Hot Air Tour

=see bus tours
1st? iconic? // boost TP?= context: see frontline pwr of big oil on BO blindsided on cap & trade wonky issue, signs commiecampaign event mod rw radio xian asked bob inglis climate, trey gowdy smacked him down 12 yr incumb 29% cap & trade?note no mention of KOCH<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/us/politics/21climate.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/us/politics/21climate.html</a>no lnxJASPER, Ind. — At a candidate forum here last week, Representative Baron P. Hill, a threatened Democratic incumbent in a largely conservative southern Indiana district, was endeavoring to explain his unpopular vote for the House cap-and-trade energy bill.It will create jobs in Indiana, reduce foreign oil imports and address global warming, Mr. Hill said at a debate with Todd Young, a novice Republican candidate who is supported by an array of Indiana Tea Party groups and is a climate change skeptic.“Climate change is real, and man is causing it,” Mr. Hill said, echoing most climate scientists. “That is indisputable. And we have to do something about it.”A rain of boos showered Mr. Hill, including a hearty growl from Norman Dennison, a 50-year-old electrician and founder of the Corydon Tea Party.“It’s a flat-out lie,” Mr. Dennison said in an interview after the debate, adding that he had based his view on the preaching of Rush Limbaugh and the teaching of Scripture. “I read my Bible,” Mr. Dennison said. “He made this earth for us to utilize.”Skepticism and outright denial of global warming are among the articles of faith of the Tea Party movement, here in Indiana and across the country. For some, it is a matter of religious conviction; for others, it is driven by distrust of those they call the elites. And for others still, efforts to address climate change are seen as a conspiracy to impose world government and a sweeping redistribution of wealth. But all are wary of the Obama administration’s plans to regulate carbon dioxide, a ubiquitous gas, which will require the expansion of government authority into nearly every corner of the economy.“This so-called climate science is just ridiculous,” said Kelly Khuri, founder of the Clark County Tea Party Patriots. “I think it’s all cyclical.”“Carbon regulation, cap and trade, it’s all just a money-control avenue,” Ms. Khuri added. “Some people say I’m extreme, but they said the John Birch Society was extreme, too.”Whatever the party composition of the next Congress, cap and trade is likely dead for the foreseeable future. If dozens of new Republican climate skeptics are swept into Congress, the prospects for assertive federal action to control global warming gases, including regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency, will grow dimmer than they already are.Those who support the Tea Party movement are considerably more dubious about the existence and effects of global warming than the American public at large, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted this month. The survey found that only 14 percent of Tea Party supporters said that global warming is an environmental problem that is having an effect now, while 49 percent of the rest of the public believes that it is. More than half of Tea Party supporters said that global warming would have no serious effect at any time in the future, while only 15 percent of other Americans share that view, the poll found.And 8 percent of Tea Party adherents volunteered that they did not believe global warming exists at all, while only 1 percent of other respondents agreed.Those views in general align with those of the fossil fuel industries, which have for decades waged a concerted campaign to raise doubts about the science of global warming and to undermine policies devised to address it.They have created and lavishly financed institutes to produce anti-global-warming studies, paid for rallies and Web sites to question the science, and generated scores of economic analyses that purport to show that policies to reduce emissions of climate-altering gases will have a devastating effect on jobs and the overall economy.ImageTheir views are spread by a number of widely followed conservative opinion leaders, including Mr. Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, George Will and Sarah Palin, who oppose government programs to address climate change and who question the credibility and motives of the scientists who have raised alarms about it.Groups that help support Tea Party candidates include climate change skepticism in their core message. Americans for Prosperity, a group founded and largely financed by oil industry interests, has sponsored what it calls a Regulation Reality Tour to stir up opposition to climate change legislation and federal regulation of carbon emissions. Its Tea Party talking points describe a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions as “the largest excise tax in history.”FreedomWorks, another group supported by the oil industry, helps organize Tea Party rallies and distributes fliers urging opposition to federal climate policy, which it calls a “power grab.”“Any effort to make electricity and fuel more expensive or to cap or regulate CO2 will only exacerbate an already critical situation and cause tremendous economic damage,” FreedomWorks says on its Web site.The oil, coal and utility industries have collectively spent $500 million just since the beginning of 2009 to lobby against legislation to address climate change and to defeat candidates, like Mr. Hill, who support it, according to a new analysis from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a left-leaning advocacy group in Washington.Their message appears to have fallen on receptive ears. Of the 20 Republican Senate candidates in contested races, 19 question the science of global warming and oppose any comprehensive legislation to deal with it, according to a National Journal survey.The only exception is Mark Steven Kirk, the Republican Senate nominee in Illinois, who was one of only eight Republicans to vote for the House cap-and-trade bill sponsored by Representatives Henry A. Waxman of California and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats. (One of the other Republican “yes” votes was cast by Representative Michael N. Castle of Delaware, who blames that vote in part for his primary election defeat by Christine O’Donnell, the Tea Party candidate and a global warming skeptic.)A large majority of Tea Party-supported House candidates also doubt global warming science and oppose energy legislation designed to address it.Mr. Young, the Indiana Republican nominee trying to unseat Mr. Hill for the Ninth Congressional District seat, strongly opposes cap and trade and other unilateral measures to combat global warming. He says he is uncertain what is causing the observed heating of the planet, adding that it could be caused by sunspots or the normal cycles of nature.“The science is not settled,” he said in an interview in his headquarters in Bloomington, Ind. And he said that given the scientific uncertainty, it was not wise to make major changes in the nation’s energy economy to reduce carbon emissions.A third candidate in the Indiana Congressional race, Greg Knott, a libertarian, said he accepted the scientific consensus on climate change but opposed a nationwide cap-and-trade system as the answer.Lisa Deaton, a small-business owner in Columbus, Ind., who started We the People Indiana, a Tea Party affiliate, is supporting Mr. Young in part because of his stand against climate change legislation.“They’re trying to use global warming against the people,” Ms. Deaton said. “It takes away our liberty.”“Being a strong Christian,” she added, “I cannot help but believe the Lord placed a lot of minerals in our country and it’s not there to destroy us.”
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/0H3vp2oz1tV3svXi2suaaZ" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">https://open.spotify.com/episode/0H3vp2oz1tV3svXi2suaaZ</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/episodes" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">
</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/episodes" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/episodes</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><div class="title-section" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; justify-content: flex-start; align-items: flex-start; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><div class="title-lines" style="box-sizing: inherit; overflow: hidden;"><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/gmhwdon/making-republicans-environmentalists" data-pjax-state="" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;" /><p class="episode-date has-text-nowrap" style="margin: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0.05em; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.5em; white-space: nowrap !important; text-overflow: ellipsis !important; overflow: hidden !important;"><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/gmhwdon/making-republicans-environmentalists" data-pjax-state="" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;"></a><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/gmhwdon/making-republicans-environmentalists" data-pjax-state="" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/gmhwdon/making-republicans-environmentalists" data-pjax-state="" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/gmhwdon/making-republicans-environmentalists" data-pjax-state="" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/gmhwdon/making-republicans-environmentalists" data-pjax-state="" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/gmhwdon/making-republicans-environmentalists" data-pjax-state="" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;" /><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/gmhwdon/making-republicans-environmentalists" data-pjax-state="" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;">OCTOBER 1, 2020</a>Making Republicans Environmentalists Again<p class="show-title has-text-nowrap" style="margin: 0.15em 0px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0.05em; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.5em; white-space: nowrap !important; text-overflow: ellipsis !important; overflow: hidden !important;"> HOW TO SAVE A PLANET</div></div><a href="https://gimletmedia.com/shows/howtosaveaplanet/gmhwdon/making-republicans-environmentalists" data-pjax-state="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer;">The Republican Party has been almost uniformly opposed to climate action for years – nobody more so than President Donald Trump. But it wasn’t always like this. On today’s episode, we look back at how conservatives came to see the denial of climate science as a kind of badge of honor – and we talk to two conservative activists who are trying to change that.</a> rachael waldholtz (sp)
#3 afp bus tour gas, heat house tired of al gore hypocrisy, "cap and Tax" --> policy fight to threat to your way of life;  kochs take advantage of crisis --> culture war /part of identity 2008 high tide of gov't distrust, so small am't of money (goes over sea wall and flooded agw action machinery metaphor Inglis;  [RepublicEN inglis talk to crazy uncle]am conservation coalition  ACC10yo gop activist noted at cpacs nothing on envir except to trash/denial;  testimony w/ greta so press but he called out both side i call BS dems have not tried to work w/ gop [b/c preserve as an issue to beat up?] benjy backersee refs
bk  What explains the dramatic change in the Republican Party's approach to environmental protection? One recent effort to answer this question is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B07DGC3VX8/reasonmagazinea-20/" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">The Republican Reversal: Conservatives and the Environment from Nixon to Trump </a>by James Morton Turner and Andrew C. Isenberg.  <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Republican-Reversal-Conservatives-Environment-Nixon-ebook/dp/B07DGC3VX8" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.amazon.com/Republican-Reversal-Conservatives-Environment-Nixon-ebook/dp/B07DGC3VX8</a>
rev <a href="https://reason.com/volokh/2020/07/07/what-explains-the-republican-reversal-on-environmental-protection/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"> https://reason.com/volokh/2020/07/07/what-explains-the-republican-reversal-on-environmental-protection/</a>
BS</div>=<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">

cf the wonk room  Koch

<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/03/31/koch-hitler-debate/  hitler youth<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">

Koch Industries Thinks Calling People ‘Hitler Youth’ Is An ‘Honest Debate’

Wanted for Climate Crimes: The Koch Brothers  <p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">After Greenpeace released a report<a href="http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/03/30/koch-denial-machine/"> http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/03/30/koch-denial-machine/</a>  yesterday detailing the efforts of the Koch Industries billionaires David and Charles Koch to pollute energy policy and deny the threat of global warming, Koch Industries communications director Melissa Cohlmia attempted to greenwash their record:

Both a free society and the scientific method require an open and honest airing of all sides, not demonizing and silencing those with whom you disagree. We’ve strived to encourage an intellectually honest debate on the scientific basis for claims of harm from greenhouse gases.

Americans for Prosperity[ http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity ]http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Art_Pope] — founded, funded, and overseen by Koch Industries billionaire David Koch — claims to be trying to build that “free society” by “educating citizens about economic policy and mobilizing those citizens as advocates in the public policy process.” So far, they’re not doing a very good job of engaging in an “intellectually honest debate” without “demonizing and silencing those with whom you disagree”:

UPDATE 6/10 http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/09/inhofe-fiorina-hoax/

‘Hitler Youth.’ At an Americans for Prosperity event in December 2009, guest speaker Christopher Monckton called youth climate activists “Hitler Youth.” He told a Jewish youth climate activist whose grandparents escaped the Nazis that he was “Hitler Youth,” and that “you people don’t care” that “millions are dying in third world countries.” Americans for Prosperity again featured Christopher Monckton at a regional summit in March 2010. [The Times, 12/11/09]

‘Radical Global Warming Agenda.’ “President Obama is at again,” the Americans for Prosperity Regulation Reality Tour warns, with a “radical global warming agenda” by “unelected bureaucrats regulating our life,” “ignoring the entire democratic process all together.” Supposed threats of “EPA’s power grab” include “Grass Mileage Standards,” “Government Control of your Thermostat,” “Churches would need EPA Permits,” and The tour features “EPA Carbon Cops” who want to punish you if you “opened your refrigerator” or “drove a car.” [RegulationReality.com]

<ol><li>   ‘Al Gore’s Global Warming Alarmism.’ The Americans for Prosperity Hot Air Tour told people to “rally against Al Gore’s global warming alarmism” and “propaganda advanced by global warming alarmists,” claiming “global warming alarmism” means “fewer jobs,” “less freedom,” and a “government that controls your home thermostat remotely.” The Hot Air Tour flew a balloon over Al Gore’s “energy-guzzling mansion” in Tennessee with the message “Global Warming Alarmism.” [HotAirTour.org]</li></ol>

<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">   ‘We Might As Well Forget Freedom.’ The Americans for Prosperity Hot Air Tour says that “far left environmentalists” are “radicals” with a “radical Global Warming ideology that claims people are the problem” who “want GOVERNMENT to force us to drive less and live in smaller homes while killing jobs that help grow our economy” and “want GOVERNMENT dictating our lives.” [HotAirTour.org]

Cohlmia told the Wonk Room that “AFP is an independent organization and Koch companies do not in any way direct their activities.” This is a remarkable claim, as Koch Industries executive vice presidents and directors Charles Koch and Richard Fink are also directors of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.

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Hot Air Tour. "Exposing the Ballooning Costs of Global Warming Alarmism." Consisted of more than 75 events in 2009 "focused on congressional attempts to tax and ration Americans’ energy usage in the name of global warming." The last event of the tour in 2009 was an event in Copenhagen, Denmark, featuring climate change denialist Christopher Monkton. The scientists at <a href="http://www.realclimate.org/" class="external external_icon" target="blank">RealClimate.org</a> call Monkton their "favorite contrarian" and call his ideas "<a href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/11/cuckoo-science/" class="external external_icon" target="blank">cuckoo science</a>": "like cuckoo eggs in a nest, they are only designed to look real enough to fool onlookers and crowd out the real science." The event was disrupted by demonstrators. See <a href="http://climateprogress.org/2009/12/10/lord-monckton-hitler-youth-for-crashing-americans-for-prosperity%e2%80%99s-global-warming-event-in-copenhagen/print/" class="broken_link external external_icon" target="_blank">TVMOB shocker: Activists decried as “Hitler Youth” for crashing Americans For Prosperity’s global warming event in Copenhagen</a> (Climate Progress, 10 December 2010); and <a href="http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/index.php/csw/details/viscount_monckton_denialist_dujour/%20">Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, global warming denialist du jour on Capitol Hill</a> (Climate Science Watch, March 27 2009)

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fang

Think Progress <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/12/07/72566/koch-swiftboat-science/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">repost</a> is by guest blogger Lee Fang.

Right-wing billionaire <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/12/06/in_glitzy_shadows_a_health_reform_foe_lurks/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">David Koch</a>, who along with his brother Charles owns the oil and gas empire Koch Industries, constantly presents himself as a champion of science. Next year, a wing of the Smithsonian will be named after him because of his generous donations. Indeed, in accepting Koch’s donations, the Smithsonian Human Origins Program director Rick Potts attempted to <a href="http://www.kansas.com/news/breaking/story/1012506.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">whitewash Koch’s philanthropist history</a>:

POTTS: What we find in David Koch is a person who’s committed to doing things for the American public that has no relationship to politics

</blockquote>

Koch apparently relishes this perception that his money buys. In an interview earlier this year, Koch pretended that he opposes organizations which <a href="http://www.suzanmazur.com/?p=3" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">politicize and distort science</a>:

KOCH: That’s an interesting question. I think politicians should really stay out of it and allow scientists to present the facts and discoveries. I hate to see it politicized.

</blockquote>

In an op-ed in the <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/12/06/in_glitzy_shadows_a_health_reform_foe_lurks/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Boston Globe</a> yesterday, I observed that Koch has manufactured a positive image for himself by giving to laudable causes, while at the same time, quietly “<a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/12/06/in_glitzy_shadows_a_health_reform_foe_lurks/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">funneling tens of millions of dollars</a> to more subterranean efforts that reflect his conservative politics.” Despite his funding of the Smithsonian, Koch has done more to politicize and and undermine the public’s understanding of science than any other single person. Koch has funded the leading groups dedicated to spreading skepticism of climate change:

- Koch’s Americans for Prosperity, the right-wing tea party group which Koch <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/12/06/in_glitzy_shadows_a_health_reform_foe_lurks/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">founded in 1984</a> and continues to finance, has just announced that it will send a team of political operatives to Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference.  <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">AFP intends to hold a press conference to attack any climate change solution the President promises as a mistake that will “kill jobs here” and “<a href="http://americansforprosperity.org/120209-hot-air-tour-live-copenhagen" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">infringe on our personal and national freedoms</a>.”

</blockquote>

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">- Koch has funded the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has been the most aggressive conservative front group heralding hacked e-mails <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/200912040022" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">as proof that climate change</a> does not exist.

- Koch funds the “<a href="http://www.hotairtour.org/index.php?content=media" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Hot Air Tour</a>,” a campaign led by <a href="http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/05/29/afp-timphillips-astroturf/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">lobbyists</a> stopping in cities across the country to call into question the science underpinning climate change. The tour also features an actual hot air balloon to illustrate their beleif that climate change science is just “hot air.”

</blockquote>

The National Academy of Sciences, the US Global Change Research Program, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have all come to the <a href="http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/12/07/dont_suppress_debate_win_it/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">same conclusion</a>: “that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use and the loss of carbon-sink capacity in heavily timbered forests are increasing temperatures and making oceans more acidic.” David Koch’s Koch Industries derives much of its profit from its oil refineries, one of the major emitters of carbon dioxide, and from its George-Pacific timber subsidiary, one of the largest contributors to the loss of carbon-sink capacity. So while it’s clear Koch’s bottom line is in conflict with addressing the world’s climate crisis, it should also be clear that he is no champion of science “” no matter how many halls he buys at the Smithsonian.

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desmog In 2008, AFP embarked on a nation wide campaign against global warming.  The campaign was called the "Hot Air Tour."  During the Hot Air Tour, AFP traveled in a hot air balloon to forty cities in the United States and held events in those cities.

The tour carried the slogan, "Global Warming Alarmism:  Lost Jobs, Higher Taxes, Less Freedom."

During the <a href="http://hotairtour.org/index.php?content=dalvids" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Hot Air Tour</a>, AFP president, Tim Phillips, said Americans for Prosperity became active in the issue of global warming in order to prevent cap-and-trade, and other climate change legislation from being passed in government.  He declared if any cap and trade legislation were passed it would create a massive tax burden on American citizens, kill the economy, and harmfully infringe on personal freedoms.

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desmog

An organization called "Americans for Prosperity" has been working overtime to fight government action on climate change and greenhouse gas reduction strategies. You might remember their State-by-State grassroots "Hot Air Tour".

The Hot Air tour's tagline was "Exposing the Ballooning Costs of Global Warming Hysteria." More recently the AFP ran a <a href="http://www.americansforprosperity.org/021009-afp-launches-virginia-ads" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">$140,000 TV ad campaign in Viriginia</a> promising to "expose the hypocrisy and outrageous economic costs of so-called global warming regulations, taxes, and green energy plans."

So who's behind the AFP? And why are they so bent on seeing further delay in government action on an issue that the top scientists at the nation's best institutes are saying needs to be dealt with now?

Our research team at DeSmog has put together a briefing note on the AFP, their history and most importantly who funds them.

AFP, and its former incarnation the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation,</a> are the third largest recipient of funding from the Koch Family of Foundations, which is run by the ultra-conservative oil baron Charles G. Koch. The Koch Family of Foundations has been a major funding source for many of the think tanks that are in the business of delaying action on climate change issues.

What follows is the information we've pulled together on the AFP and the Koch Family of Foundations.

You can find our permanent page on the AFP here: <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/americans-prosperity-history-research-background-funding" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Americans for Prosperity - research and background information.</a>

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<div class="blogreadmore" style="margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read more: <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/big-money-behind-americans-prosperity" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">The Big Money behind Americans for Prosperity</a></div>

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<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em; font-weight: 300;"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/americans-prosperity-history-research-background-funding" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Americans for Prosperity - research and background information</a></h2>

<h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em; font-weight: 300;">Americans for Prosperity (AFP)</h2>

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<div class="field-item even" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/4022" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">americans for prosperity (AFP)</a></div>

<div class="field-item odd" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/4025" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">koch industries inc</a></div>

<div class="field-item even" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/4026" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation</a></div>

<div class="field-item odd" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/4027" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Koch Family Foundations</a></div>

<div class="field-item even" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/4028" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Tim Phillips</a></div>

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<div class="field-label" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: bold;">Location: </div>

<div class="field-item even" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/location/us" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">US</a></div><div class="field-item even" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">=</div><div class="field-item even" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
</div><div class="field-item even" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">   Hitler Youth.: At an Americans for Prosperity event in December2009, guest speaker Christopher Monckton called youth climate activists Hitler Youth. He told a Jewish youth climate activist whosegrandparents escaped the Nazis that he was Hitler Youth, and that youpeople don't care that millions are dying in third world countries. [grn blk death BS?Americans for Prosperity again featured Christopher Monckton at aregional summit in March 2010. [The Times, 12/11/09]  Radical Global Warming AgendaPresident Obama is at again, theAmericans for Prosperity Regulation Reality Tour warns, with a radicalglobal warming agenda" by unelected bureaucrats regulating our life, ignoring the entire democratic process all together. Supposed threatsof EPA's power grab include Grass Mileage Standards,  GovernmentControl of your Thermostat, Churches would need EPA Permits, and Thetour features EPA Carbon Cops who want to punish you if you openedyour refrigerator" or "drove a car.  [RegulationReality.com]    Al Gore's Global Warming Alarmism.  The Americans for ProsperityHot Air Tour told people to rally against Al Gore's global warmingalarmism and propaganda advanced by global warming alarmists, claiming global warming alarmism" means fewer jobs,  less freedom,and a government that controls your home thermostat remotely The HotAir Tour flew a balloon over Al Gore's energy-guzzling mansion inTennessee with the message Global Warming Alarmism. [HotAirTour.org]  We Might As Well Forget Freedom  The Americans for Prosperity HotAir Tour says that far left environmentalists are "radicals with aâradical Global Warming ideology that claims people are the problem whowant GOVERNMENT to force us to drive less and live in smaller homeswhile killing jobs that help grow our economy and want GOVERNMENTdictating our lives.  [HotAirTour.org] Cohlmia told the Wonk Room that AFP is an independent organization andKoch companies do not in any way direct their activities.  This is aremarkable claim, as Koch Industries executive vice presidents anddirectors Charles Koch and Richard Fink are also directors of theAmericans for Prosperity Foundation.<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">pfaw</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.pfaw.org/blog-posts/on-bus-tour-energy-funded-group-misplaces-blame-for-high-gas-prices/">https://www.pfaw.org/blog-posts/on-bus-tour-energy-funded-group-misplaces-blame-for-high-gas-prices/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 44.4444em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;"><div class="post__header" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-top: 4em;"><h1 class="section-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: 400; hyphens: none; line-height: 1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0.5em;">On Bus Tour, Energy Funded Group Misplaces Blame for High Gas Prices...Justin...Most companies don’t go telling consumers that their product is too expensive – but that’s exactly what the energy industry is doing. Reverse psychology is an interesting phenomenon, and most people are aware when people try it on them. Yet that is one way to describe the newest trick the energy industry is trying to pull on the American people. <a href="https://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/citizens-blindsided-secret-corporate-money-the-2010-elections-and-america-#apapf" koch-funded="Koch-funded" oil-industry="oil-industry" front="front" group="group" is="is" embarking="embarking" on="on" a="a" bus="bus" tour="tour" to="to" remind="remind" everybody="everybody" that="that" gas="gas" prices="prices" are="are" very="very" high="high" and="and" president="President" obama="Obama" too="too" much="much" regulation="regulation" nbsp="nbsp" https="https" www.politico.com="www.politico.com" story="story" right-aims-to-pin-pump-pain-on-wh-056297="right-aims-to-pin-pump-pain-on-wh-056297" it="it" s="s" novel="novel" strategy="strategy" find="find" straw="straw" man="man" bear="bear" the="the" brunt="brunt" of="of" consumer="consumer" frustrations="frustrations" so="so" energy="energy" industry="industry" seems="seems" like="like" their="their" side="side" then="Then" they="they" will="will" be="be" able="able" make="make" populist="populist" argument="argument" eliminate="eliminate" regulations="regulations" encourage="encourage" pro-corporate="pro-corporate" policies="policies" increase="increase" profits="profits" brilliant="Brilliant" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><a href="https://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/citizens-blindsided-secret-corporate-money-the-2010-elections-and-america-#apapf" koch-funded="Koch-funded" oil-industry="oil-industry" front="front" group="group" is="is" embarking="embarking" on="on" a="a" bus="bus" tour="tour" to="to" remind="remind" everybody="everybody" that="that" gas="gas" prices="prices" are="are" very="very" high="high" and="and" president="President" obama="Obama" too="too" much="much" regulation="regulation" nbsp="nbsp" https="https" www.politico.com="www.politico.com" story="story" right-aims-to-pin-pump-pain-on-wh-056297="right-aims-to-pin-pump-pain-on-wh-056297" it="it" s="s" novel="novel" strategy="strategy" find="find" straw="straw" man="man" bear="bear" the="the" brunt="brunt" of="of" consumer="consumer" frustrations="frustrations" so="so" energy="energy" industry="industry" seems="seems" like="like" their="their" side="side" then="Then" they="they" will="will" be="be" able="able" make="make" populist="populist" argument="argument" eliminate="eliminate" regulations="regulations" encourage="encourage" pro-corporate="pro-corporate" policies="policies" increase="increase" profits="profits" brilliant="Brilliant"></a><a href="https://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/citizens-blindsided-secret-corporate-money-the-2010-elections-and-america-#apapf" koch-funded="Koch-funded" oil-industry="oil-industry" front="front" group="group" is="is" embarking="embarking" on="on" a="a" bus="bus" tour="tour" to="to" remind="remind" everybody="everybody" that="that" gas="gas" prices="prices" are="are" very="very" high="high" and="and" president="President" obama="Obama" too="too" much="much" regulation="regulation" nbsp="nbsp" https="https" www.politico.com="www.politico.com" story="story" right-aims-to-pin-pump-pain-on-wh-056297="right-aims-to-pin-pump-pain-on-wh-056297" it="it" s="s" novel="novel" strategy="strategy" find="find" straw="straw" man="man" bear="bear" the="the" brunt="brunt" of="of" consumer="consumer" frustrations="frustrations" so="so" energy="energy" industry="industry" seems="seems" like="like" their="their" side="side" then="Then" they="they" will="will" be="be" able="able" make="make" populist="populist" argument="argument" eliminate="eliminate" regulations="regulations" encourage="encourage" pro-corporate="pro-corporate" policies="policies" increase="increase" profits="profits" brilliant="Brilliant">However, the AfP and their energy-industry funders must be crossing their fingers, hoping that Americans don’t understand the way the oil market actually works. The reality is that because gas prices are dependent on the price of oil, and oil is priced and sold on a </a><a href="https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2011/02/24/oil-pressure-rising...global"> market, less regulation – or more domestic drilling for that matter – wouldn’t help significantly bring down prices at the pump, especially in the short term. What it would do is make oil barons such as the Koch brothers even </a><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/report/koch-oil-speculation/" class="broken_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: line-through;">richer</a>.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/report/koch-oil-speculation/" class="broken_link" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: line-through;">Speculation</a> is the likely real cause of high prices, but you won’t be hearing about that on AfP’s tour. A new Think Progress <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/06/06/237542/koch-oil-speculation/" class="broken_link" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: line-through;">investigation</a> shows how heavily involved the Koch brothers are in artificially manipulating oil prices – and surely they would like to keep it that way. And just a couple of weeks ago, Rep. Elijah Cummings and the other Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a <a href="http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5314&Itemid=49" class="broken_link" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: line-through;">report</a> on the increasing role of speculation on rising gas prices.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">If Americans really want relief from high gas prices, we should demand a different narrative from AfP and their “drill, baby, drill” creed. The pain at the pump is too severe for another self-serving bus tour.</h1></div></div></div></div><div class="field-item even" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">===</div>

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