KOCH2

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6 22 zombied gohmert --> k2

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Earthjustice has filed “the first environmental lawsuit against the Trump administration.”The environmental law firm sued “to stop the Trump administration from opening up vast new areas to offshore oil and gas drilling,” the New York Times reports. “The suit is an opening shot in what is likely to be a series of cases aimed at thwarting the White House’s push for what it calls “energy dominance” by pivoting toward fossil fuels and away from cleaner energy sources like solar and wind.

Minnesota’s lawsuit seeking to hold Big Oil financially responsible for climate change is moving forward. A state judge denied a motion seeking to dismiss Minnesota’s 2020 lawsuit accusing Exxon, the American Petroleum Institute, and Koch Industries of running a “campaign of deception” to mislead consumers about climate change.

===

romney fundraiser at hamptoms (conf? rove?) http://front.moveon.org/exposed-mitt-romneys-koch-problem/?rc=daily.share

sw koch industries

Are the Koch brothers teaching you? [VIDEO]

What’s happening to academia in Florida demands national attention. Billionaires Charles and David Koch are infringing on intellectual freedom and independence in colleges and universities. It’s an old fashioned quid pro quo where the Koch brothers get allied professors who’ll preach Ayn Rand, supply side economic policies and the values of the 19th century Guilded Age to students and the college gets some funding.

Every year, thousands of individuals move through the Koch-supported classes, lectures and fields of study, which in their totality amount to an ideological assembly line bought and paid for by the Koch brothers. There are Koch-funded agreements at more than 150 American colleges and universities.

“The Koch brothers have paid tens of millions of dollars to get their point of view instilled in classrooms, amongst faculty members and in students,” said Cary Nelson, President of the American Association of University Professors. “Programs they start tend to be one point of view only.”

The Koch brothers’ business has annual revenue that are about 200 times the size ($100 billion) in one year than the entirety of Florida State University’s endowment ($423 million). At a time when governors like Florida Gov. Rick Scott are slashing spending on education, colleges and universities are virtually forced into restrictive and ideological funding agreements with questionable sources to meet students’ demands. Instead, they’re meeting the Koch brothers needs and the students are paying the intellectual price.

Enter the Charles Koch Charitable Foundation, which has given more than :{$14.39 million:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}: in grants to universities like Florida State, Auburn, Clemson, West Virginia and Utah State. All five campuses are in financial agreements with Koch-supported groups requiring the university to hire candidates who adhere to defined ideological guidelines. In some cases, the Koch-supported groups recommend candidates to the faculty or have sway over the college’s hiring committee.

Conflicts of interest of this magnitude cannot be ignored, and Florida State students and professors didn’t swallow the Koch agreement willingly. There was an uproar on campus when the Koch brothers began infringing on academic freedom.

A campaign to organize the campus against the Koch brothers and wealthy so-called “philanthropists” who seek to use their wealth to influence academia is under way. Student leaders are fanning out across Tallahassee to organize against the Koch brothers and their ilk who would infringe on academic independence if given the chance. If the students are successful, they’ll have earned enough support to take action against the Koch brothers’ influence.

greenwald alternet

denies involvement in WI, but bus in TP http://www.prwatch.org/node/11533

The Koch brothers’ net worth tops $50 billion and they have pledged to spend $60 million to defeat President Barack Obama, according to the Huffington Post.

The Koch PAC is the largest oil and gas contributor — donating more than even ExxonMobil — spending over $1 million in each of the last two cycles. This cycle, it has spent almost $750,000. Koch Industries sends 90 percent of these contributions to Republicans.

It’s the fourth-largest lobbyist in the oil and gas industry, spending $2,300,000 so far in 2012 and over $8 million in 2011.

Koch Industries emits over 300 million tons of greenhouse gases a year, based on the assumption that Koch emits the same amount of greenhouse pollution per billion dollars in revenue as Exxon and Chevron.

Flint Hills Resources, a Koch subsidiary, processes 300 million barrels of oil a year. This company is responsible for up to five percent of the U.S. 7-gigaton carbon footprint.

Koch says itself that the company is on par with big banks and is among the world’s top five oil speculators.

Koch is a major player indriving up gas prices through speculation, hurting American consumers. ThinkProgress reported that in 2008, Koch leased four supertankers to hold oil in the Gulf, leading to a gas price increase anywhere from 20 to 40 cents a gallon at the time.

According to Inside Climate News, Koch industries “has touched virtually every aspect of the tar sands industry since the company established a toehold in Canada more than 50 years ago.” It is active in mining Canada’s tar sands and exporting to the U.S., and is active in Canadian politics, with half a million dollars in donations between 2007-2010.

As reporters consider these factors, Koch has been widely reported as a Big Oil corporation by media outlets like Politico, Forbes, NPR, and Politifact.

It is absurd to say Koch Industries is not Big Oil when it plays such a hugely influential role in a wide variety of fossil fuel markets — all while flexing its power to protect the oil industry’s special interests.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/issue/

David Koch’s AFP has a long history of marshaling “grassroots” support for GOP objectives. In the early 1990s, AFP, then known as Citizens for a Sound Economy, worked secretly with then-Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) to organize angry crowds following the Clintons as they touted their health reform bill. Industry money from health insurance, telecommunications, oil, and other companies has flowed freely to AFP over the years to help AFP promote an agenda of boosting the rich, stripping consumer safeguards, and maintaining corporate monopolies. Phillip Morris rented out AFP from the Koch family, contributing millions to the organization in exchange for AFP to build opposition to tobacco regulations.

TEA PARTY

Tea party activists have long disputed liberal charges that their movement is simply the product of a corporate Astroturf campaign designed to attack President Obama. For the most part, they've been right. But a new effort to recruit members and gather voter data by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group funded by the Koch brothers, may serve to revive those old claims.

In recent weeks, according to the Florida-based conservative news outlet Sunshine State News, AFP has been quietly hiring tea party leaders to serve as "field coordinators" in Florida, leading up to Tuesday's GOP primary and beyond, reportedly paying them $30,000 each to help beef up AFP's membership. AFP has also offered tea party groups $2 for every new AFP member their volunteers sign up at Florida polling stations on Tuesday. An email from the West Orlando Tea Party organizers to its members explains:

Americans For Prosperity has offered many local tea party groups an opportunity to collect a few dollar$ for our cause and it revolves around the January 31st primary. Anyone who volunteers from our group will net our WOTP group $2 for every person they "sign up" for AFP which involves getting the name, address, and email of local voters at local polling stations that day. They will provide us with T-shirts, coffee mugs, and other handouts to recruit like minded conservatives.

...

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/americans-for-prosperity-paying-tea-partiers-collect-voters-personal-info

Rove vs. the Koch brothers By: Kenneth P. Vogel October 10, 2011 04:44 AM EDT
Karl Rove’s team and the Koch brothers’ operatives quietly coordinated millions of dollars in political spending in 2010, but that alliance, which has flown largely under the radar, is showing signs of fraying. And with each network planning to dwarf its 2010 effort, Republicans worry that the emerging rivalry between the two deepest-pocketed camps in the conservative movement could undercut their party’s chances of taking the Senate and White House in 2012. The billionaire industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch plan to steer more than $200 million — potentially much more — to conservative groups ahead of Election Day, POLITICO has learned. That puts their libertarian-leaning network in the same league as the most active of the groups in the more establishment-oriented network conceived last year by veteran GOP operatives Rove and Ed Gillespie, which plans to raise $240 million. The fault lines revealed themselves this summer, when the camps split on the highest-profile conservative movement issue of the day: The biggest groups in the Rove-Gillespie network supported House Speaker John Boehner’s bill to increase the debt ceiling and the Koch brothers’ primary political group, Americans for Prosperity, pressured conservatives to oppose it.

Rove vs. the Koch brothers

By: Kenneth P. Vogel

October 10, 2011 04:44 AM EDT

Karl Rove’s team and the Koch brothers’ operatives quietly coordinated millions of dollars in political spending in 2010, but that alliance, which has flown largely under the radar, is showing signs of fraying.

And with each network planning to dwarf its 2010 effort, Republicans worry that the emerging rivalry between the two deepest-pocketed camps in the conservative movement could undercut their party’s chances of taking the Senate and White House in 2012.

The billionaire industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch plan to steer more than $200 million — potentially much more — to conservative groups ahead of Election Day, POLITICO has learned. That puts their libertarian-leaning network in the same league as the most active of the groups in the more establishment-oriented network conceived last year by veteran GOP operatives Rove and Ed Gillespie, which plans to raise $240 million.

The fault lines revealed themselves this summer, when the camps split on the highest-profile conservative movement issue of the day: The biggest groups in the Rove-Gillespie network supported House Speaker John Boehner’s bill to increase the debt ceiling and the Koch brothers’ primary political group, Americans for Prosperity, pressured conservatives to oppose it.

AFP’s daily activities are managed by Tim Phillips, an infamous astroturf lobbyist who built a career using Christian front groups to wage stealth campaigns. For example, his work includes fighting under the radar to promote energy deregulation for Enron and helping Jack Abramoff clients continue forced abortion sweatshops in the Northern Mariana Islands.

4 mil 2010

http://www.alternet.org/election2012/154728/how_the_koch_brothers_spent_at_least_%243.9_million_in_unreported_partisan_attack_efforts_during_the_2010_election__

no need superpac

In 2010, the Koch political network set up multiple bus tours to caravan across the country promoting candidates supported by big business. Former Republican operatives, like Ben Marchi, who had previously worked for the congressional campaign arm of the GOP, were hired to staff these events, which were designed to gain "earned media" for candidates through rallies.

Here's how it would work. During the election, a bus tour from one of several roving Koch groups (with names like " November is Coming" and " Spending Revolt") would drive into a city with a competitive congressional election and host the Republican candidate for office. Speakers would denounce the Democratic opponent and President Obama. The Koch operatives at the event, usually employed by the Koch-founded front group Americans for Prosperity, would collect names of the attendees and enter them into a database for get out the vote efforts in the election. So the bus tours would garner positive media in the local press for the candidate, while building up a network to generate votes. Call centers were set up to divert volunteers into Republican campaigns. The most active volunteers were rewarded with $250 Visa gift cards.

The elaborate operation -- which hit dozens of congressional races with over a hundred political rallies -- was never disclosed as political electioneering, and was hardly noticed by the press as an effort to influence the entire shape of Congress by a few billionaires. But Republic Report recovered two financial audits of the Koch-controlled organization that sponsored these bus tours. The documents show earmarked grants to fund these activities. (View the first document here, and the second here).

View a screenshot below, which shows November is Coming received $3.3 million in restricted grants, and Spending Revolt received $600,000. To be sure, these grants show the minimum of the bus tour budgets -- not the maximum. The real amount could be much higher:

see hot air tour?

http://www.alternet.org/story/154795/6_reasons_the_koch_brothers_had_a_very_bad_week?akid=8541.1076705.mqJg6i&rd=1&t=14

6 Reasons the Koch Brothers Had a Very Bad Week

An FBI investigation, a new documentary, and a negative court ruling: here's a look inside the Kochs' worst week in a while.

It has come to our attention that William Koch entered into an antitrust settlement where his company, Gunnison Energy, and SG Interest, a Texas energy company, conspired to orchestrate the bidding at a BLM oil and gas lease auction in Colorado. They memorialized this conspiracy in a memorandum of understanding that was subsequently revealed by a whistleblower. The Department of Justice settled the matter by having each company pay a $275,000 fine, and allowed the conspirators to retain their successful BLM oil and gas leases, without any personal consequences. Tim was charged with conspiring to defeat the Act that created the auction, (a felony) and for making false statements to the Government (also a felony). These oil and gas companies actually conspired to defeat an identical BLM auction, and made false statements to the Government (according to the Department of Justice). No Oil and Gas executive was charged with felonies and thrown in jail. They were given a token slap on the wrist and went back to drilling. Tim, a peaceful protester, who simply embarrassed the BLM by catching them making big mistakes, is now in a TINY CELL because someone from CONGRESS wants to keep him even quieter?

http://www.peacefuluprising.org/breaking-tim-dechristopher-transferred-out-of-the-hole-but-questions-remain-20120327

http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/press_releases/2012/280273.htm

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/04/01/18710513.php

oxbow coal is other bro BILL:

The cynic in me hardly batted an eye when I read recently that Republican House Speaker John Boehner is raking in coal-stained cash. Nor did I spill my coffee when I noticed that one of Boehner’s big new donors is a Koch brother. My interest was piqued, however, when I saw that it wasn’t David or Charles Koch -- the infamous Tea Partier billionaires -- who were forking out for the Republican leader, but the “other” brother, Bill.

Bill Koch owns Oxbow, a global energy conglomerate that operates a big coal mine in Western Colorado’s North Fork Valley (just up the road from the High Country News HQ) and Gunnison Energy, which is drilling for natural gas in the same region. He hopes to move his coal mine to another seam just down valley and is in the process of getting permits for the move. The billionaire's other assets also include a high country ranch in the mountains between Paonia and Aspen, and he has been buying up more real estate in the region.

Like his brothers, Bill is known for contributing to political campaigns. Unlike those of his brothers, Bill’s donations have not been constrained by ideology -- his cash has gone to politicians as varied as Richard Pombo, Ted Kennedy, Bob Dole, John McCain and, yes, Al Gore. He, his wife and employees of Oxbow donated some $70,000 to the campaign of now ex-U.S. Rep. John Salazar, a Colorado Democrat and brother of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. So the tendency by the media and activists to group Bill in with his hard-right brothers is clearly unfair. Bill may be an opportunist, but you can’t call him an ideologue, and he’s had a long history of strife with his more notorious brothers.

That’s why I was surprised to see so much cash going to Boehner, who, if not born a right-winger has become one thanks to Tea Party pressure. According to Federal Election Commission records, Bill Koch has donated no less than $80,200 to Boehner’s war chest since the beginning of 2010. He’s given another $65,400 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, and just about that much to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The Oxbow PAC, according to figures from opensecrets.org, is accumulating cash and not spending much, yet. But it has already given $3,500 to Rep. Scott Tipton, the Republican who defeated John Salazar in the home district of Oxbow’s coal mines and gas rigs, to help his 2012 effort. Aside from a small amount here and there, Koch and Oxbow’s historic support for Democrats appears to have dried up since the last election.

So what does this mean? Has Bill jumped into the same political corral as his brothers?

http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/bill-koch-coal-and-political-cash

new greenwald movie

1) Cancer.People are dying of cancer near the Kochs’ Georgia Pacific plant in Crossett, Arkansas, and the Kochs refuse to answer the relevant question: What are they going to do about it? On Penn Road in Crossett, right near the mill, residents powerfully show how nine out of 11 homes have suffered from cancer. A USA Today study said Crossett’s school district is in the top 1% in the nation for cancer. Meanwhile, the Kochs’ facility releases significant amounts of formaldehyde — a known carcinogen — and there’s no other chemical plant in town. The Kochs are among the country’s top 10 polluters and lobbied hard to keep formaldehyde from being labeled a carcinogen. For a company where one of the owners (David Koch) and the communications director (Melissa Cohlmia) are cancer survivors, this is tragic and infuriating. It reflects a warped sense of humanity where greed trumps all.

2) Voting rights. The Kochs have given over $1 million to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that’s trying to pass severe voter ID restrictions in states across the country. These bills disenfranchise the poor, the elderly, the young, people of color — in short, people who are likely to oppose a 1% agenda. The Kochs won’t explain why anyone should believe that ALEC’s pro-corporate, anti-99% agenda is somehow detached from its billionaire funders. Onerous voting restrictions are already impacting people’s ability to vote in the 2012 election....

Seven Ways Koch Industries Is Monetizing

The Fracking Business

Lee Fang 3.2.2012

Ever notice the endless procession of television ads praising the value of fracking, or the amazing number of D.C.-based “institutes” and “foundations” promoting the controversial drilling method, despite growing scientific evidence that this sort of natural gas extraction is poisoning the water table and leaking carcinogenic chemicals into the environment?

Many of the pro-fracking think tanks, like the Heartland Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council, are funded by the petrochemical conglomerate Koch Industries. To get a better idea of why Koch-funded organizations are so desperate to force fracking on local communities, Republic Report has compiled the ways in which Koch Industries has monetized the fracking business:

– 1. Koch Pipeline is partnering with NuStar Energy to develop a dormant pipeline from Pettus, TX to refineries in Corpus Christi. The pipeline will transport crude from fracking sites in southern Texas. Koch Pipeline is a Koch Industries subsidiary.

– 2. Flint Hills Resources recently purchased a small craft pier and wharf in Ingleside, TX to store shipments of natural gas from fracking operations in the Eagle Ford shale formation. Flint Hills Resources is a Koch Industries subsidiary.

– 3. Koch Supply & Trading, a Koch Industries company that deals with commodity trading and financial products, is “already trading Eagle Ford crude” to help supply Koch companies and other customers, according to a Koch Industries newsletter.

– 4. Koch Chemical Technology Group is designing a processing facility near Yoakum, TX to help process natural gas fracked in southern Texas. Koch Chemical is a subsidiary of Koch Industries.

– 5. John Zink, a Koch Industries company, is providing flares for a natural gas processing plant in Helena to service the fracking industry.

– 6. Georgia Pacific produces resins used for chemicals used to prop open micro-fractures, an important process for fracking to occur. Koch Industries acquired

– 7. Koch Fertilizer, a Koch Industries company, has tapped into increased natural gas production from fracking to develop fertilizer.

As I’ve reported, Koch Industries is owned by David and Charles Koch, two men each worth over $22 billion dollars who have plunged untold millions into an array of front groups that help lobby the government for policies that benefit Koch businesses.

http://www.republicreport.org/category/lobbying/page/3/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family

Political activities of the Koch family

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The political activities of the Koch family are the political activities of the family of Fred C. Koch, a co-founder of Koch Industries, an oil, gas, and chemical conglomerate which is the second largest privately held company in the United States with annual revenues of $110 billion.^[1] Many of the activities are carried out via the Koch Family Foundations, the most prominent of which are the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, created by two of Fred C. Koch's sons, Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch. While the majority of the family's charitable donations go toward medical research and the Arts, notable political activities include Charles Koch co-founding the Cato Institute in 1977, and David Koch being the Libertarian Vice-Presidential candidate in 1980 and helping found the Citizens for a Sound Economy in 1984, and its spin-off Americans for Prosperity in 2004.^[2] In total, the Koch brothers have given more than $196 million to dozens of free-market and advocacy organizations,^[1] in addition to over $600 million to arts, science, and educational organizations.^[3] Tax records indicate that in 2008 the three main Koch family foundations gave money to 34 political and policy organizations, three of which they founded, and several of which they direct.^[1]

Contents [hide]

[edit] Background

Fred C. Koch, the father of Charles and David, was a member of the John Birch Society.^[1][4] He gave a speech in 1963 warning of “a takeover” of America in which Communists would “infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the president is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us”.^[5] His anti-communism stemmed from his experiences in the Soviet Union, where the very engineers who supported the Bolshevik Revolution and told Fred Koch that they would one day take over the world, were later purged by that same movement.^[citation ^needed]

David H. Koch was a Libertarian Vice-Presidential candidate in 1980. He advocated the abolition of Social Security, the FBI, the CIA, and public schools.^[6][7] Koch put $500,000 into the race,^[7] and he and Ed Clark, his presidential running mate, won 1% of the vote—the best Libertarian showing in a U.S. presidential race to date.^[8] But the experience caused David Koch to change course: "I had enough," he said. "We are not a nation that debates issues. We vote on candidates' personalities." By 1984, David had parted company with the Libertarian party, because, he said, "they nominated a ticket I wasn't happy with" and "so many of the hard-core Libertarian ideas are unrealistic."^[7]

Since then, Charles and David Koch have adopted a much less visible strategy toward advancing their libertarian agenda. In 1986, David Koch helped found the Citizens for a Sound Economy, and has given over $21 million to the Cato Institute.^[9]

The Koch brothers fund a multitude of groups including Americans for Prosperity, opposed to fiscally left-wing policies.

The Koch brothers have expressed the belief that economic freedom is essential for the well-being of society.^[10]

Charles and David have been targeted recently with harassment and threats. In April 2011, a Des Moines, Iowa office supply firm, Koch Brothers, reported receiving dozens of harassing emails and phone calls and even a death threat.^[11][12]

[edit] Charles G. Koch

Charles G. Koch funds and supports libertarian and free-market organizations such as the Cato Institute,^[2] which he co-founded with Edward H. Crane and Murray Rothbard in 1977,^[13] and is a board member at the Mercatus Center, a market-oriented research think tank at George Mason University. Koch supported his brother's candidacy for Vice President on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980.^[5] After the bid, Koch told a reporter that conventional politics "tends to be a nasty, corrupting business ... I’m interested in advancing libertarian ideas".^[5] In addition to funding think tanks, Charles and David also support libertarian academics^[14] and (since 1992) Koch funds the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program through the Institute for Humane Studies which recruits and mentors young libertarians.^[15] Koch is also chair of the Institute's board of directors.^[16] Koch also organizes twice yearly meetings^[17] of Republican donors.^[2]

[edit] Organizations

[edit] Family Foundations

Main article: Koch Family Foundations

The Koch Family Foundations began in 1953 with the establishment of the Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation. In 1980 Charles G. Koch established the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation with the stated purpose of advancing social progress and well-being through the development, application and dissemination of "the Science of Liberty," and in 1981 he inherited control of the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation when he was left in charge of Claude Lambe's estate.^{[18][unreliable} ^source?] David H. Koch established the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation. Charles' and David's foundations have together provided hundreds of millions of dollars to a variety of organizations, including arts organizations, educational organizations,^[3] and libertarian or conservative think tanks.

[edit] Political organizations

Citizens for a Sound Economy was co-founded by David Koch in the 1980s,^[19] and, according to the Center for Public Integrity, the Koch Brothers funded it with $7.9 million between 1986 and 1993.^[1] In 1990, they created the spinoff group, Citizens for the Environment.^[1]

In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy was renamed FreedomWorks, while its affiliated Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation became Americans for Prosperity (AFP). Since then the Koch brothers have given more than one million dollars to AFP.^[1][19][20] At an AFP rally in 2009, David Koch said "Five years ago, my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start the Americans for Prosperity, and it's beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organization."^[20] AFP is the political arm of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, of which David Koch is chairman of the Board of Trustees.^[19][21] Americans for Prosperity created Patients United Now, which advocated against a single-payer system during the 2009-2010 healthcare reform debate. Both FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity have provided support for the Tea Party movement.^[22][23]

Charles and David Koch also have been involved and have provided funding to a number of other think tanks and advocacy organizations: They provided initial funding for the Cato Institute,^[19] they are key donors to the Federalist Society,^[19] and also support the Mercatus Center, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Institute for Justice, the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, the Institute for Energy Research, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the George C. Marshall Institute, the Reason Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.^[24][25]

As of 2011, David Koch sits on the board of directors of the Cato institute,^[26] the Reason Foundation and Aspen Institute.^[21]

[edit] Cato Institute

Following the 2011 death of William Niskanen, the co-founder and chairman of the Cato Institute, Charles and David Koch reportedly made an effort to procure the shares of that institute held by Niskansen’s widow, "arguing that they were not hers to hold." Their efforts were criticized by some at the institute, including the institute's president Ed Crane, who in an email to staff told them the Koch's were "in the process of trying to take over the Cato Institute and, in my opinion, reduce it to a partisan adjunct to Americans for Prosperity, the activist GOP group they control.” Charles and David deny any wrong doing.^[27]

[edit] Political activity

According to Koch Industries, it is committed to free societies and free market principles and supports those who champion them.^[28] For the 2012 election cycle, the Koch brothers plan to raise $88 million dollars.^{[29][unreliable} ^source?]

[edit] Unions

Public records show that the Kochs gave more than $17 million between 1997 and 2008 to groups including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which lobbies for legislation opposing unions.^[20]

According to Mother Jones Magazine, Koch Industries' Political Action Committee contributed the second highest donation to Scott Walker's November 2010 gubernatorial campaign;^[30] in office, Walker and the Republican representatives in the Wisconsin House enacted limitations to collective bargaining by public employees, leading to the 2011 Wisconsin protests. In February 2011, the New York Times reported that Americans for Prosperity had lobbied for Walker's proposed bill.^[31] Because of the campaign contribution, David Koch became a symbolic target for the protests.^[32]

According to the Palm Beach Post, David Koch has been very active in Wisconsin politics with Americans for Prosperity, spending $700,000 on ads supporting Governor Scott Walker's changes to collective bargaining.^[33] The Wisconsin Democratic Party announced that they were filing a complaint with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, claiming that based on Koch's statements to the Palm Beach Post, Americans for Prosperity had violated its 501(c)(3) status.^[34]

[edit] Lobbying for oil, gas, and chemical industries

Koch employees were the largest oil and gas industry donors to Congressmen and women on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is responsible for legislation affecting the industry. Koch employees donated $279,500 to 22 Republicans and $32,000 to five Democrats, including $20,000 to committee chairman Fred Upton (R-Michigan).^[19] Of the six Republican members who were elected to Congress for the first time, Americans for Prosperity supported five of their campaigns.^[19] Of twelve Republicans newly appointed to the Committee, nine signed a pledge distributed by Americans for Prosperity to oppose greenhouse gas regulation.^[19]

Koch Industries and its subsidiaries spent more than $20 million on lobbying in 2008 and $12.3 million in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.^[25][35] In an article about the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study (Chair Richard A. Muller), Los Angeles Times reporter Margot Roosevelt called the Koch Brothers as "the nation's most prominent funders of efforts to prevent curbs on fossil-fuel burning".^[36]

The Claude R. Lambe Foundation, has donated to the American Energy Alliance, an offshoot of the Institute for Energy Research.^[37]

[edit] Free enterprise seminars

In recent years, Charles and David Koch have organized semiannual seminars to promote their political beliefs. In June 2010, for example, the event was held in Aspen, Colorado, and titled "Understanding and Addressing Threats to American Free Enterprise and Prosperity". The invitation stated that "[our] prosperity is under attack by the current Administration and many of our elected officials" and "we cannot rely on politicians to [defend our free society], so it is up to us to combat what is now the greatest assault on American freedom and prosperity in our lifetimes".^[31] The seminar program mentioned that "past meetings have featured such notable leaders as Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas; Governors Bobby Jindal and Haley Barbour; commentators John Stossel, Charles Krauthammer, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh; Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn; and Representatives Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, and Tom Price."^[38]

[edit] Anthropogenic global warming skepticism

The Charles G. Koch Foundation is (along with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Bill Gates climate fund) a major funder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, an effort to resolve criticism of records of the Earth's surface temperatures (two of the project's seven scientists are seen as climate skeptics by many in the climate science world).^[39]

The Charles G. Koch Foundation gave climate skeptic Willie Soon two grants totaling $175,000 in 2005/6 and again in 2010. Soon has stated that he has "never been motivated by financial reward in any of my scientific research."^[40]

[edit] Criticism

[edit] New Yorker article by Jane Mayer

In the August 30, 2010, New Yorker, Jane Mayer writes that "As their fortunes grew, Charles and David Koch became the primary underwriters of hard-line libertarian politics in America."^[5] The article states the Koch brothers fund a multitude of groups opposed to government in general and Obama administration policies in particular.

[edit] Responses to Mayer article

Conor Friedersdorf, writing for the Daily Dish at The Atlantic magazine, wrote that while he respected Mayer, "as best I can tell, the Koch brothers are legitimately upset by some aspects of the piece, and anyone who reads it should also look at the rebuttals from libertarians who are persuasively pushing back against some of its conclusions."^[41]

Koch Industries posted an extensive reply on their website. They acknowledged funding libertarian and conservative causes,^[42] but they said that there were several inaccuracies and distortions in the Mayer article, and that Mayer failed to identify alleged conflicts of interest among several people she quoted.^[43] Koch Industries responded to the allegations in Mayer's article saying that "the story dredges up issues resolved long ago and mischaracterizes our business philosophy and principles, our practices and performance record, and the education efforts and policies we support."^[44]

The conservative Weekly Standard also published a critical response to Mayer's article, in the form of an opinion piece by Matthew Continetti. He wrote:

Mayer drew heavily from the writings of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Greenpeace report, and public tax records. For several thousand words, relying on interviews with anonymous sources, Democratic operatives, a disgruntled conservative, a historian of libertarianism, and the author of “A Pagan’s Blog,” Mayer unspooled a fantastic tale of manipulation and malpractice.^[32]

Matt Lewis, columnist of Politics Daily, also posted a critical response to Mayer's article:

To be sure, the Kochs have given "more than a hundred million dollars to right wing causes" (which is their right, by the way). But in the last decade, it's also worth noting the Kochs have given more than $600 million in pledged or donated money to arts, education, and medical research, including (but not limited to): New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell: $15 million, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: $25 million, The Hospital for Special Surgery: $26 million, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: $30 million, Prostate Cancer Foundation: $41 million, Deerfield Academy: $68 million, Lincoln Center's NY State Theater: $100 million, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: $139 million^[45]

[edit] Criticism by Obama administration

Charles, along with his brother, David, have been criticised by members of the Obama administration for their political spending. In August 2010, economist Austan Goolsbee, an administration official, accused Koch Industries of paying no corporate income tax during a background briefing he delivered to reporters.^[32] In a September 23, 2010 op-ed in The Washington Post, Obama senior adviser David Axelrod accused Americans for Prosperity of being a "front group" that was "hijacking our elections" by "promot[ing] Republican candidates who support their right-wing agenda and corporate interests."^[46]

[edit] Defended by Searle Freedom Trust

Kimberly O. Dennis, of the Searle Freedom Trust, a libertarian foundation, suggests that the Kochs are acting against their economic interest in promoting "getting government out of the business of running the economy. If they were truly interested in protecting their profits, they wouldn’t be spending so much to shrink government; they’d be looking for a bigger slice of the pie for themselves. Their funding is devoted to promoting free-market capitalism, not crony capitalism."^[47]

[edit] Impact

One 1997 study by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy^[48] identified 12 American foundations that have had a key influence on US public policy since the 1960s, particularly via their support for the Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute and Cato Institute.^[49] Three of these 12 are Koch Family Foundations (Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, David H. Koch Charitable Foundation).^[49][50] Charles Koch co-founded the Cato Institute, whilst David Koch sits on its board.^[1]

[edit] See also

	*Libertarianism portal*
******	*Conservatism portal*

[ References

^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-mayer2010_0-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-mayer2010_0-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-mayer2010_0-2) ^d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-mayer2010_0-3) ^e(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-mayer2010_0-4) ^f(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-mayer2010_0-5) ^g(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-mayer2010_0-6) ^h(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-mayer2010_0-7) Mayer, Jane (2010-08-30). "Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.". The New Yorker (Condé Nast Publications).
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-Zernike_1-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-Zernike_1-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-Zernike_1-2) Zernike, Kate (October 19, 2010). "Secretive Republican Donors Are Planning Ahead". New York Times.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-lewis_2-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-lewis_2-1) Lewis, Matt (September 2, 2010). "Koch Brothers Donate to Charity as well as 'Right Wing Causes".
^ http://www.kochfacts.com/opposition-to-communism.php
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-covert_4-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-covert_4-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-covert_4-2) ^d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-covert_4-3) Jane Mayer. "Covert Operations: The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2010-09-07.
^ Kerby, Phil (September 13, 1979). "The Libertarians: Freedom to a Fault?". Los Angeles Times: p. D1.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-nytimes-dk-1984_6-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-nytimes-dk-1984_6-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-nytimes-dk-1984_6-2) Curtis, Charlotte (1984-10-16). "Man Without a Candidate". The New York Times.
^ Doherty, Brian (November 17, 2008). "Where Did the Libertarian Party Go Wrong?". Reason. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
^ "Advocates for Self-Government - Libertarian Education". Advocates for Self Government. 1992-05-16. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
^ Koch, Charles. "U.S. Economic Prosperity Demands More Freedom". The Kansas City Star. Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on ???. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
^ Hicks, Lynn. "'Koch Brothers' confusion results in death threat for Iowa company". DesMoines Register. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
^ Baier, Bret (2011-04-21). "Obama Faces the Music". Fox News. Retrieved 22 April 2011.
^ "25 Years at Cato". Retrieved 2009-07-10.
^ Brian Doherty (2008). Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. PublicAffairs. p. 410. ISBN 1586485725. "One longtime Koch lieutenant characterized the overall strategy of Koch's libertarian funding over the years with both a theatrical metaphor and an Austrian capital theory one: Politicians, ultimately, are just actors playing out a script. The idea is, one gets better and quicker results aiming not at the actors but at the scriptwriters, to help supply the themes and words for the scripts—to try to influence the areas where policy ideas percolate from: academia and think tanks. Ideas, then, are the capital goods that go into building policy as a finished product—and there are insufficient libertarian capital goods at the top of the structure of production to build the policies libertarians demand."
^ "Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program". Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. Retrieved 2010-09-10. "The Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program combines a paid public policy internship with two career skills seminars and weekly policy lectures. You’ll gain real-world experience, take a crash course in market-based policy analysis, and hone your professional skills. The intensive ten-week program begins in June and includes a $1,500 stipend and a housing allowance."
^ "Frequently Asked Questions | Institute For Humane Studies". Theihs.org. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
^ Stephen Moore (May 6, 2006). "The Weekend Interview with Charles Koch: Private Enterprise". The Wall Street Journal: p. A.8.
^ Pam Martens, CounterPunch, 19 October 2010, The Koch Empire and Americans for Prosperity
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-LATimes2011-02_18-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-LATimes2011-02_18-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-LATimes2011-02_18-2) ^d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-LATimes2011-02_18-3) ^e(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-LATimes2011-02_18-4) ^f(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-LATimes2011-02_18-5) ^g(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-LATimes2011-02_18-6) ^h(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-LATimes2011-02_18-7) Hamburger, Tom; Kathleen Hennessey, Neela Banerjee (2011-02-06). "Koch brothers now at heart of GOP power". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company). Retrieved 2011-02-06.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-overby2011_19-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-overby2011_19-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-overby2011_19-2) Peter Overby (2011-02-25). "Billionaire Brothers In Spotlight In Wis. Union Battle". National Public Radio.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-KochDavidBio_20-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-KochDavidBio_20-1) "Koch Industries, Inc. - Leadership". Koch Industries. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
^ Vogel, Kenneth P. (August 9, 2010), "Tea party's growing money problem", Politico, retrieved 2011-06-14
^ Fenn, Peter (February 2, 2011), "Tea Party Funding Koch Brothers Emerge From Anonymity", U.S. News & World Report, retrieved 2011-06-13
^ The Tea Party movement: deluded and inspired by billionaires, George Monbiot, The Guardian, 25 Oct. 2010.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-opensecrets.org_24-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-opensecrets.org_24-1) "Lobbying: Koch Industries". Center for Responsive Politics. 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
^ Cato Institute, Board of Directors, accessed 1 Feb 2011
^ Cato Goes to War The Koch brothers have launched an extraordinary campaign to take control of America’s most respected libertarian think tank. Will they destroy it? slate.com By David Weigel| 5 March 2012
^ "A Consistent, Principled Effort". Koch Industries. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
^ Vogel, Kenneth; Ben Smith (2011-02-11). "Kochs brothers' plan for 2012: raise $88 million". Politico (Allbritton Communications Company). Retrieved 2011-02-11.
^ "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Bros.". Mother Jones. 2011-02-18. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-lipton2011_30-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-lipton2011_30-1) Eric Lipton (2011-02-21). "Billionaire Brothers’ Money Plays Role in Wisconsin Dispute". The New York Times.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-Continetti_31-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-Continetti_31-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-Continetti_31-2) Continetti, Matthew (April 4, 2011). "The Paranoid Style in Liberal Politics". The Weekly Standard.
^ http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/david-koch-intends-to-cure-cancer-in-his-2185046.html?page=2
^ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, [1] Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
^ Center For Responsive Politics, www.opensecrets.org
^ Margot Roosevelt, 31 March 2011, Los Angeles Times, Berkeley scientists' climate data review puts them at center of national debate
^ Evans, Will (September 22, 2008). "New Group Tied To Oil Industry Runs Ads Promoting Drilling, Attacking Democrat". NPR. Retrieved September 9, 2011.
^ Charles G. Koch (2010-09-24). "Invitation to Seminar, Understanding and Addressing Threats to American Free Enterprise and Prosperity".
^ Berkeley project seeks to resolve climate change debate, California Watch, March 1, 2011.
^ Vidal, John (2011-06-27). "Climate sceptic Willie Soon received $1m from oil companies, papers show". The Guardian.
^ Friedersdorf, Conor (August 30, 2010). "The Koch Brothers Profiled". The Daily Dish. The Atlantic. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
^ Koch Industries webpage, "Koch Facts" section Accessed 2011-01-31.
^ Holden, Mark V. (September 28, 2010). "Letter to Lynn B. Oberlander". Retrieved 31 January 2011.
^ "Koch Industries Responds to New Yorker Claims". newsmax. newsmax. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
^ Lewis, Matt. "Koch Brothers Donate to Charity as well as 'Right Wing Causes'". Politics Daily. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
^ Axelrod, David (23 September 2010). "The election campaigners we can't see". The Washington Post.
^ Dennis, Kimberly O. (November 15, 2010). "Democrats Can’t Blame the Koch Brothers (However Much They Might Want To)". National Review Online. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
^ Sally Covington, Moving A Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations, Washington, DC: National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 1997.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-Behan_48-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_family#cite_ref-Behan_48-1) Behan, Richard W. (2004), "Degenerate Democracy: The Neoliberal and Corporate Capture of America's Agenda", Public Land & Resources Law Review, Vol. 24, pp. 9-24. p19
^ The others are the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, John M. Olin Foundation, Carthage Foundation (controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife), Earhart Foundation, Philip M. McKenna Foundation, JM Foundation, Henry Salvatori Foundation, Sarah Scaife Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation. (Behan 2004:19)

Koch family

Parents

Fred C. Koch: 1900-1967

Children

Frederick R. Koch: 1933 • Charles G. Koch: 1935 • David H. Koch: 1940 • William Koch: 1940

Major companies

Koch Industries

Other organizations

Koch Family Foundations • Citizens for a Sound Economy • Americans for Prosperity • David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research • David H. Koch Theater • Bill of Rights Institute

Want to See How the Kochs Are Ending Public Education?

Posted: 8/15/11 03:53 PM ET

[The Koch brothers have more than $42 billion to make public policy out of their anti-government ideology, and](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-greenwald/want-to-see-how-the-kochs_b_926829.html?view=print&comm_ref=false to remake our nation.

The Koch brothers founded Americans for Prosperity and have contributed more than $5 million to its political coffers. Americans for Prosperity, in turn, contributed to organizations that financially influenced a community school board election.

That's right: the Koch brothers are involving themselves, through their wealth-backed political apparatus, in local schools

Americans for Prosperity allied with groups inNorth Carolinawith the sole purpose of building a new majority on the school board in and around Raleigh. The Koch apparatus was trying to rewrite the social contract that made the Wake County school system a magnet for teachers and families and the surrounding communities prosper.

Each campus was its own melting pot where students could build meaningful relationships and find their niche. Advanced courses and after school activities gave tens of thousands of children a path to higher education and a shot at success.

Many families in the community attributed local prosperity and harmony to the way the school district assigned students to schools.

That policy came under siege from the Koch brothers who, through Americans for Prosperity, indirectly supported school board candidates who campaigned on reversing the busing for diversity program. The outside involvement made a school board election into the most divisive race since the 1970s.

The Koch brothers and outside influence provided the script for the Koch-supported candidates. They campaigned to end "forced busing" and promise to enact a "neighborhood schools" mandate.

Do those phrases ring a bell? Using the same language Gov. George Wallace used in the 60s, And they had the Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity's full support.

This is a new example of the Koch brothers' so-called extreme free market ideology. It's an incredible window into the brothers' disdain for public service and government protection in general.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-greenwald/want-to-see-how-the-kochs_b_926829.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

WASHINGTON -- At a private three-day retreat in California last weekend, conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch and about 250 to 300 other individuals pledged approximately $100 million to defeat President Obama in the 2012 elections.

A source who was in the room when the pledges were made told The Huffington Post that, specifically, Charles Koch pledged $40 million and David pledged $20 million.

The semi-annual, invitation-only meeting attracts wealthy donors, Republican politicians and conservative activists. Last year, hundreds of activists gathered outside the walled-off resort to protest the meeting. This year, however, the conference went off quietly.

"Conference organizers and their guests successfully slipped in and out of the Coachella Valley without being detected, by buying out nearly all of the 500-plus rooms at the Renaissance Esmeralda resort in Indian Wells," reported The Desert Sun. "The resort closed its restaurants, locked down the grounds with private security guards and sent many workers home."

This is the ninth straight year the Kochs have hosted the conference. As Politico reported last year, the meetings often adjourn "after soliciting pledges of support from the donors -- sometimes totaling as much as $50 million -- to nonprofit groups favored by the Kochs."

...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/03/koch-brothers-100-million-obama_n_1250828.html?ref=mostpopular

COINTELPRO see sock puppets new media stragies

http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/03/03/147953/bloggers-kneel-to-koch/

Blogger From Koch’s Law Firm Defends Koch, Doesn’t Disclose Ties

By Lee Fang on Mar 3, 2011 at 2:00 pm

Fighting back against public scrutiny, Koch Industries is relying on a small army of conservative bloggers, reporters, and lobbyists. Chief among them is John Hinderaker, a blogger at the “Powerline Blog.” However, in his now daily defense of the Koch brothers, Hinderaker has failed to disclose that his law firm counts Koch Industries as a major client.

Hinderaker has been on the war path defending Koch. He has tasked himself with sniping at ThinkProgress posts, spending the last few weeks defending forced-abortion lobbyist and Koch operative Tim Phillips, celebrating Koch’s self-interested propaganda against climate change science, and generally making juvenile swipes at yours truly, including posting my picture and calling me a “high school student.” In a bizarre rant defending “what a great company Koch Enterprises is,” Hinkeraker even claims ThinkProgress is being paid “millions of dollars by left-wing billionaires” to report on Koch Industries. But here’s what he didn’t say:

– Hinderaker Has A Disclosure Problem. Hinderaker is an attorney for the law firm Faegre and Benson. Despite his previous role handling “ethics and professional responsibility” for Faegre, he has failed to disclose in his Koch-friendly blogging that Koch is a major client for his firm. Faegre represented Koch Industries in cases related to Koch’s theft of oil (using the famed “Koch Method” of manipulating oil data) in Texas and North Dakota, in cases against Koch’s own employees regarding Koch’s speculative weather derivatives business and an environmental whistleblower case, and in a case against a Koch subcontractor. In an ongoing case, Hinderaker’s firm represents Koch Industries in a class action suit brought by a group of plaintiffs regarding oil Koch allegedly stole from wells in Oklahoma. In addition, Hinderaker has defended the Bradley Foundation after we profiled the group and its support for Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI). Hinderaker never disclosed that he is a fellow of the Claremont Institute, a front that has received over $3 million from the Bradley Foundation.

Asked about his failure to disclose his firm’s financial relationship with Koch, Hinderaker told ThinkProgress’ Scott Keyes today that he has no comment.

The Koch spin machine is much larger than just Hinderaker. Koch recently retained Orion Strategies, a PR firm run by Weekly Standard writers like Michael Goldfarb, Wilson Miller Communications, and PR consultant Ron Bonjean, as well as government affairs firms like Cove Strategies, Hunton & Williams, ADS Ventures, the Palmetto Group, and Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti. In addition to their communication consultants, Koch is being aided by the right-wing media investments they have made over the years.

As ThinkProgress has detailed, Koch funds a number of conservative media positions using grants distributed by the Phillips Foundation, a conservative journalism front funded by Koch charitable foundations, the Koch-owned Institute for Humane Studies, and the Charles Koch fellowship. Moreover, the top conservative media outlets are owned by close associates of the Koch brothers: the Daily Caller is owned by Foster Friess, a friend of the Koch brothers and attendee of secret Koch fundraising meetings; the Washington Examiner and the Weekly Standard are owned by Phil Anschutz, another oil billionaire and Koch meeting attendee. Predictably, these outlets are now attacking us:

– Koch-Funded Media Attacks ThinkProgress. In the last month, the Anschutz-owned Washington Examiner has published nine articles defending to honor of David and Charles Koch. Mark Tapscott, who previously wrote long love letters to Charles Koch, criticized ThinkProgress without disclosing that much of his career, which includes stints at the Koch-funded Heritage Foundation, has been funded by Koch or Koch allies like Anschutz. The Examiner’s Tim Carney, a regular Koch meeting attendee, has dutifully defended his benefactors. Meanwhile, a writer for the Weekly Standard, who got his start with a Phillips Foundation grant, has promoted an odd theory that Koch Industries is a model company according to Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency. In reality, Koch Industries was forced to submit to the EPA permit in question after a protracted struggle. After funding various conservative writers, using fronts or other means, the Koch Industries PR team is now blasting anti-ThinkProgress pieces out to the media. On the official Koch Industries Twitter feed, the shoddy writing of Hinderaker, Carney, and others is being promoted and forwarded to the public.

Longtime Republican pundit and Koch lobbyist Nancy Pfotenhauer was recently rehired to work for Koch Industries as a “Koch spokeswoman.” Last year, after Jane Mayer’s blockbuster article in the New Yorker about Koch’s political machine, Pfotenhauer placed a hit-piece in the Daily Beast against Mayer. The Daily Beast writer later confessed that both Pfotenhauer and David Koch contacted her to write the piece on Mayer. A mysterious opposition researcher again tried to shop around a hit piece against Mayer in January.

The Koch brothers are famously thin-skinned and afraid of honest media attention. The only lengthy interviews given by Koch Industries are through friendly conservative outlets like the National Review, FrumForum, or the Wall Street Journal (even in his only interview to the WSJ, Charles Koch spoke with an editorial board member funded by Koch groups). Indeed, during a family feud, the Koch brothers hired a team of lawyers and investigators to go after one another, and in one incident, caught private detectives rifling through their trash for information.

koch industriers has lots of info:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_Industries

excellent coverage in greenpeace 2010

Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment

$365,000 received from Koch foundations 2005–2008

[Total Koch foundation grants 1997–2008: $1,460,000]

Peter Geddes169, Executive Vice President of FREE170, has advocated against taking action171

on climate change because warming is “inevitable” and expensive to address. In addition, FREE sponsors seminars for

federal judges172 that have been criticized for creating judicial conflicts of interest. FREE states173 it only takes money for judicial

seminars from foundations whose founder is deceased (termed “dead-man foundations” by FREE), and that corporate

funding does not fund judicial seminars. However, the Claude R. Lambe foundation has been listed as a funder of at least

six seminars since 1997. A 1999 Koch Foundations report questions this rationale, stating “Charles Koch’s control of Koch

industries…calls into question the relevance of this term, as defined by FREE, if not the accuracy of the disclosure.”174

legal:Washington Legal Foundation (WLF)

$655,000 received from Koch foundations 2005–2008

[Total Koch foundation grants 1997–2008: $1,255,000]

WLF publishes articles on the business threats posed by regulation of global warming pollution, such as vulnerability

to tort claims.166

Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies

$542,500 received from Koch foundations 2005–2008

[Total Koch foundation grants 1997–2008: $1,750,700]

The Federalist Society advocates for inaction on global warming: “Global warming is nothing more than an educated guess

by many of the same scientists who are still arguing about what happened to the dinosaurs. Perhaps we should think carefully

before putting blind faith in people who cannot explain the simple disappearance of tens of millions of creatures, many of

which were the size of locomotives.”167

In a Federalist Society Newsletter from 2000, they claim: “The science is not settled (as claimed by Vice President Gore),

that it is not “compelling” (as claimed by President Clinton), and that there is certainly no scientific consensus favoring global

warming. If anything, the largest number of scientists, some 17,000, signed a petition against the Kyoto Protocol in 1998.”

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/report/2010/3/koch-industries-secretly-fund.pdf

...

lobbying:

age 30

It is worth noting that Koch also hires outside lawyers to lobby on its behalf, in some cases the

same firms that lobby for other groups of which Koch is a member. For example:

• Siff and Lake, $190,000 (2009), $220,000 (2008), $200,000 (2007), which also lobbies for

Western Fuels Association.

•Mehlman/Vogel, $200,000 (2009), $120,000 (2008), $20,000 (2007) which also lobbies for

API (2009, 2008), Business Roundtable (2009, 2008), EEI (2009, 2008) and Energy Future

Holdings (2009).

• Pyle and Associates, $40,000 (2007), which also lobbied for the National Petrochemical and

Refiners Association279, of which Koch is a member.

• TheRhoads Group,$100,000 (2007) which also lobbies for the National Petrochemical and

Refiners Association280 of which Koch is a member.

• Hunton and Williams, $60,000 (2009), $150,000 (2008), $80,000 (2007), which also lobbied

for National Association of Manufacturers (2009, 2008) and Americans for Affordable Climate

Policy (2009), Edison Electric Institute (2009, 2008, 2007), Gas Processing Association (2009,

2008) and the Foundation for Environment and Economic Progress (2009, 2008, 2007))

• Capitol Tax Partners, $30,000 (2009), $240,000 (2008), $220,000 (2007), which who also

lobbies for Edison Electric Institute

...

Case Study 1: The Koch-funded “ClimateGate” Echo Chamber

In November 2009, anonymous hackers illegally obtained and disseminated thousands of personal

emails from climate scientists housed on the server of the University of East Anglia. The emails

spanned 13 years of correspondence and a handful of selected emails were taken out of context

by a number of climate-denier organizations. These organizations, many funded by Koch, claim the

emails prove a “conspiracy” of scientists and cast doubt on the scientific consensus on humancaused

climate change.

This incident, dubbed “ClimateGate” by climate-denier groups, has been distorted and repeated

many times by conservative media and blogs since late November 2009. Twenty organizations,

roughly half of the Koch-funded groups profiled in this report, have contributed to the “ClimateGate”

echo chamber. Among the most vocal groups are organizations that received over $1,000,000 from

Koch foundations since 2005, including Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, and the

Cato Institute.

1) Americans For Prosperity (received over $5 million from Koch since 2005) hosted a live webcast

from Copenhagen6 on Dec 9th as part of their “Hot Air Tour,” using the “ClimateGate”

emails as a reason to prevent passage of any progressive global warming policy. During

the webcast, Steve Lonegan, AFP’s New Jersey Director, said “ClimateGate” could have

uncovered “the biggest hoax our world has ever seen” and vowed not to allow any climate

bill to pass the US Senate. Several members of the Copenhagen youth delegation crashed

the AFP event and were angrily called “Hitler Youth” by AFP guest speaker and well known

climate denier Lord Christopher Monckton. In addition to the Copenhagen webcast, AFP

mentions “ClimateGate” in many7 blog8 posts, including in their protest of the Environmental

Protection Agency CO2 regulations, known as the endangerment finding.9

2) The Heritage Foundation (received over $1 million from Koch since 2005) has posted

several articles on its website regarding “ClimateGate.” The blogs run the gamut of possible

climate-denier angles on the incident, ranging from conspiracy accusations10, to a history of

imagined climate scandals11, to effects on world politics12, to supposed negative economic

consequences from climate legislation.13

3) The Cato Institute (received over $1 million in grants from Koch since 2005) is the frontgroup

for climate-denier Patrick Michaels14, who has been a vocal spokesperson regarding

“ClimateGate”. Within two weeks following the email breach at East Anglia University,

Patrick Michaels had appeared in over twenty media interviews15 on shows including CNN’s

Anderson Cooper 360, NBC’s Nightly News, FOX’s Fox & Friends, C-SPAN’s Washington

Journal, and BBC’s Have Your Say. Michaels, taking one line of an illegally-obtained email out

of context, has claimed the scientists have committed a “capital crime”16 and their actions are

“akin to filtering what goes in the bible.”17

...

Case Study 3: The “Spanish Study” on Green Jobs

Since the creation of new clean energy jobs is a critical

benefit of climate and energy policy, opponents have

focused on discrediting ‘green’ jobs. A report appeared on

this subject in spring of 2009 called the “Study of the effects

on employment of public aid to renewable energy sources”54

by Gabriel Calzada Alvarez, an economics professor at King

Juan Carlos University in Madrid. According to Dr. Alvarez’s

study, Spain’s policy commitments to renewable energy

development had actually cost Spain jobs—2.2 jobs lost for

each clean energy job created.

The study became a favorite talking point for opponents of

clean energy, who seized on the study when it was released

in March—coinciding with the:{ House Energy and Commerce

Committee discussions on the American Clean Energy

and Security Act.}: The study was trumpeted by opposition

groups, covered by reporters, and repeated in congressional

testimony by US Representatives opposed to clean energy

policy and climate mitigation measures.

Despite the fact that the conclusions and methodology

of the study by Alvarez have been repeatedly proven

unsupportable55 (most recently by the US’s own National

Renewable Energy Laboratory56, in addition to ministers with

the Spanish government57 and independent experts58 ), the

‘study’ continues to be trumpeted. The study recently made

its way into fact sheets circulated by clean energy opposition

group Americans for Prosperity,59 which is founded and

chaired by David Koch.

Where did the “Spanish study” come from, and who

promoted it? Several organizations and individuals—each

supported through the Koch web—have played key roles in

supporting, disseminating and promoting the research.

• March 2009: The Institute for Energy Research (IER)

supported60 and disseminated61 the “Spanish study,” released

in March of 2009.

• April 2009: Patrick Michaels was an early commenter on

the study62, saying in April 2009 that he wasn’t surprised by

the findings and that the U.S. should expect similar results

from stimulus funding on renewable energy.

• May 2009: The Heritage Foundation promoted the report

in a variety of ways63, including a May 2009 Washington, DC

briefing.

• July 2009: Americans for Prosperity’s Colorado64 chapter

promoted the study through its blog.

• July 2009: Americans for Prosperity’s policy director Phil

Kerpen repeated the study’s findings in July 2009 testimony65

to the Western Caucuses Bicameral Hearing on Cap & Trade.

• August 2009: American Energy Alliance (AEA), IER’s

advocacy arm, incorporated the report’s findings into fact

sheets that it disseminated66 during its “American Energy

Express” bus tour in August 2009.

• September 2009: Americans for Prosperity’s Texas67 chapter

posted comments repeating the study’s faulty conclusions.

• September 2009: Americans for Prosperity’s policy director

Phil Kerpen repeated the study’s findings in online68 comments.

Case Study 4: The “Danish Study” on Wind Power

A similar play was conducted a few months later with another

study linked to the Koch web. The “Danish study,”69 prepared

by Danish think-tank CEPOS, provides clean energy opponents

a means of raising questions about the viability

of renewable energy and a means of directly criticizing

President Obama for his statement that Denmark produces

almost 20% of its electricity through wind power.

However, the study contains factual errors,71 its conclusions

have been misrepresented72 and to boot, its findings are

not particularly relevant to the US.73 The study includes

errors such as a miscalculation of the electricity production

from wind in Denmark (they claim 5% of total production in

Denmark though the real percentage is 20%). In addition, the

study does not take into account the differences between

the European and North American electric grids.

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/report/2010/3/koch-industries-secretly-fund.pdf

Washington Legal Foundation (WLF)

$655,000 received from Koch foundations 2005–2008

[Total Koch foundation grants 1997–2008: $1,255,000]

WLF publishes articles on the business threats posed by regulation of global warming pollution, such as vulnerability

to tort claims.166

Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies

$542,500 received from Koch foundations 2005–2008

[Total Koch foundation grants 1997–2008: $1,750,700]

The Federalist Society advocates for inaction on global warming: “Global warming is nothing more than an educated guess

by many of the same scientists who are still arguing about what happened to the dinosaurs. Perhaps we should think carefully

before putting blind faith in people who cannot explain the simple disappearance of tens of millions of creatures, many of

which were the size of locomotives.”167

In a Federalist Society Newsletter from 2000, they claim: “The science is not settled (as claimed by Vice President Gore),

that it is not “compelling” (as claimed by President Clinton), and that there is certainly no scientific consensus favoring global

warming. If anything, the largest number of scientists, some 17,000, signed a petition against the Kyoto Protocol in 1998.”

Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment

$365,000 received from Koch foundations 2005–2008

[Total Koch foundation grants 1997–2008: $1,460,000]

Peter Geddes169, Executive Vice President of FREE170, has advocated against taking action171

on climate change because warming is “inevitable” and expensive to address. In addition, FREE sponsors seminars for

federal judges172 that have been criticized for creating judicial conflicts of interest. FREE states173 it only takes money for judicial

seminars from foundations whose founder is deceased (termed “dead-man foundations” by FREE), and that corporate

funding does not fund judicial seminars. However, the Claude R. Lambe foundation has been listed as a funder of at least

six seminars since 1997. A 1999 Koch Foundations report questions this rationale, stating “Charles Koch’s control of Koch

industries…calls into question the relevance of this term, as defined by FREE, if not the accuracy of the disclosure.”174

page 33

Fred C. Koch. Founder of Koch Industries (d. 1967)

Charles G. Koch.286 Chief Executive Officer, Koch Industries.

Ranked287 as 9th richest American (tied with his brother

David.) Born in 1935. Lives in Wichita, Kansas.

• Co-founder of the Cato Institute

• Chairman, Board of Directors, The Institute for

Humane Studies

• Member, Board of Directors, The Mercatus Center

David H. Koch.288 Executive Vice-President, Koch Industries.

Ranked289 as 9th richest American (tied with his brother

Charles.) Born in 1940. Lives in New York City.

• Member, Board of Directors, The Cato Institute,

Washington, D.C.

• Member, Board of Directors, The Reason Foundation,

Santa Monica, Calif.

• Chairman, Board of Trustees, Americans for Prosperity

Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Richard Fink.290 Executive Vice-President and member of

the board of directors of Koch Industries.

• Board member of Koch subsidiaries Georgia-Pacific

Equity Holdings, LLC and Flint Hills Resources, LLC.

• First President291 of Citizens for a Sound Economy,

the forerunner of Americans for Prosperity

• Co-founder and board member of Americans for

Prosperity (AFP) Foundation

• Former board member of Americans for Prosperity

501(c)4 organization

• Director of the Claude R. Lambe Foundation

• Co-Founder and Director at the Mercatus Center

• Director of the Institute for Humane Studies

• Fink was formerly a professor at George Mason

University, which the Koch web also funds generously.

William Koch.292 Bought out by brothers Charles and David.

• Co-chair of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound,

formed to fight the Cape Wind offshore wind farm

project.293

Frederick Koch.294 Bought out by brothers Charles and David.

Logan Moore.295 Secretary of the Claude R. Lambe Foundation.

Also serves as Director of Operations for the Charles G.

Koch Foundation.

Wayne Gable. Former Board of Directors at Americans for

Prosperity.297

Gable was Managing Director of Federal Affairs at Koch

Industries and lobbied on Koch’s behalf as recently as

2004.298 He worked at Citizens for a Sound Economy from

1986 to 1991, serving as president from 1989 to 1991. He

has also served terms as the president of the Tax Foundation,

the Charles Koch Foundation, and the Center for Market

Processes.

Robert Bradley.299 CEO of Institute for Energy Research (IER).

Bradley also holds positions at the Cato Institute, Competitive

Enterprise Institute, and the Institute for Humane Studies at

George Mason University.

Daniel Simmons.300 Former Director of the Natural

Resources Task Force at American Legislative Exchange

Council (ALEC).

Simmons is now AEA’s Director of State Affairs. Simmons

was at the Mercatus Institute before ALEC and is a graduate

of the George Mason University School of Law. ALEC, which

also receives funding from the American Petroleum Institute,

was critical of President Bush’s climate proposals.301

Kevin Gentry.302 Vice-President, Strategic Development304

for Charles G. Koch Foundation; Director, Strategic Development

for Koch Industries.

Between 1997 and 2003, he served as vice president of the

Institute for Humane Studies and the Mercatus Center, both

located at George Mason University.

Steven Hayward.305 Board Member at IER; Scholar and

fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Hayward produced An Inconvenient Truth… or Convenient

Fiction306 for PRIPP, a film attacking the science of global

warming and intended as a rebuttal to former Vice-President

Al Gore’s documentary. Hayward is also an IER board

member and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

The battle reached a fever pitch over health care reform. To truly understand the depth of the GOP's entrenched opposition to Obamacare, it's crucial to understand how the reform is financed: The single largest source of funds comes from increasing Medicare taxes on the wealthy – including new taxes on investment income. According to the Tax Policy Center, Americans who make more than $1 million a year will pay an extra $37,381 in annual taxes under the plan. The top 400 taxpayers would contribute even more: an average of $11 million each.

Rarely in American history has a tax so effectively targeted the top one percent. "It took Republicans about four months to figure out how much they hated it," says McIntyre, president of Citizens for Tax Justice. Republican rage over the president's health care plan has far less to do with the size of government or the merits of the individual mandate than the blow to the investor class. If Obamacare remains in place and the Bush cuts for the wealthy expire as planned, top earners will be paying a tax of 23.8 percent on capital gains – more than they have at any time since Clinton cut the capital gains tax in 1997. Health care reform, griped The Wall Street Journal, was nothing but a "sneaky way" for Democrats to wage a "war on 'the rich.'"

A key element of the GOP's war on the poor was cemented by the surprise election of Scott Brown to replace Ted Kennedy in the Senate in January 2010. As a candidate, Brown had made his high-mileage GMC pickup truck the star of his campaign commercials. "I love this old truck," he said. "It's brought me closer to the people." But Brown's real allegiance was to his wealthy donors: the billionaire Koch brothers, who bankrolled the Tea Party, and the financial interests who made a last-minute investment of more than $450,000 to propel Brown into office.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-gop-became-the-party-of-the-rich-20111109?print=true

Koch Industries is one of the most powerful

corporations holding back progress on climate

change in the United States. Koch Industries and

the Koch brothers who own the company are deeply

involved in the climate denial movement funding

numerous efforts on that front. One controversy that

has recently emerged is Koch’s hidden agenda for the

tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline running from

Canada to the Gulf Coast in Texas for oil export around

the world. A Koch subsidiary in Canada, Flint Hills

Resources Canada, made a declaration to the Canadian

government that it has a ‘substantial interest’ in the

pipeline’s approval. But in the US, Koch representatives

told members of Congress that the pipeline has ‘nothing

to do with any of our businesses’ and ‘we have no

financial interest in the project’. Evidence shows Koch

has been organising and funding so-called ‘citizen’

support for the pipeline.27

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/climate/2011/WhosHoldingUsBack-ExecSummary.pdf

===

Koch Brothers’ "Christmas Present" Up for House Vote

Submitted by Rebekah Wilce on December 1, 2011 - 8:52am

The U.S. House of Representatives votes soon on a series of deregulatory bills that, according to the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (CSS), "threaten vital health, environmental, safety and financial regulations."

}::{

}:way to kill or delay public health, safety or environmental regulations. It would "allow a single member of Congress, at the behest of some powerful special interest or campaign contributor, [to] block science-based lead standards for children's products, block crib safety rules or any number of protections that provide a safer consumer marketplace," according to consumer advocate Ed Mierswinski of U.S. PIRG (the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups).}:

According to Representative Connolly, the REINS Act represents the "171st attack" on public health and the environment in this Congress. The REINS Act was already voted down in the Senate earlier this month as part of the so-called "Republican Jobs Bill."

The Regulatory Accountability Act (H.R. 3010)

The Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA) would require all government agencies to adopt the least costly rule -- "regardless of the impact on public health and safety, the health of our financial system, or the quality of our environment," CSS notes in a letter to House Representatives.

Sidney Shapiro, administrative law professor at Wake Forest University and Vice Chair of the Center for Progressive Reform, calls HR 3010 "truly radical," noting that it would "add over 60 new procedural and analytical requirements to agency rule making process," making it "take somewhere between 6 and 12

years to propose a major rule." The bill, he says, "in one swoop, would overrule 25 different environmental, health and safety laws."

Laws overruled would include the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, according to CSS.

Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act (H.R. 527)

The Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act (RFIA) would amend the current Regulatory Flexibility Act "to ensure complete analysis of potential impacts on small entities of rules." This certainly sounds reasonable.

However, as CSS explains: "Its scope is breathtakingly broad, since it would include regulations that could conceivably have an indirect impact on small businesses. Virtually any action an agency proposes -- even a guidance document designed to help a business comply with a rule -- could be subject to a lengthy regulatory process. By requiring additional and wasteful analyses, this bill would make it impossible for federal agencies to protect the public and respond to emerging hazards."

Shapiro notes that, for "agencies already teetering on the brink of disfunction, particularly in light of budget cuts (and with more coming), it's getting more and more difficult getting regulations out the door that we need, and it wouldn't take much of a push to make them entirely dysfunctional. So even the RFIA is bad news for the American public."

"Job Killing" Regulations

The House GOP is going after the rulemaking process arguing that "excessive" government regulations are "a big wet blanket" smothering the economic recovery. But, mass layoffs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show otherwise. A recent article in the Washington Post reported that in "2010, 0.3 percent of the people who lost their jobs in layoffs were let go because of 'government regulations/intervention.' By comparison, 25 percent were laid off because of a drop in business demand."

Representative Connolly remembers that: "after the Clean Air Act Amendment passed in 1990, utility rates did not go up, they fell 36% in that period, and job creation was among the most robust at any time in U.S. history."

In the face of the BP oil spill, the Massey mining disaster and the Wall Street economic crisis that cost eight million Americans their jobs, the GOP's argument that excessive regulation is killing the economy goes beyond chutzpah into the realm of deadly disinformation.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/11161

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11123/kochs-americans-prosperity-fails-effort-smear-critic

going after lee fang 11/11

===

New Investigative Report Highlights Koch Brothers' Reach in Influencing Democracy

Submitted by Sara Jerving on November 7, 2011 - 8:00am

Charles and David Koch, each worth about $25bn, could be the most influential duo in the United States. These brothers have accumulated their fortune through Koch industries -- an oil refining, chemical, paper products and financial services company with revenues of some $100 billion per year. A new documentary by Bob Abeshouse on the Kochs illustrates how these brothers use their billions to manipulate some in the public into voting right-wing politicians into office and push legislation that strips protections for people's health.

Kochs Influences State Politics Through ALEC

One of the Kochs' modes of manipulating the political process is through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC); Koch Industries' lobbyist is long-time member of ALEC's board. This group brings corporations and legislators together in task forces to vote behind closed doors on "model" legislation that is then pushed out to state legislatures without mention of its corporate genesis or corporate pre-voting. The Center for Media and Democracy’s Executive Director Lisa Graves is featured in the program describing her reaction to the seeing the array of efforts to rewrite people's rights in bills CMD analyzed through ALECexposed: “Many of the bills written reflect Koch DNA," she said noting that many of the bills mirror the Koch brand of "free market fundamentalism."

Jane Mayer, a writer for the New Yorker and author of a 2010 groundbreaking exposé of the Kochs, said in the investigation that targeting state legislation has proven to be an effective way for the right-wing to make a substantial politcal impact, noting that state legislators are cheaper to buy than Congress.

The Kochs have received the ALEC "Adam Smith" Award and through their foundations and the corporation they control have contributed at least $1 million to the organization, along with a nearly half-million dollar loan to bail out ALEC when it was failing.

Unions on Koch's Target List

The Kochs have spent untold sums across the country to undermine unions. Witout unions, the Kochs would have fewer obstacles to achieving their wishlist of corporate-friendly policies. Wisconsin became a major battleground on stripping workers rights in February. David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity spent more than half a million dollars supporting the state’s Governor Scott Walker's efforts to repeal the rights of state workers. That's a small portion of what the Koch-funded AFP has spent in the state to advance its agenda, and also does not include all the Koch money spent fueling Walker's election.

Mayer noted, in describing the Kochs' grand plans, “The employees unions and the teachers unions are two of the last bastions of serious strength on the progressive side of democratic politics. That’s where the money is. If you want to eviserate the left in America, you go after those groups.”'

The new investigation of the Kochs was aired on Al Jazeera English, one of the first major networks in the United States to tell the story of how the Koch billionaires are working to dramatically change the rights of Americans.

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11102/new-investigative-report-highlights-koch-brothers-reach-undermining-democracy

The urban heat island effect was first noted in 1833 by Luke Howard, an amateur meteorologist, who noticed that urban London was at night about 3.7^o F warmer than the surrounding countryside. One of the favorite arguments of climate change deniers is that the urban heat island effect is unduly biasing global temperature readings.

Because of this, climate change deniers have been especially excited about the prospects for the BEST project (Berkeley Earth Surface Group, a part of the Novim Group, which is friendly to the idea of geoengineering) headed by physicist Richard Muller. Judith Curry is also involved, as is 2011 physics Nobel laurate Saul Perlmutter. It is funded by, among others, the Koch Brothers. The project's goal is to create a separate global temperature estimate, and to carefully examine whether urban heating has had any impact on global temperatures. To do this, they analyzed temperature data from 39,028 meauring stations around the world.

The bombshell is that this Koch-funded group has not been able to show that the urban heat island effect has had any influence on temperature measurements of global warming. In fact, the group found in a paper just released that both urban and rural areas "show significant warming."

This is significant because the BEST group was widely expected to take a contrarian stand.

Another favorite climate change denial argument bites the dust....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shawn-lawrence-otto/another-climate-denial-argument_b_1021171.html

Koch Industries' Toxic Gifts to Wisconsin

Submitted by Rebekah Wilce on May 19, 2011 - 10:51am

Koch Industries ranks in the "top ten" of the Toxic 100 list of the Political Economy Research Institute, which identifies the top U.S. air polluters among the world's largest corporations based on their chronic human health risk. Koch Industries is included in the list as the parent corporation of a diversity of industrial facilities that process and distribute fossil fuels, paper, wood products and synthetic fibers. The pollution from these facilities has a significant effect on the natural environment and on human health.

The Wisconsin Record

The Center for Media and Democracy decided to take a look at the record of Koch Industries here in Wisconsin where CMD is located. We examined the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Most industrial facilities are required to report toxic pollutant discharges to the air and to surface waterways to the EPA via the TRI program. The numbers companies report are for the most part unverified by the EPA and the discharges themselves are unmonitored, so the numbers reported are to some extent estimates based on certain calculations and assumptions.

Koch Industries operates twelve industrial facilities in Wisconsin: Georgia-Pacific and its wholly-owned subsidiaries in Green Bay (4 plants), Oshkosh, Phillips, and Sheboygan; and Flint Hills Resources in Green Bay, Junction City, McFarland, Milwaukee, Stevens Point and Waupun.

Dr. David Zaber, an eco-toxicologist, who was recently the Science Fellow at the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago and the Director of Science at Defenders of Wildlife in Washington, D.C. before moving to Wisconsin, assisted the Center with a review of the most recent TRI data available from these facilities, for the years 2007, 2008, and 2009.

As Dr. Zaber notes, the TRI is "an underestimate of the total amount of toxic pollutants released to the environment because many facilities are exempt from reporting -- e.g. municipal sewage treatment plants, small discharges, etc. -- because they are either below relevant thresholds such as number of employees or otherwise not covered by TRI."

However incomplete, though, the data reveal that over the course of those three years, Koch Industries' facilities emitted over 5.4 million pounds (PDF)¹ of toxic discharges into Wisconsin's air and water. Of these discharges, nearly 100,000 pounds (PDF) were of substances known or suspected to cause cancer.

Michael Ash, an Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and coauthor of the "Toxic 100 Air Polluters," says the numbers indicate that Koch Industries is a "major polluter" in Wisconsin. Rich Puchalsky, a TRI expert and a consultant for half a dozen environmental groups on TRI, concurs.

It's Raining Sulfuric Acid: #1 Worst Emitter of All Paper Facilities in Wisconsin

Georgia-Pacific's Green Bay Broadway plant, courtesy of the Capital TimesFrom 2007-2009, TRI data shows that Koch Industries' facilities in Wisconsin released a total of 1.25 million pounds (PDF)² of sulfuric acid, a major contributor to the formation of acid rain that, as an aerosol, causes respiratory tract irritation, especially to children and adults with asthma. Occupational exposure can cause cancer³ of the larynx. Koch Industries' Georgia-Pacific facility on Broadway Avenue in Green Bay was responsible for almost 23 percent (PDF)⁴ of the total discharges throughout the state in 2007-2009. The same Georgia-Pacific facility was the number one releaser of sulfuric acid of the six paper facilities in Wisconsin that reported the release of sulfuric acid to the EPA in 2009, disposing of 410,000 pounds of sulfuric acid on-site in that year. This was over 100 percent more than the total release of sulfuric acid of the next biggest polluter in the industry in the state.

According to the Georgia-Pacific website, "Wisconsin is the Number One paper manufacturing state in the United States." So, this Koch Industries' facility emitted the most sulfuric acid of any paper processor in the state that manufactures the most paper in the United States.

Koch Industries' two Georgia-Pacific facilities in Green Bay produce and distribute the following retail brands of paper products: Quilted Northern®, Vanity Fair®, Sparkle®, Mardi Gras®, Angel Soft®, Soft N' Gentle®, Brawny Industrial® and Dixie®.

Deadly Dioxins: #4 Worst Emitter of All Wisconsin Facilities

From 2007-2009, Koch Industries' facilities in Wisconsin released a total of over 5 grams (PDF)⁵ of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds (dioxins are usually measured in grams rather than pounds because they have a lower reporting threshold as persistent bioaccumulative compounds, meaning these substances can accumulate in the human body and the environment). Dioxins and dioxin-like compounds are toxic to humans and animals in multiple ways and are a known human carcinogen.⁶

Even a small amount of dioxin can have a powerful impact. Dr. Zaber, who recently contributed to the Commission for Environmental Cooperation report Taking Stock: North American Pollutant Releases and Transfers and is an expert on toxic effects of chemical releases on wildlife, comments that "dioxins released in the Great Lakes basin are of particular concern because they persist in the environment and are passed up the food chain to humans through fish and other aquatic wildlife."

In 1997, the United States and Canada jointly developed the Great Lakes Binational Toxics Strategy (BTS) committing to quantified reductions in the amount of contaminants released into the environment. Dioxins are what is known as a "Level I" persistent toxic substance targeted to be "substantially reduced" because of its hazards to humans and our ecosystem.

And yet, a decade and more after the BTS was developed and implemented, Koch Industries' Georgia-Pacific facility on Broadway Avenue in Green Bay emitted more dioxins on-site than any of the 17 paper facilities emitting dioxins in Wisconsin in 2007. In 2009, it ranked second highest in dioxin emissions out of 14 total facilities in Wisconsin.

Nickel Compounds: #1 Worst Emitter of All Wisconsin Facilities

From 2007-2009, TRI data show that Koch Industries in Wisconsin released 9,780 pounds (PDF)⁷ of nickel compounds. Nickel is a heavy metal, and nickel compounds are a known human carcinogen (PDF)⁸ and cause other adverse effects on respiratory function. An important review of studies on heavy metal poisoning commissioned by the National Water Research Institute, entitled "A silent epidemic of environmental metal poisoning?" (PDF) emphasized that "as a global problem, the potential health effects of metallic hazards should be a matter of public health concern, especially if the emissions of toxic metals into the environment continue at the current rate... . [M]etals that can adversely affect human reproduction include As, Sb, Be, Cd, Hg, Cr, Co, Ni and Al" (arsenic, antimony, beryllium, cadmium, mercury, chromium, cobalt, nickel and aluminum). "These elements are… released in large quantities into the environment and may be contributing to the reproductive failures being experienced by contemporary populations."⁹

In 2007, Koch Industries' Georgia-Pacific facility on Broadway Avenue in Green Bay emitted more nickel than any other of the 32 industrial facilities reporting nickel discharges to the air and/or water. Of a total statewide discharge of 6,645 pounds, the Georgia-Pacific facility emitted 3,410 pounds, or 51 percent, greater than all the other discharges of other facilities combined. In 2009, the same Georgia-Pacific facility was the only paper facility in Wisconsin to report the release of any nickel or nickel compounds to the EPA, at a total of 3,260 pounds of nickel compounds. Of that amount, almost all of it (3,160 pounds) was emitted directly to the air or water, again leading all 38 of the reporting industrial facilities in the state.

Cancer-Causing Benzene: Koch's Subsidiary Was One of Top Ten Worst Emitters of All Wisconsin Facilities

From 2007-2009, TRI data show that Koch Industries' facilities in Wisconsin released a total of 5,546 pounds (PDF)¹¹ of benzene, which is a known human carcinogen¹² and causes other serious adverse human health effects. In 2009, discharges of benzene from Koch Industries' Flint Hills Resources facilities in Milwaukee, McFarland, and Junction City were ranked 6th, 7th, and 9th, respectively, out of 20 industrial facilities in Wisconsin that reported benzene releases to the EPA.

Conclusion

This data demonstrates that Koch Industries generates significant pollution in Wisconsin. It is important to keep in mind that the TRI data are self-reported and do not cover all discharges in an area or to a watershed. Nor does this information indicate all of the possible effects of all the possible mixtures of chemicals that could occur with these discharges and the resultant risks to ecosystems as well as to reproductive health or other effects on disease or lifespans of people in the state and region.

According to Dr. Zaber, "It is expected for industrial facilities to generate some toxic emissions. However, at a time when good technology exists to reduce pollution, when operating in a place as environmentally sensitive as the Great Lakes basin, and at the scale of a conglomerate as large as Koch Industries, what comes out of their stacks and pipes has a lasting impact on Wisconsin." Plainly, further examination of the impact of Koch Industries in Wisconsin and elsewhere is warranted.

Notes

1. EPA Toxics Release Inventory data analyzed by Dr. David Zaber for the Center for Media and Democracy (PDF), March 21, 2011.

2. EPA TRI data analyzed by Dr. David Zaber for the Center for Media and Democracy (PDF), March 21, 2011.

3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), ToxFAQs™ for Sulfur Trioxide and Sulfuric Acid (PDF), 1999, p. 2.

4. Georgia-Pacific's Broadway facility in Green Bay produced 1.25 million pounds of sulfuric acid from 2007-2009, while total facilities in Wisconsin combined produced 5.46 million pounds, as shown in these EPA TRI data (PDF) analyzed by the Center for Media and Democracy, May 19, 2011.

5. Georgia-Pacific's Broadway facility in Green Bay

produced 5.1105 grams of dioxins from 2007-2009, as shown in these EPA

TRI data (PDF) analyzed by the Center for Media and Democracy, May 19, 2011.

6. CDC, ATSDR, Public Health Statement for Chlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins (CDDs) (PDF), 1998, p. 8.

7. EPA TRI data analyzed by Dr. David Zaber for the Center for Media and Democracy (PDF), March 21, 2011.

8. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Toxicology Program (NTP), “Substance Profiles: Nickel Compounds and Metallic Nickel (PDF),” Report on Carcinogens (RoC) 11th Edition, p. 1.

9. J.O. Nriagu, “A silent epidemic of environmental metal poisoning?” (PDF) Environmental Pollution 50(1-2) (Barking, Essex: 1988), pp. 139 & 153.

10. EPA TRI data analyzed by Dr. David Zaber for the Center for Media and Democracy (PDF), March 21, 2011.

11. CDC, ATSDR, ToxFAQs™ for Benzene (PDF), 2007, p. 2.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/10722

http://www.democracynow.org/tags/koch_brothers

democ now on getting beat on formaldehyde:http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/14/formaldehyde_added_to_known_carcinogens_list

the nation on how employees were required to vote x

You Thought the Koch Brothers Were Bad? Turns Out They're Even Worse Than You Thought

Charles and David Koch's reach into virtually every aspect of political, economic and physical life on the planet is probably greater than you thought possible.

April 5, 20

You knew they were big. You knew they were evil. From the union-busting actions of their minions in Wisconsin and Ohio to their war on health-care reform, to their assault on the environment and their attacks on the science of climatology, Charles and David Koch have earned their place as the focus of progressives' scrutiny in the age of the Tea Party -- the destructive and regressive movement they bankroll. But a new report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that, as bad as you thought the Kochs were, they're actually worse. And their reach into virtually every aspect of political, economic and physical life on the planet is probably greater than you thought possible.

In The Koch Brothers: What You Need to Know About the Financiers of the Radical Right, author Tony Carrk, policy director of the CAP Action War Room, lays out a case that is breathtaking in its scope, showing how the Koch brothers are using their billions with the aim of reshaping the global economic system in such a way as to enrich themselves and their heirs at the expense of most other inhabitants of the planet.

While much of the report will have a familiar ring (especially to readers of AlterNet, and CAP Action's own ThinkProgress), The Koch Brothers also addresses elements of the Koch agenda far beyond the well-trodden turf of Americans for Prosperity's organizing against health-care reform or the pollution rap against Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held corporation in the United States, which the billionaire brothers command.

The Kochs and the Global Economy

Consider, for instance, the Kochs' role in the financial business. You thought Koch Industries was just a high-polluting oil-and-gas-based conglomerate? Add in the part played on Wall Street by Koch Supply & Trading, and the depth of the Koch imprint on the economy is revealed. From Carrk's report:

First, the Koch brothers fought efforts to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more oversight over speculative trading, whereby companies can artificially inflate prices on things such as oil, during the Wall Street reform debate. One of the Koch companies—Koch Supply & Trading—takes part in oil and derivatives trading. We should point out that oil speculation has reached an all-time high at the same time gas prices continue to skyrocket.

Then look at a recent position pushed by Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party-allied astroturf group founded and funded by David Koch (and whose sibling organization, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, he chairs):

Similarly, Americans for Prosperity supports the House continuing resolution that cuts spending by $61 billion. Those cuts would reduce the budget for the CFTC by one-third. Make no mistake: Gutting the CFTC or limiting its authority would be a boon to Wall Street businesses that use complex financial instruments. But while the result is more profits for oil companies, it means everyone else pays more at the pump.

Okay, now have a look at the Kochs' recent direct contributions to political candidates:

The Kochs donated directly to 62 of the 87 members of the House GOP freshman class...and to 12 of the new members of the U.S. Senate.

No wonder, then, how that continuing resolution -- the means for funding the government when a budget has not been passed into law -- managed to get through the House. (It was subsequently rejected by the Senate, setting the stage for a possible shutdown of the government at the end of this week.) Those 62 Koch-backed freshmen are essentially driving the agenda of the House Republicans, because together they form a large enough bloc to prevent House Speaker John Boehner from amassing a majority on any piece of legislation, should they choose to, despite the 2010 Republican victories that handed control of the House to the GOP.

It should be noted that such "complex financial instruments" as those mentioned above had much to do with the 2008 Bush crash of Wall Street. The report reminds us that "from September 2007 to May 2009, American 401(k) and individual retirement accounts lost a total of $2.7 trillion." But if the Kochs had their way, Social Security would no longer be financed by the federal government, and would instead be invested on Wall Street -- a boon for financiers such as they. Too bad if your account takes a hit that lands you on the curb.

And while we think of Wall Street as an American institution, when Wall Street sneezes, the world gets a cold. The Bush crash set in motion a global recession. Less oversight of the financial shenanigans known as derivatives (or "complex financial instruments") all but guarantees further crashes.

The Brothers Koch and the Body Politic

If you read the whole of the CAP Action report, you'll see how the Koch influence on the nation's politics is compounded and leveraged through a combination of the brothers' direct contributions to candidates, their investment in astroturf groups such as Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks (which do political organizing), and their funding of right-wing think tanks, which send policy position papers daily to the in-boxes of senators, representatives and their aides. Carrk identified some 85 right-leaning think tanks that received a collective $85 million from the Kochs over the course of the last 15 years. These include the Cato Institute, of which David Koch was a founder, and other well-known outfits, such as the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation.

But that's not all:

Charles and David Koch and their company, Koch Industries, do not limit their political donations to right-wing think tanks and advocacy groups. They also donate millions directly to candidates. Since 1990, the Koch network has donated $11 million to federal candidates, $9.8 million, or 89 percent, of which went to Republicans.

In Congress, the donations are well-targeted. Take, for example, the House Commerce and Energy Committee, whose imprint on legislation has a direct effect on Koch Industries' core businesses. (Koch's Flint Hill Resources, LLC, according to the report, "has a combined crude oil processing capacity of more than 800,000 barrels of oil per day.") From the report:

The Kochs have contributed significantly to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In fact, they are the single-largest oil and gas donor to members of the committee, contributing $279,500 to 22 of the committee’s 31 Republicans and $32,000 to five Democrats. Tim Phillips, the head of Americans for Prosperity, even co-authored an op-ed with chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), detailing how Congress could stop the EPA from ensuring a cleaner environment.

At the state level, the Koch influence is every bit as corrosive as it is at the national level, Carrk tells us.

The Koch network donated $1.2 million to help elect conservative Republican governors last year, including Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Ohio’s John Kasich, both of whom are trying to take away collective bargaining rights. During the fight in Wisconsin, Americans for Prosperity ran an ad and orchestrated protests to support Gov. Walker’s union busting and orchestrated pro-Walker demonstrations. Americans for Prosperity also started a Web site urging people to “Stand with Governor Kasich.”

And that's not even counting the money the brothers donate to candidates for state legislatures, or to support ballot measures designed to enrich them and their heirs. Carrk reports:

Data from the National Institute for Money in State Politics show that from 2003 to 2010, the Koch brothers, as well as their companies, employees, and affiliates, have donated $5.2 million to state candidates and ballot measures in 34 states. $3.4 million of those donations, or 65 percent, went to Republican candidates. Another $1 million, or 20 percent, went to one ballot initiative: the effort to overturn California’s clean energy law, AB 32.

Heck, as AlterNet reported, Americans for Prosperity was celebrating Scott Walker, the union-busting governor of Wisconsin, back when he was a mere county commissioner. In 2008, Walker served as the emcee for a ceremony by the Wisconsin chapter of the AFP Foundation -- at which the organization's "Defender of the American Dream" award was conferred upon Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who now chairs the House Budget Committee. Ryan this week proposed a budget plan for 2012 that would privatize Medicare and slash Medicaid.

Much, Much More

In addition to a narrative on the duo's activities in the political sphere, The Koch Brothers: What You Need to Know About the Financiers of the Radical Right serves up a bevy of lists and graphics that offer a range of facts and figures in an easy-to-grok form. There's a list of all the freshman congressional representatives who have received Koch campaign dollars, and the dollar amounts they received. Those 85 Koch-funded think tanks are listed, with total-donations-per-tank noted next to their names. A map of the U.S. shows the states in which Koch Industries has facilities (nearly all 50). Another highlights the 32 states in which Americans for Prosperity has a state chapter.

There's also a comprehensive listing of all the Koch Industries subsidiaries and what they make or sell, as well as a detailed section on the pollution and environmental infractions for which the conglomerate is responsible.

If you're one of those people who like to be scared out of your wits, you'll find the CAP Action report better than Wes Craven's latest offering. Just consider this:

The significant victories the billionaire Koch brothers chalked up for their ideological and business interests in the 2010 elections is only a precursor of what is to come. The Koch brothers have already pledged to raise $88 million through their considerable network for policy and political projects for the 2012 election cycle.

The report can be downloaded here (PDF), for free. http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2011/04/pdf/koch_brothers.pdf

Adele M. Stan is AlterNet's Washington bureau chief.

blog:

cf leutkemeyer

11:25 AM on 2/23/2011

Austin's webpage says that his department specializes in "research focuses primarily on the use of microarrays and nanotechnology to further our physical understanding of biological processes, such as the dynamics of cells when subjected to stress. We ultimately want to understand, and possible guide, the evolution of microrganisms by culturing them inside custom-made micro-environments."

His papers aren't on climatology and his election to NAS wasn't for his work in climatology.

His advocacy in July 2009 had great material benefits. Austin was made head of Princeton's Physical Sciences-Oncology Center just a few months later.

NCI awards $15.2 million to create Princeton Physical Sciences-Oncology Center

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S25/64/22S75/index.xml

The money came from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) which has taken large sums from David Koch who dislikes when people point out that his products contain carcinogens. Soon after Koch steered NCI money to Austin, he stepped down from NCI's advisory board over allegations that his denial of carcinogens was contrary to the organization's mission.

Koch Leaves Federal Cancer Panel as Groups Urge Ethics Probe

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/10/27/27greenwire-koch-leaves-federal-cancer-panel-as-groups-urg-61710.html

So Austin had 15 million reasons to find fault in the science that his benefactor disliked. If he finds a new cure for cancer, he might be right in seeing that the ends justify the means. But right now he's just a liar.

nice sum usnews

cf late Jan Palm springs event

Jack Anderson	Culver Corp, Rose Marie and Jack R. Anderson...
Neil Anderson	Runs Rose Marie and Jack R. Anderson Foundation
Philip Anschutz	Billionaire
Nancy Anschutz	Homemaker
Clifford Asness
Nate Bachman	The Bachman Group-Financial Advisor
Lynda Bachman	wife of The Bachman Group-Financial Advisor
Whitney Ball	Owner of a firm that helps corporations give...
Michael Barone	Fox News
Frank Baxter	Ambassador Frank E. Baxter is Chairman Emeritus...
Kathy Baxter	wife of Ambassador Frank E. Baxter is Chairman...
Stephen Bechtel Jr
Betty Bechtel	wife of owner of the Bechtel Group (Corporation),...
Glenn Beck	Conservative talk show host and political...
Darcy Beuhler	JP Weigand & Sons Real Estate
Bernard Blasingame	President and owner of Aqua Dynamics Systems, Inc
Margaret Blasingame	wife of President and owner of Aqua Dynamics...
Alan L Boeckmann
Lisa Boeckmann	wife of CEO Fluor Corporation
Boysie Bollinger	Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer...
Patrick D Broe	President, The Broe Companies
Paula Broe	wife of Founder and CEO of Denver-based real...
Arthur Brooks	President, American Enterprise Institute
David R Brown MD
Ann Brown	wife of Heritage Foundation trustee
John D Bryan	Georgia Gulf Corp millionaire, charter school...
Robert J. Buford	Planned Realty Group, Heartland Institute...
Bob Buford	C. Robert Buford has been President and owner of...
Martha Buford	wife of President and owner of Zenith Drilling...
Tim Busch	CPA for superwealthy
Shelby Bush	Vice President, Legal and Administration,...
Nell Bush	wife of Vice President, Legal and Administration,...
Tim Carney	Political Columnist, Washington Examiner
Charles Q Chandler IV	President of Intrust Bank, Wichita
Marla Chandler	wife of President and CEO of Intrust Bank,...
David C Chavern	Exec VP & COO for U.S. Chamber of Commerce
John W Childs	Chairman and CEO of JW Childs Associates
Paul Clifton	Runs Robert and Marie Hansen Family Foundation
Lea Clifton	wife of Paul Clifton
Susie Coelho	founder and CEO of Susie Coelho Enterprises Inc.
Bill Cooper	CEO of TCF Financial
Dino Cortopassi	Corto Olive Company
Joan Cortopassi	wife of Dino Cortopassi
Joe Craft	Joseph W. Craft III is president, chief executive...
Alex Cranberg	Aspect Energy
Jeff Crank	State Director, Americans For Prosperity Colorado
Karl Crow	Capital Research Center
Eric J Crown
Kevin S Crutchfield
Ravenel B Curry III	Ravenel B Curry III

Beth Curry	wife of founder of Eagle Capital Management
James D Dannenbaum	Chairman of Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation
Shirley Dannenbaum	wife of Jim Dannenbaum, Chairman of Dannenbaum...
Veronique De Rugy	Senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center
Richard DeVos	Amway billionaire, owns Orlando Magic, major GOP...
Helen DeVos	wife of Richard DeVos
Annie Dickerson	CBRE analyst
Ned Diefenthal	Former owner of Southern Recycling
Nancy Diefenthal	wife of Ned Diefenthal
Dixon R Doll
Carol Doll	wife of Dixon Doll
Jim Von Ehr	CEO, Zyvex Corp
Karl Eller	Karl Eller is an Arizona business leader and...
Stevie Eller	wife of Karl Eller
Ronald A Erickson	Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board...
Kris Erickson	wife of Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of...
Melvyn J Estrin
Suellen Estrin	wife of Melvyn Estrin
Richard T Farmer	billionaire owner of Cintas
Peter Farrell	Founder of Resmed
James E Ferrell	Ferrellgas Partners, L.P. engages in the...
Zibbie Ferrell	wife of Jim Ferrell
Dave Fettig	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Bob Fettig	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Steve Fettig	Tank Craft, Duracraft Fuel energy
Jerry Finger	Managing Partner, Finger Interests LTD
Nanette Finger	wife of Jerry Finger
Rich Fink	Koch think tank mastermind.
Amy Fisher-Smith	associate professor of psychology at University...
Budd Florkiewicz	Foam Fabricators
Laurie Florkiewicz	wife of Budd Florkiewicz
Charlie Fote	Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Fotec Group...
Kaye Lynn Fote	wife of Charlie Fote
Randy A Foutch	Chief Executive Officer of Laredo Petroleum
Jean Foutch	wife of Randy Foutch
Steve Friess	Son of Foster Friess, k12 privatization advocate
Foster Friess	Private banker, philanthropist & supporter of...
Polly Friess	daughter-in-law of Foster Friess
Jerry Fullinwider	Vice Chairman, Hillwood International Energy, L.P...
Leah Fullinwider	wife of Jerry Fullinwider
Richard Gilliam	President of Cumberland Resources Corporation...
Leslie Gilliam	wife of Richard Gilliam
Susan Gore	Founder, Wyoming Liberty Group, Gore-Tex fortune...
Oliver Grace Jr	President and chief executive officer of Anderson...
Carolyn Grace	wife of Oliver Grace Jr
Judson C Green
Joyce Green	wife of Judson Green
Kenneth Griffin	Citadel Investment president
Anne Dias Griffin	hedge fund operator married to Kenneth C. Griffin
Gretchen Hamel	Gretchen Hamel

Tea Party Funding Koch Brothers Emerge From Anonymity

By Peter Fenn

Posted: February 2, 2011

Few in America had heard about the third-richest Americans, brothers David and Charles Koch, until just recently. Aside from David Koch’s gifts to the Lincoln Center in New York and the naming of a theater after him, few outside a small, elite circle would recognize the name or know how to pronounce it. (“Koch” as in “coke”)

For decades, they were under the radar. They and their father had amassed an incredible fortune, mainly in the oil business. Their privately held company revenues last year were estimated at $100 billion. Each brother is worth $21.5 billion. That is a very big “B” in both cases.

For many years, they have been involved in politics but not terribly open or transparent about it. It is true that David Koch ran as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket, to the right of Ronald Reagan. According to New York Times columnist Frank Rich, “his campaign called for the abolition not just of Social Security, federal regulatory agencies and welfare but also of the FBI, the CIA, and public schools.” Since the Libertarian party’s 1 percent showing in 1980, David Koch has very much been behind the scenes, until now. [See who donates the most to your member of Congress.]

Jane Mayer, of The New Yorker, in her 10,000 word piece last August, peeled the cover off the onion of the Koch brothers' empire. And she focused not only on their personal wealth and family, but on their political empire building.

It was not, and is not, easy to get the details on the extent of their tentacles. They funnel money through 501c3 tax-exempt foundations, and they give money to other foundations, lobbying organizations, and right wing think tanks. They have PACs; they support candidates. Only a small portion of what they control do they divulge.

But it has now come out how involved they have been in funding Tea Party groups, Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, and Citizens for a Sound Economy ($12 million). [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the **Tea** **Party**.]

We do know, from Mayer’s reporting, that the Koch brothers have personally given over $2 million to candidates over the last 12 years, their PAC has contributed $8 million to candidates, and they have spent $50 million on lobbying. The Charles Koch Foundation has given $48 million, and another foundation they control gave $28 million. David Koch’s foundation gave more than $120 million. According to Mayer, $196 million dollars in total was distributed in the last 10 years to conservative causes and institutions.

That all, as they say, is not chicken feed, and it begs the question: How in the heck did they stay under the radar for as long as they did?

Part of the reason is that much of what they did was not reportable but, more important, until recently they were not pouring the millions into campaigns through advertising and expenditures allowed due to the Citizens United Supreme Court case. [Read the U.S. News debate: Is the Citizens United decision hurting democracy?]

Now, to the paranoia. These folks would make Richard Nixon’s enemies list look tame. This could be a movie akin to George Clooney’s Michael Clayton.

This past weekend the Koch brothers hosted a conference in Palm Springs that resembled an armed camp. Private Koch security was everywhere—manning every doorway and stairway within range of the conference. Reporters were confronted by private security guards and told to leave or they would be arrested, and a Common Cause official had his lunch reservation canceled and was told to check out of the hotel by Koch’s security detail. Young environmental activists were slapped with $100,000 law suits for demonstrating and engaging in pranks. A Politico reporter describes being thrown out and threatened with “a night in the Riverside County jail.”

All this while hiring an army of lawyers, PR flacks, political consultants, and pollsters to protect their “empire.” Everywhere there were folks spinning. Even reporters, who had been paid by Koch, attended the conference to “report” on what they “learned.” Well, Lord knows they have the money.

My guess is that anonymity will not be the Koch brothers’ middle name any longer.

Follow the money in Congress
Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the **Tea** **Party**.
Read the U.S. News debate: Is the Citizens United decision hurting democracy?

regional climate legis in NH

Rep. Frank Guinta (R-NH) -- a freshman Republican Koch helped to elect using his front group, Americans for Prosperity

rachel maddden interview mayer https://kaystreet.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/trms-the-puppet-masters-behind-the-tea-party/

mayer http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer

lefevre libertairian

So, remember how Republicans triumphantly reinstated styrofoam cups in congressional cafeterias, presumably as part of their plan to save jobs and mom and apple pie and small businesses and stuff? Well, they got the "business" part right: The cups they'll be using are made by a company belonging to a former Koch Industries executive. Those little scamps do just crop up everywhere, don't they.

GOP leaders didn't dictate the choice of WinCup, owned by former Koch fiend George Wurtz. So this isn't some kind of Koch conspiracy. (What, AGAIN with defending the Kochs? We're no fun anymore, are we?) But it does underline two things:

Once you get rich enough, anything you can think of is probably owned by you or someone you know. The Kochs are like the Kevin Bacon of every planet-unfriendly business in the world.
The GOP's decision to literally trash the country doesn't just harm the environment. It also -- what a shock -- puts money in the pockets of the ultra-rich.

"Former Koch Exec Supplying House's New Styrofoam Cups," Huffington Post

"Former Koch Exec Is Selling Styrofoam to Congress Now," Slate

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-03-04-kochs-bff-is-gops-styrofoam-dealer 3/11

Mainstream America is finally getting to know the billionaire brothers backing the libertarian movement, thanks to a pair of dueling profiles in New York and The New Yorker. Now that we've heard about their charitable giving, David's 240-foot mega-yacht and role as patrons of the Tea Party movement, it's time to ask a more serious question: How libertarian are they?

The short answer...not very.

Charles and David Koch, the secretive billionaire brothers who own Koch Industries, the largest private oil company in America, have spent millions bankrolling free-market think tanks and pro-business politicians in order, as David Koch has put it, "to minimize the role of government, to maximize the role of private economy and to maximize personal freedoms." But a closer look at their dealings reveals that for the past 35 years the brothers have never shied away from using government subsidies to maximize their own profits, even while endeavoring to limit government spending on anything else.

[CLICK TO SEE THE 7 WAYS THE KOCHS BENEFIT FROM GOVERNMENT LARGESSE.]

In 1977, Charles Koch founded the Cato Institute, an influential libertarian think tank, with the aim of injecting free-market ideas into the mainstream. The Kochs would go on to establish and fund a vast network of overlapping think tanks, institutes, foundations, media outlets, and lobby groups that would vilify centralized government and promote laissez-faire capitalism as the only route to economic prosperity. The Mercatus Center, Americans for Prosperity, Reason Magazine, the Federalist Society and the Heritage Foundation are just a few of the right-wing organizations that run on Koch cash today.

Koch Industries is America's second-largest private corporation, with revenue of $100 billion in 2009, and 80,000 employees in 60 countries. According to Charles Koch, Koch Industries has grown 2,000-fold since he took over from his dad in 1967, transforming a middling oil transportation and refinement operation into a corporate mini-state involved in oil, petrochemicals, paper, agriculture and financial services.

Seventy-four-year-old Charles G. Koch, who runs the company from a compound in Wichita, Kansas, has attributed the company's success to an unshakable belief in the power of the free-markets—a belief that he says can be traced back to an "intellectual epiphany" he experienced at a conference more than 40 years ago. There, Koch realized that free-market economics were an objective reality "as immutable as the laws that work in science," he explained in 2006.

In its recent profile, the New Yorkercalled Charles and David Koch "the primary underwriters of hard-line libertarian politics in America." But the magazine failed to mention that their free market philanthropy belies the immense profit they have made from corporate welfare.

**IN DEPTH:**An illustrated history of the Koch Bros.' socialist links and penchant for government handouts.

Yasha Levine is an editor of The eXiled. Levine and co-author Mark Ames first broke the connection between the Tea Party and the billionaire Koch brothers in Playboy.com in February 2009, sparking lawsuit threats, and causing CNBC's Rick Santelli to publicly distance himself from the Tea Party movement and cancel his Daily Show appearance.

http://www.observer.com/2010/daily-transom/how-libertarian-koch-bros-benefit-corporate-welfare

see walker wisc

Koch Denies Interest in No-Bid Deals; Opens New Lobby Shop

Submitted by Lisa Graves on February 22, 2011 - 11:05pm

Madison, Wisconsin -- The Capital Times reported on Tuesday that Koch Industries had quietly opened a lobby shop in Madison. This news comes amid concerns about the influence of the company and the billionaire brothers who lead it, and the bankrolling of multi-million dollar ad campaigns like the one that helped sweep controversial governor Scott Walker into office. The company's political action committee was also one of the largest PAC donors to contribute directly to Walker's election, giving his campaign $43,000, second only to the realtor PAC. Amid controversy swirling around a provision in the budget bill Walker introduced that would allow his administration to sell off state heating, cooling and power plants or their operations "for any amount" in no-bid contracts and without any external oversight, Koch Industries denied last night that it was interested purchasing power plants here to go along with its pipeline, refinery, and coal companies in the state.

According to Judy Davidoff, their operation "Koch Companies Public Sector -- Legal, Government, Public Affairs" opened steps from the Wisconsin capitol the week Walker was inaugurated as governor. The lobby firm moved into the seventh floor suite two weeks before the November election was held.

The Center for Media and Democracy told the Cap Times Tuesday, "It's curious that the Kochs have apparently expanded their lobbying presence just as Walker was sworn into office and immediately before a budget was unveiled that would allow the executive branch unilateral power to sell off public utilities in this state in no-bid contracts." CMD was referring to Section 16.896 of Walker's controversial budget "repair" bill that would vest the Walker administration with unilateral authority to sell off or lease the operation of the state's power, cooling and heating plants in no-bid contracts.

A Bill for Backroom Deals "For Any Amount"

The Walker proposal, as introduced in his budget "repair" bill, expressly states that, notwithstanding some other laws, his administration:

may sell any state−owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amountthat the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under [previously controlling law].

(Emphasis added.)

The legal rules for selling the public's assets that this provision would effectively nullify appear to include those that:

require public bids;
reserve the right of the government to reject bids;
require that any property sold be subject to property taxes;
require that the fair market value of the property to be sold be publicly disclosed;
require at least 14 days for a public commission to review any proposed sale; and
require notification to the legislature in writing of the proposed sale.

(Section 13.48(14).) It would also wipe out the uniform procedures requiring a determination of whether a private contract can be performed "more economically or efficiently" than under state ownership (Section 16.705). It would even moot rules preventing the approval of utility operations that would increase "costs" to consumers without increasing "value" (Section 196.49 (3)).

Key Pipeline Rules Would Be Voided under Walker's Proposal

Notably, one of the provisions Walker's no-bid proposal would also void is a state law preventing a public utility furnishing gas to the public from altering the plant to connect it to a different pipeline from the previously kind of fuel, unless the public utility commission certified that doing so is necessary for the public interest and convenience (Section 196.49).

As the Center has noted, the Koch brothers' financial interests include Koch Pipeline Company, which operates a pipeline system that crosses Wisconsin, part of the nearly 4,000 miles of pipelines owned or operated by the company. It also owns Flint Hill Resources, which distributes refined fuel through pipelines and terminals in Junction City, Waupun, Madison and Milwaukee. Koch Industries also owns the "C. Reiss Coal Company," a power plant supply company located in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan (the company supplies coal to power plants).

It is not clear how any of the public's assets might enhance or diversify Koch's interests if the company were interested in doing so, although the breadth of the exemptions from standard operating procedure for sales might make the assets attractive as part of any number of business strategies.

Concerns Raised about Power Plant Power Grab; Koch Denies Interest in Purchase

Watchdog groups have expressed strong concerns about Walker's effort to push through his no-bid/no-rules power plant power grab. For example, the Center has raised concerns about the increased influence of corporations and their CEOs in elections and shared concerns with reporter Shawn Doherty, stating "Here you have a situation where extremely wealthy interests help propel Walker into office, and one of the first things he does is to privatize electricity in this state and to do so with the removal of public oversights and checks and no bidding." CMD added, "There should be red flags going up all over the place."

Koch Companies Public Sector president, Philip Ellender, told the Cap Times late Tuesday: "We have no interest in purchasing any of the state-owned power plants in Wisconsin and any allegations to the contrary are completely false. This is a dispute between public-sector unions and democratically elected officials over how best to serve the public interest. Unfortunately, there are those who would prefer to portray it as something else entirely. A balanced budget will benefit our company and its nearly 3,000 Wisconsin employees no more and no less than the rest of the state's private-sector workers and employers."

Walker's proposed unilateral powers would apply to both sales and contracts to operate power plants, as well as to heating and cooling plants.

http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/10/secret-meetings-of-koch-industries.html

2000 cse black hole:

Citizens for a Sound Economy

The Citizens for a Sound Economy has also jumped on the 527 bandwagon this spring.

The Washington-based consumer-advocate conservative think-tank is financed by corporate donations. Microsoft, Koch Industries, Exxon Corp., General Electric and Philip Morris all contribute to the group, which has an income in excess of $15 million. C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel in the Bush administration, is chairman of the board of trustees.

Although CSE has battled candidates in previous election cycles, this time it decided to separate its political activities from its nonprofit foundation and consumer advocate wings. Its leaders created two separate funds this spring to handle all election-related activity-a black hole fund and a federally registered political action committee. The black hole 527 fund will handle all CSE’s issue advocacy campaigns that avoid federal election disclosure and regulation by avoiding direct support of a candidate with the magic words like “vote for,” and “vote against.” This fund will receive unlimited and undisclosed contributions from corporations and individuals. According to Michelle Mitola, treasurer of the CSE PAC, the federally registered PAC will spend its limited and reported contributions on educating its membership base and conducting independent expenditures supporting business-friendly conservative candidates.

CSE has announced its plan to be involved in the New York race for the U.S. Senate, and will also be canvassing its 250,000 nationwide members for contributions to fund-tailored voter guides, score cards and get-out-the-vote drives as well as to television, radio and print advertisements opposing Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Gannett News Service reports that CSE plans to spend more than $1 million this election cycle in various states, with New York chief among them.

Its principal founders are David and Charles Koch. The brothers own Koch Industries, the nation’s second wealthiest privately owned business, which was recently given a $35 million federal fine in connection with 300 oil spills in six states. As a part of the settlement agreement with the Environment Protection Agency, Koch Industries wasn’t required to admit fault, but it is paying the most expensive civil fine ever levied under United States environmental laws.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/566/

This article is work in progress.

Koch Industries is the second largest privately-held company in the United States. Its owners, brothers Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch, have set up, developed and supported a number of influential right-wing think tanks since 1977.

Koch timeline

1970s - Center for Market Processes (predecessor to the Mercatus Center) founded by Rich Fink
1977 - Cato Institute founded
1978 - Reason Foundation founded
1984 - Citizens for a Sound Economy (now FreedomWorks) and Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation (now Americans For Prosperity) founded by Rich Fink
1989 - CSEF rescues and restructures Tax Foundation
1991 - Institute for Justice founded with seed money from Charles G. Koch
1999 - Mercatus Center first emerges as a brand from what was Center for Market Processes
2003 - Independent Women's Forum affiliates with Citizens for a Sound Economy
2003 - CSE and CSEF split; CSEF becomes Americans For Prosperity
2004 - CSE and Empower America merge to become FreedomWorks

Koch links to expand on

Reason Foundation (co-founder?)
George Mason University ? - hosts lots of Koch things, and heavily funded by Koch
Earthwatch Institute ?
Instutite for Humane Studies (? - Koch board member; Mercatus is "sister institute; affiliated with George Mason)
Aspen Institute ? - Koch board member
Progress and Freedom Foundation ?
Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment and the Federalist Society are both said to be substantially Koch-funded

Koch Industries and Think Thank crossovers

A number of individuals work or have worked for both Koch Industries and associated think tanks. These include:

Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Koch_think_tanks"

Categories: Think tanks | United States

From Promoting Acid Rain To Climate Denial: Over 20 Years Of David Koch’s Polluter Front Groups

The corporate-backed front group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is again leading the charge for industry against environmental protections. Earlier this month, AFP kicked off its “Regulation Reality Tour” — a roadshow through the states of pivotal senators pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency not to regulate carbon emissions, as outlined by the Clean Air Act .

The campaign is part carnival, part sophisticated K Street lobbying. Attendees are welcomed by an inflatable moonbounce for children, free food and drinks, and AFP staff dressed as “carbon cops” distributing freebies to the crowd. The rallies serve as a platform for AFP to scare voters with stories of bureaucrats regulating churches and “radio controlled thermostats.” Moreover, operatives from AFP collect names and train attendees on how to lobby Congress to defeat clean energy reform.

The founder and chairman of Americans for Prosperity is oil baron David Koch, who is one of the richest men in the world because of his oil, chemicals, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries. Koch Industries is a major polluter with an atrocious record of sloppy operations. According to the EPA, Koch Industries is responsible for over 300 oil spills in the US and has leaked three million gallons of crude oil into fisheries and drinking waters. They were fined a record $35 million dollars and an additional $8 million in Minnesota for discharging into streams. But AFP’s recent crusade against the EPA is just the latest in Koch’s twenty-year campaign to have unrestricted power to pollute. Below is a timeline with snapshots of Koch’s long running campaign to distort science, orchestrate fake grassroots campaigns, and defeat environmental protections. Click MORE for the timeline:

– 1977:

– David’s brother Charles Koch founds the libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute.

– 1984:

– David Koch, along with political operative Richard Fink, founds Citizens for a Sound Economy to create grassroots support to for deregulation, corporate tax cuts, and other right-wing, corporate causes. Fink, who also serves as an executive at Koch Industries, goes on to direct Koch charitable foundations and the Koch-funded academic center (known first as the Center for Market Processes, later renamed as the Mercatus Center) at George Mason University. Mercatus provides thousands of scholarships to students around the country to study Koch’s free market beliefs, and trains hundreds of academics in those same ultralibertarian theories.

– 1990:

– A market-based cap and trade program to regulate sulfur dioxide is proposed as an amendment to the Clean Air Act to eradicate acid rain.

– Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy creates a spinoff front group called “Concerned Citizens for the Environment” to battle proposed regulations to deal with acid rain. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the group “has no citizen membership of its own,” but produced studies arguing that acid rain was a myth and that deregulation would benefit the environment.

– 1993:

– President Clinton calls for a BTU tax on fossil fuel-based energy.

– Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy, along with another Koch-funded group, American Energy Alliance, works closely with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the oil lobby to coordinate a campaign to kill the BTU tax. Citizens for a Sound economy commissions polls, takes full page newspaper advertisements, television advertisements, and sends operatives into Oklahoma and Louisiana to organize rallies against the tax.

– After months of ads, Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy organizes rowdy anti-tax protests to ensure the BTU tax is killed. NPR noted that one CSE-sponsored rally outside of the House of Representatives was “designed to strike fear into the hearts of wavering Democrats.” Angry protesters surrounded a man on a hunger strike in favor of the energy tax and shouted him down. Among the gimmicks of rallies were timed releases of balloons to represent dollars families would supposedly pay under the tax. After Sen. David Boren (D-OK) and Sen. John Breaux (D-LA) collapsed to the pressure, the tax died.

– 1994:

– A Koch pipeline spill at Corpus Christi, Texas, led to a $10.5 million class-action settlement for people in the fishing industry. Almost 100,000 gallons were spilled, causing a twelve-mile oil slick in Nueces Bay and Corpus Christi Bay.

– Court documents reveal that Phillip Morris and the tobacco industry rents Citizens for a Sound Economy for a campaign against proposed tobacco regulations. A memo outlines that the tobacco industry’s $2 million in contributions to CSE paid for a campaign to “educate and mobilize consumers, through town hall meetings, radio and print ads, direct mail, patch-through calls to the Capitol switchboard, editorial board visits, polling data, meetings with Members and staff and the release of studies and other educational pieces.”

– 1996:

– Koch’s Cato Institute develops a legal theory for environmental deregulation championed by lobbyists, GOP lawmakers to neuter the EPA. Jerry Taylor, Cato’s director of natural resources studies, argues that by granting the EPA authority to set specific rules about environmental standards, Congress was violating Article I of the Constitution, which vests “all legislative powers” in the Congress itself.

– Through a shell corporation called Triad Management and a nonprofit called Economic Education Trust, Koch secretly funnels $1.7 million dollars in attack ads to help Republicans on the eve of the 1996 elections in states where Koch owns refineries, pipelines, and offices.

– 1997:

– The EPA proposes strengthening rules governing air pollution, regulating particles from coal plants and industrial plants which cause tens of thousands of premature deaths a year.

– Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy springs into action, filing dozens of reports opposing the proposed EPA regulations on particle pollution and running ads across the country. One ad features a ”pediatrician” who says increased rates of asthma are not caused by the toxic particles, but rather by “dust mites, stuff like that.” A second voice in the spot adds: ”Sounds like the bureaucrats in Washington are scheming to keep their jobs.” Another ad from CSE claims the EPA regulations would ban fireworks and backyard grills. ”Imagine that,” the ad states, ”a new government regulation that takes away our freedom to, huh, celebrate our freedom.”

– Citizens for a Sound Economy’s anti-EPA hysteria reaches a boiling point, with the Michigan House passing a resolution asking the EPA not to regulate barbecues. The new CSE president, C. Boydon Gray, who also served as a lobbyist for a firm representing several polluters, makes the rounds on television fighting the regulations.

– Koch bankrolls the Cooler Heads Coalition, organized by Citizens for a Sound Economy and other Koch-funded groups, like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to produce studies and ads aimed at scuttling the Kyoto climate accords.

– 1999:

– Koch admits to environmental violations at its oil refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota, and was forced to pay up $8 million in penalties for discharging oil in streams. At the time, the fine was the largest federal environmental fine in Minnesota history.

– 2000:

– The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission slaps a $171,570 fine on Koch for environmental violations at crude oil storage facilities. The company allegedly violated air quality restrictions at facilities in 32 Texas counties.

– 2001

– Koch pours $800,000 to Bush and Republicans for the 2000 election, funnels up to $20 million into various conservative think tanks and organizations.

– In the months preceding the presidential elections, the Koch faced a 97-count federal indictment charging it with concealing illegal releases of 91 metric tons of benzene, known to cause leukemia, from its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas. After Bush took office in 2001, 88 counts were dropped. Two days before the trial, then-Attorney General Ashcroft agreed to a plea bargain. Koch pled guilty to falsifying documents, all major charges were dropped and the company settled the lawsuit for $20 million, a small part of the possible $350 million in fines. This was the fifth largest ever settlement for criminal environmental prosecutions.

– In North Carolina, Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy fights to stymie efforts to get 12,850 acres of forest in Avery County designated as wilderness. In organizing anti-tax and anti-regulation rallies, CSE experiments with the idea of reenacting a “Boston Tea Party.” Paul O’Connor, a columnist for the North Carolina Dispatch, pans the CSE-organized tea party rallies as a “flop.”

– The Bush administration appoints Koch Industries lobbyists and political operatives to key environmental positions throughout the federal government. For instance, Koch Industries lobbyist Elizabeth Stolpe is appointed associate director at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

– 2002:

– Bush appoints Jeffrey Holmstead to head the EPA’s clean air program. Holmstead had previously served as a scholar at Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy, writing papers to roll back EPA protections.

– 2003:

– Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy testifies to the right-wing Texas Board of Education, urging the panel to reject a book called “Environmental Science: Creating a Sustainable Future.” CSE’s Texas director claimed the book “blames Christianity, Democracy and Industrialization … as causing the so-called [environmental] ‘crisis’” and that this is “highly offensive to patriotic Americans and Christians.” The panel ultimately rejects the book.

– House Republican Majority Leader Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) resigns from Congress, becomes Chairman of Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy. Armey, who simultaneously served as a lobbyist for megafirm DLA Piper, uses CSE to promotethe interests of his corporate clients, which include several polluters.

– 2004:

– Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy launches a massive nationwide effort to help reelect President Bush, congressional Republicans. Koch operatives, hoping to splinter the left-wing vote, help to qualify Ralph Nader on the Oregon ballot.

– Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy splinters, with staff and resources joining with another right-wing from group, Empower America, to form FreedomWorks with Dick Armey as the chairman. Many staffers from CSE form a new organization called Americans for Prosperity, with David Koch as the chairman. Koch hires Tim Phillips — a longtime Astroturf lobbyist who had previously orchestrated grassroots campaigns with Ralph Reed, Enron, and outsourcing interests — to head his group.

– The Wall Street Journal publishes a blockbuster story on Koch’s think tank at George Mason University, the Mercatus Center. Bob Davis, "[Rule Breaker: In Washington, tiny think tank wields big stick on regulation", Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2004.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108994396555065646,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

The story details how the think tank wields more power than any single K Street lobbying firm in terms of influencing environmental regulations in the Bush administration. Among 23 regulations axed by the Bush administration, 14 were prescribed by Mercatus. Mercatus fellows, like “anti-regulatory zealot” Susan Dudley, move in a revolving door in and out of Koch’s Mercatus Center. In addition, the Center publishes papers challenging the science of climate change.

– 2005:

– Koch Industries finalizes its purchase of Georgia Pacific, one of the world’s leading timber firms. Koch’s Americans for Prosperity increases its advocacy against public lands and designated public forests in Illinois, New Jersey, much of the West.

– 2006:

– Koch groups organize to viciously smear Al Gore and his movie An Inconvenient Truth. Koch-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute produces ads mocking the movie. Koch funded political operatives follow Gore, smearing him as a “hypocrite” for traveling in a car, airplane.

– After the Mercatus Center attacks EPA regulation of tailpipe greenhouse gases by challenging the science of climate change, Bush appoints Mercatus director Susan Dudley to head the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which has the power to change all proposed federal rules.

– 2007:

– Koch launches his annual conservative “Defending the Dream Summit.” Republican nominees for President, like Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, appear at the first summit to showcase their right-wing credentials, meet with David Koch.

– 2008:

– The 1990 cap and trade Clean Air Act amendments to regulate sulfur dioxide, to deal with acid rain, is deemed a stunning success. Despite Koch’s fear-mongering that it would destroy the economy and kill jobs with an expensive new mandate, the program not only rapidly reduced sulfur dioxide, but did so billions of dollars under projected costs.

– Koch’s Americans for Prosperity launches its “Hot Air Tour,” a touring campaign to sow doubt about the science of climate change. The campaign, which still goes on today, gives away free items like food and t-shirts, and features an actual hot air balloon with a sign attacking “global warming alarmism.”

– Koch launches RightOnline, an effort to train right-wing operatives in using technology, to mimic the success of the left, particularly in blogging.

– 2009:

–Over 100 operatives from Koch’s Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks organize quietly shortly before President Obama’s inauguration to try again to spark “tea party” protests. With the help of Fox News, right-wing media and the Republican Party, the tea party “movement” catches on, with dozens of rallies against President Obama all over the country throughout the year. Americans for Prosperity hands out talking points and signs for the tea parties to protest the EPA, clean energy legislation, and mocking the science of climate change.

– Americans for Prosperity tries to crash the Copenhagen climate accords in December 2009. Guest speaker Christopher Monckton calls 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.

– Koch funds millions in ads attacking clean energy and climate science throughout the year. Attempting to stir up populist class anger, one Koch ad portrays a wealthy “eco-hypocrite” who “own three homes and five cars, but always talk with my rich friends about saving the planet.”

As Australia burns, animals are going extinct, and freak weather devastates our nation’s heartland, the propaganda arm of Koch Industries continues its bizarre denial of global warming. The multi-billion-dollar international polluter’s Americans for Prosperity “has launched a $140,000 advertising blitz in Virginia” telling the American public that corrupt environmentalists, not billionaire right-wing oil and coal men, are manipulating Congress and the media. According to AFP, these ads “expose the hypocrisy and outrageous economic costs of so-called global warming regulations, taxes, and green energy plans.” One of these ads portrays an “eco-hypocrite” with “three homes and five cars”:

Hey there, I’m Carlton, the wealthy eco-hypocrite. I inherited my money and attended fancy schools. I own three homes and five cars, but always talk with my rich friends about saving the planet. And I want Congress to spend billions on programs in the name of global warming and green energy. Even if it causes massive unemployment, higher energy bills, and digs people like you even deeper into the recession. Who knows, maybe I’ll even make money off of it! http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/02/11/koch-billionaire-ads/

– 2010:

– A report finds that Koch is the largest funder of climate science denying organizations in the world, outpacing even ExxonMobil. Nearly $25 million in Koch money has flowed to various anti-climate science think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, the Pacific Research Institute, and the Tax Foundation, among others.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/04/01/koch-pollution-astroturf-2deca/