{"id":493218,"date":"2010-03-31T11:06:13","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T15:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/?p=22210"},"modified":"2010-03-31T11:06:13","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T15:06:13","slug":"report-koch-industries-outspends-exxon-mobil-on-climate-and-clean-energy-disinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/493218","title":{"rendered":"Report: Koch Industries outspends Exxon Mobil on climate and clean energy disinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Koch<\/a>In a must-read report<\/a>, Greenpeace details how Koch Industries has \u201cbecome a financial kingpin of climate science denial and clean energy opposition,\u201d spending over $48.5 million since 1997 to fund the anti-science disinformation machine.\u00a0 Brad Johnson has the story.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Climate Progress and the Wonk Room have long detailed the role of the billionaire brothers of Koch Industries<\/a>, Charles and David Koch, in destroying American prosperity<\/a>. Their pollution-based fortunes have fueled a network of right-wing ideologues, from McCain mouthpiece Nancy Pfotenhauer<\/a> to loony conspiracy theorist Christopher Monckton<\/a>. In public, the Kochs like to burnish their reputations by buying museum<\/a> and opera halls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In private, however, they\u2019ve outspent Exxon Mobil to fund organizations of the climate denial machine, as Greenpeace details in a new report<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Although Koch intentionally stays out of the public eye, it is now playing a quiet but dominant role in a high-profile national policy debate on global warming. Koch Industries has become a financial kingpin of climate science denial and clean energy opposition. This private, out-of-sight corporation is now a partner to Exxon Mobil, the American Petroleum Institute and other donors that support organizations and front-groups opposing progressive clean energy and climate policy. In fact, Koch has out-spent Exxon Mobil in funding these groups in recent years. From 2005 to 2008, Exxon Mobil spent $8.9 million while the Koch Industries-controlled foundations contributed $24.9 million in funding to organizations of the climate denial machine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This report, \u201cKoch Industries<\/a>: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine\u201d documents roughly 40 climate denial and opposition organizations receiving Koch foundation grants in recent years, including:<\/p>\n

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\u2013 More than $5 million to Americans for Prosperity Foundation<\/strong> (AFP) for its nationwide \u201cHot Air Tour\u201d and \u201cRegulation Reality Tour<\/a>\u201d campaigns to spread misinformation about climate science and oppose clean energy and climate legislation.<\/p>\n

\u2013 More than $1 million to the Heritage Foundation<\/strong>, a mainstay of misinformation on climate and environmental policy issues.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Over $1 million to the Cato Institute<\/strong>, which disputes the scientific evidence behind global warming, questions the rationale for taking climate action, and has been heavily involved in spinning the recent ClimateGate smear campaign.<\/p>\n

\u2013 $800,000 to the Manhattan Institute<\/strong>, which has hosted Bjorn Lomborg twice in the last two years. Lomborg is a prominent media spokesperson who challenges and attacks policy measures to address climate change.<\/p>\n

\u2013 $365,000 to Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment<\/strong> (FREE) which advocates against taking action on climate change because warming is \u201cinevitable\u201d and expensive to address.<\/p>\n

\u2013 $360,000 to Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy<\/strong> (PRIPP) which supported and funded \u201cAn Inconvenient Truth\u2026or Convenient Fiction,\u201d a film attacking the science of global warming and intended as a rebuttal to former Vice-President Al Gore\u2019s documentary. PRIPP also threatened to sue the US Government for listing the polar bear as an endangered species.<\/p>\n

\u2013 $325,000 to the Tax Foundation<\/strong>, which issued a misleading study on the costs of proposed climate legislation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The blockbuster report covers the role of Koch\u2019s dirty network in promoting the ClimateGate smear campaign<\/a>, pushing junk science about polar bears<\/a>, fueling supposedly independent Spanish<\/a> and Danish<\/a> studies that attacked green jobs, and selling a pack of lies<\/a> about the costs of climate legislation.<\/p>\n

That was a Wonk Room repost<\/a><\/em>. A response by Koch Industries Communications Director Melissa Cohlmia is here<\/a>.<\/em> Climate Science Watch has two good posts on the subject:<\/em><\/p>\n