, some of the Kochs' chosen academics and Koch-funded centers have spoken publicly to the issue. One of the most visible academic figures arguing against the federal EV tax credit is Veronique de Rugy, a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center. Last fall, as Congress considered a couple of opposing bills — a bipartisan proposal to extend the tax credit and another to cancel it — <a href="https://www.creators.com/read/veronique-de-rugy/10/18/extending-the-electric-vehicle-tax-credit-undermines-tax-reform" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">de Rugy railed against the tax credit in an op-ed</a>.It’s worth noting that the bill to eliminate the credit was <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/02/05/senator-john-barrasso-koch-talking-points-electric-car-tax-credit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">introduced by Senator John Barrasso</a> of Wyoming, the third largest recipient of Koch Industries donations in the Senate, and that Koch Industries formally lobbied for Barrasso’s bill. De Rugy wrote that “Barrasso's proposal makes the tax code simpler and less distortionary, making it the most economically sound.”Earlier this year, de Rugy wrote another op-ed bashing the bipartisan support for the federal EV tax credit, and <a href="https://www.creators.com/read/veronique-de-rugy/04/19/bipartisan-support-for-electric-vehicle-handouts-betrays-taxpayers" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">describing the consumer tax incentive as a “corporate handout.”</a>Another Mercatus Center economist, Matthew Mitchell, <a href="https://www.mercatus.org/scholars/matthew-d-mitchell" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">publishes frequently on the subjects of government favoritism and privilege</a>, making the popular free-market argument that the government shouldn’t support private industries through fiscal policies like tax preferences, loan guarantees, and direct subsidization.Curiously, Mitchell never writes of the massive subsidies enjoyed by the mature oil and gas industries, which the <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/open/Documents/USA%20FFSR%20progress%20report%20to%20G20%202014%20Final.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">U.S. treasury has calculated out to $4.7 billion per year</a>. Nor does he take issue with the more than $500 million that Koch Industries itself — the second largest private company in the U.S. — has benefited from over the past two decades, <a href="https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/koch-industries" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">according to the Subsidy Tracker built by Good Jobs First</a>. Mitchell does, however, use Tesla as a “beautiful illustration of the problem of favoritism and crony capitalism” in <a href="https://fedsoc.org/commentary/videos/capitalism-v-cronyism-what-s-the-true-cost-of-a-tesla" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a video he narrates for the Federalist Society</a>, and in a number of related articles. It’s more common for Koch-funded academics to influence the EV policy discussion indirectly, through the “abstract concepts and theories” that Fink described or through other related issues.The gasoline tax provides a good example. The Koch network opposes any increase to federal or state gas taxes, for obvious reasons — the taxes would make Koch Industries’ refined petroleum products more expensive (and make alternatives like mass transit and electric cars more attractive). However, gas taxes typically fund roads, and gas tax revenues are dwindling as they haven’t kept pace with inflation and cars have gotten far more fuel efficient. [omg pix:
Koch Student Commons, on the ground floor of the University of Kansas' business school. ]The Koch network is actively pushing the argument that electric vehicles, which don’t pay a gas tax, are to blame for highway funding shortfalls, despite vast evidence to the contrary. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/09/11/koch-alec-fees-electric-cars-penalize-drivers-consumer-reports" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Some states have enacted special EV fees to bolster highway funds</a>, and Senator Barrasso is spearheading an effort to create a new fee at the federal level. This despite <a href="https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/press_release/evfees/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">a recent report by Consumer Reports</a> which found that the majority of these fees are punitive in that they charge plug-in drivers more than the equivalent that gas-powered cars would generate in gas taxes annually. Even so, some Koch-funded academics have argued recently against raising gas taxes, while taking shots at electric cars. <a href="https://www.ocregister.com/2018/01/03/paying-more-at-the-pump-will-not-fix-californias-roads-if-politicians-keep-raiding-the-gas-tax-fund/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Writing in the Orange County Register last year</a>, a professor and research fellow from Utah State University’s Koch-funded program claim that “The decline in gas-tax revenue caused by the shift away from internal-combustion engines is stressing the highway trust funds in many states,” adding that some states now “charge special fees for electric-car owners to compensate for the lost revenue.”Similarly, in a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adammillsap/2019/04/29/gas-taxes-not-long-term-answer-for-infrastructure-funding/#5dca67ac2ae8" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">recent op-ed in Forbes</a>, Adam Milsap, the associate director of the Koch-funded L. Charles Hilton Jr. Center for the Study of Economic Prosperity and Individual Opportunity at Florida State University, writes that “the gas tax is not the long-term funding answer” for road funds. While Milsap doesn’t promote a fee for EVs, he does portray them as a growing part of the problem. Milsap is, to borrow Mitchell’s phrase, “a perfect illustration” of the Koch-funded higher ed ecosystem.In a 2014 panel on <a href="http://kochdocs.org/2019/06/06/koch-freedom-partners-donor-summit-session-funding-universities-transcript/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">“Leveraging Science and the Universities” at the Koch Freedom Partners donor summit session</a>, Milsap described how Koch-funded programs — like George Mason University's Mercatus Center and the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/institute-humane-studies-george-mason-university" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Institute for Humane Studies</a> — trained him to cultivate a “new talent pipeline” for all levels of the Koch network. He also described how academics should use all “viable mediums,” including “major Republican blogs, op-eds, and policy briefs” to spread ideas to a broader, more popular audience, as he regularly does on Forbes and in other outlets. <h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Think Tanks: Translating Free Market Ideas to EV Antagonism</h3>Fink described the role of think tanks as translating ideas into actual solutions and policy proposals. Here, at this stage, “ideas are applied to a relevant context and molded into needed solutions for real-world problems.”The role that think tanks and policy institutions play in fighting against EV-friendly policies cannot be overstated, as they develop and push deceptive talking points about electric cars into the public policy debates, and even produce reports and “studies” that cherry-pick data to promote a burn-more-gas agenda. As <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/elliott-negin/will-koch-pull-the-plug-on-electric-cars" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Elliot Negin of the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote</a>, “these think tanks and advocacy groups essentially function as public relations arms for their benefactors, representing their interests under the guise of being neutral, albeit conservative, policy shops.” Negin references a September 2018 letter, which <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/09/27/koch-funded-groups-again-speak-out-against-electric-vehicle-tax-credits" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">DeSmog also reported extensively on</a>, that reveals the breadth of the Koch think tank influence in the debate over the federal EV tax credit. The letter, signed by 30 self-described “conservative free-market organizations” — the majority of which have clear ties to <a href="https://desmogblog.com/charles-koch" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Charles Koch</a> and Koch Industries through their funding or leadership — called for Congress to halt the expansion of the EV tax credit, or to eliminate it entirely. If there is a central hub of the Koch network’s think tank efforts, it appears to be the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/american-energy-alliance-aea" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">American Energy Alliance</a> (AEA), which organized the letter to Congress.The AEA is the advocacy wing of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/institute-energy-research" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Institute for Energy Research</a>, both of which receive Koch funding. Both groups are lead by <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/thomas-pyle" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Tom Pyle</a>, who has a long history of working with and for the Koch brothers and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/koch-industries-inc" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Koch Industries</a>. He was the top lobbyist at Koch Industries, and then later as a private lobbyist, he lobbied on behalf of Koch Industries and the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (now the<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/american-fuel-petrochemical-manufacturers-afpm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"> American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers</a>), of which Koch Industries is a core and influential member.The AEA has been consistently vocal in its opposition to the electric vehicle tax credit, and in June <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/06/04/american-energy-alliance-tom-pyle-push-poll-koch-electric-cars-tax-credit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">released a now-annual deceptive push poll</a> that relied on demonstrably false data and leading questions to allege that Americans don't support the tax credit.Joining Pyle in signing the letter were representatives of another 29 organizations, at least 17 of which have clear, demonstrable ties to the Koch network.There's the “Action” arm of the Koch-funded corporate bill mill the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)</a> and the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/competitive-enterprise-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)</a>, a conservative advocacy group <a href="https://cei.org/about-cei" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">dedicated</a> to “economic freedom” that has <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/competitive-enterprise-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">received funding</a> from ExxonMobil, Texaco, and the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/koch-family-foundations" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">family foundations of both Koch brothers</a>.Then there's <a href="https://www.americancommitment.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">American Commitment</a>, run by Phil Kerpen, a former vice president of <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/americans-for-prosperity" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a> (founded and funded by the Kochs). And don't forget <a href="http://lessgovernment.org/#sthash.UrtaKSlM.dpbs" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Less Government</a>, an “organization dedicated to reducing the power of government and protecting the First Amendment from governmental assault,” founded and run by <a href="https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/seton-motley" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Seton Motley</a>, staunch <a href="https://www.redstate.com/setonmotley/2016/05/03/koch-brothers-don%E2%80%99t-want-government-cronyism-%E2%80%93-google/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Koch defender</a>, who is also a policy adviser to the climate science-denying <a href="http://desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Heartland Institute</a>, which has <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute#funding" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">received millions in grants from Koch family network foundations</a>. And there's <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/frontiers-freedom" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Frontiers of Freedom</a>, run by George Landrith, a group which has received significant funding from Koch network foundations and dark money organizations like <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/who-donors-trust" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">DonorsTrust</a>, and which launched an offshoot called<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/12/23/energy-equality-coalition-koch-attack-federal-electric-vehicle-tax-credit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"> the Energy Equality Coalition</a> to battle against the federal electric vehicle tax credit. Besides collaborating on the occasional letter to Congress, representatives from these groups regularly reach out into the public sphere to influence public opinion and bend political will. When the Energy Equality Coalition launched, one of the group's board members, George Landrith, told The Weekly Standard, “Working-class people are paying taxes to subsidize luxury goods for the richest among us … We believe there should be energy equality, not special treatment for the wealthy.” Landrith’s comment anticipated a talking point that would become a favorite of the Koch network, one that has been repeated dozens, if not hundreds, of times in op-eds and commentaries penned by Koch reps. Over a two-month span after Senator Barrasso introduced his bill to eliminate the EV tax credit last fall, a flurry of such pieces hit the presses. In December 2018, Jonathan Lesser of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/manhattan-institute-policy-research" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Manhattan Institute</a> (which has received more than $2.6 million from Koch foundations) tried to paint the EV tax credit as “inequitable” <a href="https://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/ev-subsidies-taxpayers-electric-cars/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">in Investors Business Daily</a>.A couple days later, Landrith <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/07/electric-vehicle-tax-credit/" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">argued the same in The Daily Caller</a>. Then came Ross Marchand of the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Taxpayers_Protection_Alliance" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Taxpayers Protection Alliance </a>(at least $1.1 million from Koch groups), bashing the “EV tax credit gravy train,” and Drew Johnson of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/national-center-public-policy-research" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">National Center for Public Policy Research </a>(at least <a href="http://conservativetransparency.org/recipient/national-center-for-public-policy-research/" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">$1 million from DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund</a>) <a href="https://www.houmatoday.com/news/20190125/opinion-electric-vehicle-subsidies-dont-help-environment" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">asking readers of the Austin American Statesmen</a> to “Imagine taxing middle-class families to help rich folks buy luxury cars.” This echo chamber has proven effective. In February 2019, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/sen-john-barrasso-every-time-an-electric-car-sells-you-help-pay-for-it-its-time-to-unplug-the-subsidy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Senator Barrasso himself wrote in a FoxNews op-ed that</a> “Every time one of these cars sells, the U.S. taxpayer must help pay for it,” and also stated inaccurately that “Eight out of 10 electric-car tax credits go to households earning at least $100,000 — buyers who don’t need a subsidy.” Speaking in the Senate, Barrasso repeated that the EV program “disproportionately subsidizes wealthy buyers” and that “hard-working Wyoming taxpayers shouldn't have to subsidize wealthy California luxury-car buyers.”It’s worth noting that this particular talking point is intentionally misleading — leaving out the huge contribution of electric car leases — and is easily debunked. (<a href="https://www.kochvsclean.com/electric-car-tax-credit-facts/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">See our explanation on KochvsClean here</a>, and check out the rest of <a href="https://www.kochvsclean.com/ev-facts/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">our EV Facts</a> while you’re there.)So, where does it come from? That brings us to the other main purpose of the Kochs’ investments in think tanks: producing the raw materials for the disinformation that gets pumped through the conservative echo chamber. The “eight of out 10” statistic that has been repeated ad nauseum is typically attributed to a report by Wayne Winegarden of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/Pacific-Research-Institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Pacific Research Institute</a> (which has received $1.7 million from Koch foundations). It has been <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/costly-subsidies-rich-wayne-winegarden-debunked" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">roundly debunked for cherrypicking outdated statistics and ignoring leased vehicles</a>, which play a significant role in the EV market.Yet the study has been cited in countless articles and op-eds, including those described above and others published in the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-electric-kool-aid-subsidy-test-11546201813" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Wall Street Journal</a>, the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/kill-dont-expand-tax-subsidies-for-electric-vehicles" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Washington Examiner</a>, the <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/electric-vehicle-tax-credit-benefits-wealthy-owners/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">National Review</a>, and more, as well as in<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/05/09/koch-funded-groups-still-begging-congress-kill-electric-car-tax-credit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"> letters to Congressional leaders, including the one described above</a>. Clearly, the Koch network’s investments in the Pacific Research Institute are paying off. The institute's product is one of a handful of reports and studies that Koch network commentators will regularly cite in their attacks on electric cars. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/short-circuit-high-cost-electric-vehicle-subsidies-jonathan-lesser-debunked" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Another comes from the Manhattan Institute</a>, supporting the obviously misleading claims that widespread adoption of electric cars would increase air pollution and have a negligible impact on the global climate. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/12/06/koch-commissioned-nera-study-aims-kill-electric-vehicle-tax-credit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Another</a>, by <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/nera-economic-consulting" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">NERA Economic Consulting</a>, was commissioned by a subsidiary of Koch Industries and is often referenced to support macroeconomic arguments against lifting the EV tax credit's cap. To review: The Koch network’s massive investment in think tanks and policy institutions not only funds the production of deceptive talking points, but also the voices from seemingly reputable organizations who pump the disinformation through the echo chamber and influence public opinion and shape political will. <h3 dir="ltr" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">The Ground Game: Citizen Activist Organizations and Front Groups</h3>In his magazine article, “Structure of Social Change,” Fink wrote that “Citizen activist or implementation groups are needed in the final stage to take the policy ideas from the think tanks and translate them into proposals that citizens can understand and act upon.”To this end, the Kochs’ sprawling 501(c)4 advocacy group <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/americans-for-prosperity" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a> (AFP) is a massively influential player, with more than 2.3 million members and operations in 35 states. The national AFP team operates publicly much like the think tanks described above — see, for instance, <a href="https://morningconsult.com/opinions/tesla-drivers-dont-need-taxpayer-handouts/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">this op-ed on why “Tesla drivers don’t need taxpayer handouts” by an AFP policy analyst</a>, or <a href="https://www.americanenergyalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/EVCoalition2.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">the chief government affairs officer’s signature on the EV tax credit letter</a>.[marco conf]
But at the state level and local level, AFP chapters work more directly to rally voters and pressure elected and appointed policymakers. As a number of states consider policies and regulations concerning electric vehicles, AFP’s influence is growing. They are even intervening in arcane electric utility regulatory proceedings. <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/16/oil-industry-electric-car-1729429" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">As Politico recently reported</a>, AFP’s state chapters have mobilized against utility investments in EV charging infrastructure in <a href="https://americansforprosperity.org/afp-az-announces-opposition-to-crony-corporation-commission-proposal/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Arizona</a>, <a href="https://www.icc.illinois.gov/workshops/Notice%20of%20Inquiry%20Regarding%20Electric%20Vehicles" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Illinois</a>, and Iowa. Various AFP state chapters have also pushed legislators to pass annual EV registration fees, many inspired by a model resolution discussed for years at the Koch-funded and -controlled ALEC meetings. The model resolution that passed at last fall’s ALEC meeting was written and promoted by none other than Tom Pyle of the American Energy Alliance, as <a href="https://documented.net/2019/01/fact-checking-alec-where-do-its-model-bills-come-from/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">revealed in emails obtained by the corporate watchdog Documented</a>, providing yet another example of how the policy influence flows through this multi-tiered Koch network. In Colorado in 2017, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/11/business/energy-environment/electric-cars-hybrid-tax-credits.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">AFP’s state chapter lobbied aggresively for a bill </a>that would end the state’s tax incentive for the purchase of a new electric car. The effort paid off, as the state legislature canceled the tax credit. (Though the victory was short-lived, as the Democrats swept the statewide offices in the 2018 elections and quickly introduced a new tax incentive.) Colorado, a recent hotbed of EV policy action, hosts more Koch-tied ground game groups than just AFP.Earlier this year, a <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/07/24/freedom-drive-coalition-koch-disinformation-playbook-colorado" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">group called the Freedom to Drive Coalition launched</a>, using the Koch’s disinformation playbook to oppose efforts by the governor’s office to introduce cleaner air standards and adopt low- and zero-emission vehicle mandates.<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/07/24/freedom-drive-coalition-koch-disinformation-playbook-colorado" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">As DeSmog reported this summer</a>, the coalition portrays itself as the voice of the Colorado driver, but is run by a handful of Colorado-based public affairs professionals. One of them is Sean Paige, a former director of Americans for Prosperity’s Colorado chapter. The coalition itself includes car dealers and auto groups, some agricultural associations, and the Colorado Petroleum Association.Notably, the only national member is the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/american-fuel-petrochemical-manufacturers-afpm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">American Fuel & Petrochemicals Manufacturers (AFPM</a>), a national trade association representing 98 percent of oil refining capacity in the United States, in which Koch Industries is an influential member. (James Mahoney served as AFPM chairman while he was an executive vice president at Koch Industries, and there has been a <a href="https://documented.net/2017/12/alec-hires-former-koch-staffer-to-lead-its-energy-task-force/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">perpetual revolving door</a> between the leadership and staff at AFPM, Koch Industries, ALEC, and the Institute for Energy Research.) Similar efforts are evident on the ground in states across the country, wherever policymakers are considering proposals to help accelerate the transition to electric cars. Other efforts are less evident, but almost certainly underway.The Koch ground game often runs campaigns through front groups that mask the Big Oil money and present a facade of public and consumer support. (Recall that Americans for Prosperity was once itself a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/26/koch-brothers-americans-for-prosperity-rightwing-political-group" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">little known political advocacy group masquerading as a decentralized grassroots libertarian movement that helped juice the early Tea Party upwelling.</a>)The Koch network and Marathon Petroleum were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/13/climate/cafe-emissions-rollback-oil-industry.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">already revealed in a New York Times investigation</a> to be behind a covert effort to bundle public comments in support of a rollback of President Obama's clean car standards, which the Trump administration is on the verge of formalizing. If that roll back survives certain legal challenges — which most legal experts doubt — it would force American drivers to burn an extra 500,000 barrels of gasoline every day, and would disincentivize automakers from producing and selling all-electric models that are currently in development.While the Koch network's fingerprints on that effort were exposed, there are almost certainly more front groups that haven't yet been tied to Koch funding or coordination. All told, the Koch network's investments throughout their “structure of social change” give politicians plenty of cover, through disinformation and the veneer of public support, to promote policies that put the brakes on the market for electric vehicles.Then factor in the considerable cash invested directly in political campaigns by Koch Industries and its subsidiaries, and the <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/10/koch-new-super-pac-midterms-813553" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">dark money that flows from Koch-affiliated PACs</a>, and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/26/koch-brothers-americans-for-prosperity-rightwing-political-group" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">campaign-caliber ground game provided before elections by Americans for Prosperity</a>, and the <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2018/11/13413/koch-brothers-are-watching-you-and-new-documents-reveal-just-how-much-they-know" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">startling volume of voter data they've compiled in their i360 voter files</a>.That's how you get policymakers to spurn electric cars, instead supporting policies that only benefit the oil industry, at the expense of public health, the climate, and the personal finances of American drivers. <div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div></div><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/04/10/koch-nichols-scott-pruitt-strip-california-waiver-regulate-auto-emissions" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/04/10/koch-nichols-scott-pruitt-strip-california-waiver-regulate-auto-emissions</a>...In the weeks leading up to his announcement about the emissions standards, Pruitt had taken a more antagonistic tone towards California, signaling that he might attempt to revoke the waiver that was <a href="https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/california-greenhouse-gas-waiver-request" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">granted by the Obama administration, per legal mandate, in 2009</a>.<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); min-height: 280px;"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">“California is not the arbiter of these issues,” Pruitt told Bloomberg News in March, adding that the state “shouldn’t and can’t dictate to the rest of the country what these levels are going to be.”With the waiver in hand, California can continue to enforce current greenhouse gas emissions standards, despite whatever the EPA sets as the new national standards for model years 2022-2025. On top of that, any other state can choose to adopt California’s standards, which 13 other states and the District of Columbia currently have.Because these states represent roughly one-third of the country’s personal vehicle market, automakers would have to decide whether to set up two different production lines for states following the California standards and the rest of the country, or whether to treat California’s targets as a de facto national standard.Predictably, the automakers, through the powerful Auto Alliance and Global Automakers trade groups, are calling for one national regime, which could result from a grand bargain like the one that Pruitt just scrapped, or could be delivered by Pruitt stripping California of its waiver.Any attempt at such a repeal would be hugely controversial, and possibly illegal, due to many nuances in the Clean Air Act and the history of its application and enforcement. A waiver granted to California under the Clean Air Act has never been revoked, and has only been denied once.Notably, that lone denial came in December 2007 when William (Bill) Wehrum, who ran the EPA’s clean air division at the time, <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/27/nation/na-waiver27" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">convinced then-EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to reject the state’s request</a> to set its own greenhouse gas standards for vehicles, the very issue at hand today.(California was later granted that same waiver in 2009 under the Obama administration, after the state sued the EPA, and after the Supreme Court had held in 2007 that <a href="http://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2017/04/02/the-tenth-anniversary-of-massachusetts-v-epa/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">the EPA was required to regulate greenhouse gas emissions</a>. For a much more comprehensive background on California’s waiver and Wehrum’s opposition, see <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/02/06/bill-wehrum-once-denied-california-right-cut-auto-emissions-and-could-do-it-again-epa" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">this recent Desmog article</a>.)Today, Wehrum is again the air chief at the EPA, and is again in a position to attempt to strip California of its unique authority to set its own air pollution limits. As Wehrum, Pruitt, and EPA policymakers work to figure out the new national emissions standards for cars and light trucks, they are hearing from groups including the American Consumer Institute and its Koch-tied coalition on the importance of revoking the California waiver.<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Who Are the Groups Fighting California’s Clean Air Act Waiver?</h3>The ACI letter to Pruitt, dated March 28, 2018, was signed by representatives from 11 groups, eight of which have known ties to the Koch network, and all of which are routine commenters on conservative issues.The <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Consumer_Institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">American Consumer Institute (ACI)</a> is credited with organizing the coalition, and the letter is signed by its President Steve Pociask. The group is best known for opposing <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/13-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-fccs-net-neutrality-regulation/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">net neutrality efforts</a> while being funded by a major internet service provider (ISP) lobby, as journalist <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8gdbw5/cables-companies-are-astroturfing-fake-consumer-support-to-end-net-neutrality" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Lee Fang detailed for VICE</a>. More recently, Pociask has turned his attention to attacking electric vehicles, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevepociask/2018/03/22/the-science-on-electric-vehicles-does-not-support-continuing-californias-waiver/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">writing on Forbes</a> that “the science on electric vehicles does not support continuing California’s waiver.”<a href="http://lessgovernment.org/#sthash.UrtaKSlM.dpbs" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Less Government </a>is an “organization dedicated to reducing the power of government and protecting the First Amendment from governmental assault,” which was founded and run by <a href="https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/seton-motley" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Seton Motley</a>, who is also listed as a Policy Adviser to the climate science-denying <a href="http://desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Heartland Institute</a>. Though Motley and his Less Government org have their roots in telecom and media issues, he has in recent years engaged more on climate and energy issues, <a href="http://www.energyandpolicy.org/americans-for-prosperity-anti-wind-letter-analysis/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">signing some anti-wind energy letters organized by the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity</a> and <a href="http://lessgovernment.org/why-are-republicans-resurrecting-failed-green-energy-subsidies/#sthash.9ki1QTaT.dpbs" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">writing a bit on electric vehicles</a>.The <a href="http://www.energyandpolicy.org/taxpayer-protection-alliance" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA)</a> is part of the <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/koch" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">network of front groups</a> funded by the Koch brothers and their donor network through the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/12/center-to-protect-patient-rights-ga/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Center to Protect Patient Rights</a> (now called <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Encore" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">American Encore</a>), and <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/behind-the-curtain-exclusive-the-koch-brothers-secret-bank-96669.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Freedom Partners</a>. As the Energy and Policy Institute has described, “TPA essentially exists as a shell for its advocacy, based on its own IRS form 990s: 'The Taxpayers Protection Alliance has given control of the management duties and the daily activities of the organization to MLM Consulting, LLC (MLM). MLM will be responsible for managing the organization and work to support the exempt purposes of TPA. The President of TPA, David Williams, is the sole owner of MLM Consulting LLC.'” Williams signed the ACIletter to Pruitt. TPA has fought clean energy policy in the past using the website SolarSecrets.org and has published white papers arguing against solar energy tax credits.<a href="http://caseforconsumers.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Consumer Action for a Strong Economy </a>is run by Matthew Kandrach, and has been <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/freedomworks#s46" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">linked to a number of coalition efforts stemming from the FreedomWorks</a> organization, which was born of a merger between the Koch-founded <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE)</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Empower_America" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Empower America</a>.<a href="https://www.americancommitment.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">American Commitment</a> is run by Phil Kerpen, a former Vice President of Americans for Prosperity. The organization was founded by <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Sean_Noble" title="Sean Noble" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Sean Noble</a>, a right-wing operative with close ties to the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_brothers" title="Koch brothers" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Koch brothers</a> who also runs the <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Center_to_Protect_Patient_Rights" title="Center to Protect Patient Rights" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Center to Protect Patient Rights</a> (American Encore), a major funnel for Koch donor network money to front groups.<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/freedomworks" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">FreedomWorks</a> was, as mentioned above, born of a merger between the Koch-founded <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE)</a>and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Empower_America" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Empower America</a>, though it has no known Koch ties at present day. The group was described in a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150821200015/http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/12/dick-armey-resigns-freedomworks-tea-party" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">2012 article in Mother Jones</a><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150821200015/http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/12/dick-armey-resigns-freedomworks-tea-party" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"> </a>as “one of the main political outfits of the conservative movement and an instrumental force within the tea party.” It pushes free market policies and has questioned the well-established science linking human activity to a warming planet.The <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/competitive-enterprise-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI)</a> is a conservative advocacy group <a href="https://cei.org/about-cei" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">dedicated</a> to “economic freedom” that has <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/competitive-enterprise-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">received funding</a> from ExxonMobil, Texaco, and the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/koch-family-foundations" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">family foundations of the Koch brothers</a>.<a href="http://www.energyandpolicy.org/americans-for-tax-reform" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Americans for Tax Reform</a> (ATR) is an <a href="https://www.atr.org/about" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">anti-tax</a> group that has received funding from the oil and gas lobbying group, the <a href="http://conservativetransparency.org/org/americans-for-tax-reform-americans-for-tax-reform-foundation/?og_tot=127&order_by=contribution+DESC&adv=American+Petroleum+Institute&min=&max=&yr=&yr1=&yr2=&submit=#grants" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">American Petroleum Institute</a>, along with various groups in the Koch network such as the <a href="http://conservativetransparency.org/org/americans-for-tax-reform-americans-for-tax-reform-foundation/?og_tot=127&order_by=contribution+DESC&adv=claude&min=&max=&yr=&yr1=&yr2=&submit=#grants" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation</a> and the <a href="http://conservativetransparency.org/org/americans-for-tax-reform-americans-for-tax-reform-foundation/?og_tot=127&order_by=contribution+DESC&adv=Center+to+Protect+Patient+Rights&min=&max=&yr=&yr1=&yr2=&submit=#grants" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Center to Protect Patient Rights</a>, as well as <a href="http://conservativetransparency.org/org/americans-for-tax-reform-americans-for-tax-reform-foundation/?og_tot=127&order_by=contribution+DESC&adv=donors&min=&max=&yr=&yr1=&yr2=&submit=#grants" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">DonorsTrust</a>.The <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/60-plus-association" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">60 Plus Association</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151014182632/http://60plus.org/about/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">describes itself </a>as the conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and receives significant funding from groups connected to the Koch brothers. The group has also received funding from the American Petroleum Institute, and was created by Sean Noble (see American Commitment above). Noble was until recently a consultant for the Arizona Public Service utility company, and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/07/08/how-arizona-corporation-commission-turned-anti-solar-just-few-years" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">has led efforts in Arizona to kill solar-friendly legislation</a>.<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/frontiers-freedom" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Frontiers of Freedom</a>, run by George Landrith, has received significant funding from Exxon, the Koch brothers, and dark money organizations like Donors Trust. In 2015, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/12/23/energy-equality-coalition-koch-attack-federal-electric-vehicle-tax-credit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Landrith launched the Energy Equality Coalition</a> to battle against the federal electric vehicle tax credit. The coalition also includes David Williams of the Taxpayer Protection Alliance and Horace Cooper, a senior fellow at the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Heartland Institute</a>. Landrith is also a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20171115202340/http://www.nationalcenter.org/NCPPR_Directors.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">director </a>of the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/national-center-public-policy-research" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR)</a>. The Center for Freedom and Prosperity was <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/climate-deniers/front-groups/center-for-freedom-prosperity-foundation/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">once funded by the Charles Koch Foundation</a> and has actively lobbied for more liberalized tax laws, and for less scrutiny towards offshore tax havens.Seven of the organizations that signed this letter to Pruitt — and five of the actual representatives who signed — <a href="http://www.rstreet.org/outreach/letter-support-policies-encouraging-smokers-to-switch-to-less-harmful-alternatives/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">also recently penned a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration</a> (FDA) defending “electronic and heat-not-burn” tobacco products (or vaping products), indicating that this network is defending the tobacco industry as well as oil and gas companies.<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">California and Partner States Fight Back</h3>Nichols has signaled that California will not be retreating from its strong standards.===</div></div></div></div>