{"id":504950,"date":"2010-04-02T10:38:37","date_gmt":"2010-04-02T14:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/climateprogress.org\/?p=22379"},"modified":"2010-04-02T10:38:37","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T14:38:37","slug":"from-promoting-acid-rain-to-climate-denial-%e2%80%94-over-20-years-of-david-koch%e2%80%99s-polluter-front-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/504950","title":{"rendered":"From promoting acid rain to climate denial \u2014 over 20 years of David Koch\u2019s polluter front groups"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This week we learned that Koch Industries outspends Exxon Mobil<\/a> on climate and clean energy disinformation.\u00a0 And we saw that a Smithsonian exhibit funded by David Koch whitewashes the danger<\/a> of human-caused climate change. <\/em><\/p>\n

Yet this is <\/em>but the latest effort in a nearly quarter-century effort to misinform the public by the billionaire polluter, as Lee Fang reveals <\/em>in this Wonk Room<\/em> repost<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/span>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 \u201cRegulation Reality Tour<\/a>\u201d \u2014 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 .<\/p>\n

The campaign is part carnival, part sophisticated K Street lobbying. Attendees are welcomed by an inflatable moonbounce<\/a> for children, free<\/a> food and drinks, and AFP staff dressed as \u201ccarbon cops\u201d distributing freebies to the crowd. The rallies serve as a platform for AFP to scare voters with stories of bureaucrats regulating churches and \u201cradio controlled thermostats<\/a>.\u201d Moreover, operatives from AFP collect names and train attendees on how to lobby Congress to defeat clean energy reform.<\/p>\n

The founder and chairman of Americans for Prosperity is oil baron David Koch<\/a>, who is one of the richest men in the world because of his oil, chemicals, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries. Koch Industries<\/a> is a major polluter with an atrocious<\/a> 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\u2019s recent crusade against the EPA is just the latest in Koch\u2019s twenty-year campaign to have unrestricted power to pollute. Below is a timeline with snapshots of Koch\u2019s long running campaign to distort science, orchestrate fake grassroots campaigns, and defeat environmental protections. Click MORE for the timeline:<\/p>\n

\u2013 1977<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 David\u2019s brother Charles Koch founds<\/a> the libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 1984<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 David Koch, along with political operative Richard Fink, founds<\/a> 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<\/a> 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\u2019s free market beliefs, and trains hundreds of academics in those same ultralibertarian theories.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 1990<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 A market-based cap and trade program to regulate sulfur dioxide<\/a> is proposed as an amendment to the Clean Air Act to eradicate acid rain.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Koch\u2019s Citizens for a Sound Economy creates a spinoff<\/a> front group called \u201cConcerned Citizens for the Environment\u201d to battle proposed regulations to deal with acid rain. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the group \u201chas no citizen membership of its own,\u201d but produced studies arguing that acid rain was a myth and that deregulation would benefit the environment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 1993<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 President Clinton calls for a BTU tax on fossil fuel-based energy.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Koch\u2019s 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> 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.<\/p>\n

\u2013 After months of ads, Koch\u2019s 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 \u201cdesigned to strike fear into the hearts of wavering Democrats.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 1994<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 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.<\/p>\n

\u2013 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\u2019s $2 million<\/a> in contributions to CSE paid for a campaign to \u201ceducate 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 1996<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 Koch\u2019s Cato Institute develops a legal theory for environmental deregulation championed by lobbyists, GOP lawmakers to neuter the EPA. Jerry Taylor, Cato\u2019s director of natural resources studies, argues<\/a> that by granting the EPA authority to set specific rules about environmental standards, Congress was violating Article I of the Constitution, which vests \u201call legislative powers\u201d in the Congress itself.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Through a shell corporation called Triad Management and a nonprofit called Economic Education Trust, Koch secretly funnels $1.7 million<\/a> dollars in attack ads to help Republicans on the eve of the 1996 elections in states where Koch owns refineries, pipelines, and offices.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 1997<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 The EPA proposes strengthening<\/a> rules governing air pollution, regulating particles from coal plants and industrial plants which cause tens of thousands of premature deaths a year.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Koch\u2019s 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 \u201dpediatrician<\/a>\u201d who says increased rates of asthma are not caused by the toxic particles, but rather by \u201cdust mites, stuff like that.\u201d A second voice in the spot adds: \u201dSounds like the bureaucrats in Washington are scheming to keep their jobs.\u201d Another ad from CSE claims the EPA regulations would ban fireworks and backyard grills. \u201dImagine that,\u201d the ad states, \u201da new government regulation that takes away our freedom to, huh, celebrate our freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Citizens for a Sound Economy\u2019s anti-EPA hysteria reaches a boiling point, with the Michigan House passing a resolution<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Koch bankrolls the Cooler Heads Coalition, organized<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 1999<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 Koch admits to environmental violations at its oil refinery in Rosemount, Minnesota, and was forced to pay up $8 million<\/a> in penalties for discharging oil in streams. At the time, the fine was the largest federal environmental fine in Minnesota history.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2000<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2001<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 Koch pours<\/a> $800,000 to Bush and Republicans for the 2000 election, funnels up to $20 million into various conservative think tanks and organizations.<\/p>\n

\u2013 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.<\/p>\n

\u2013 In North Carolina, Koch\u2019s Citizens for a Sound Economy fights to stymie<\/a> 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 \u201cBoston Tea Party.\u201d Paul O\u2019Connor, a columnist for the North Carolina Dispatch, pans the CSE-organized tea party rallies as a \u201cflop<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 The Bush administration appoints<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2002<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 Bush appoints Jeffrey Holmstead to head the EPA\u2019s clean air program. Holmstead had previously served as a scholar<\/a> at Koch\u2019s Citizens for a Sound Economy, writing papers to roll back EPA protections.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2003<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 Koch\u2019s Citizens for a Sound Economy testifies to the right-wing Texas Board of Education, urging the panel to reject a book called \u201cEnvironmental Science: Creating a Sustainable Future.\u201d CSE\u2019s Texas director claimed the book \u201cblames Christianity, Democracy and Industrialization \u2026 as causing the so-called<\/a> [environmental] \u2018crisis\u2019\u201d and that this is \u201chighly offensive to patriotic Americans and Christians.\u201d The panel ultimately rejects the book.<\/p>\n

\u2013 House Republican Majority Leader Rep. Dick Armey (R-TX) resigns from Congress, becomes Chairman of Koch\u2019s Citizens for a Sound Economy. Armey, who simultaneously served as a lobbyist for megafirm DLA Piper, uses CSE to promote <\/a>the interests of his corporate clients, which include several polluters.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2004<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 Koch\u2019s Citizens for a Sound Economy launches a massive<\/a> nationwide effort to help reelect President Bush, congressional Republicans. Koch operatives, hoping to splinter the left-wing vote, help to qualify<\/a> Ralph Nader on the Oregon ballot.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Koch\u2019s Citizens for a Sound Economy splinters<\/a>, 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 \u2014 a longtime Astroturf lobbyist<\/a> who had previously orchestrated grassroots campaigns with Ralph Reed, Enron, and outsourcing interests \u2014 to head his group.<\/p>\n

\u2013 The Wall Street Journal publishes<\/a> a blockbuster story on Koch\u2019s think tank at George Mason University, the Mercatus Center. 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 \u201canti-regulatory zealot<\/a>\u201d Susan Dudley, move in a revolving door in and out of Koch\u2019s Mercatus Center. In addition, the Center publishes<\/a> papers challenging the science of climate change.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2005<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 Koch Industries finalizes<\/a> its purchase of Georgia Pacific, one of the world\u2019s leading timber firms. Koch\u2019s Americans for Prosperity increases its advocacy against public lands and designated public forests in Illinois<\/a>, New Jersey<\/a>, much of the West.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2006<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 Koch groups organize to viciously smear Al Gore and his movie An Inconvenient Truth. Koch-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute produces ads mocking<\/a> the movie. Koch funded political operatives follow Gore, smearing him as a \u201chypocrite\u201d for traveling in a car, airplane.<\/p>\n

\u2013 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2007<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 Koch launches<\/a> his annual conservative \u201cDefending the Dream Summit.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2008<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 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\u2019s 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Koch\u2019s Americans for Prosperity launches its \u201cHot Air Tour<\/a>,\u201d 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 \u201cglobal warming alarmism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Koch launches RightOnline, an effort to train right-wing operatives in using technology, to mimic the success of the left, particularly in blogging.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2009<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013Over 100 operatives from Koch\u2019s Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks organize quietly shortly before President Obama\u2019s inauguration to try again to spark \u201ctea party\u201d protests. With the help of Fox News, right-wing media and the Republican Party, the tea party \u201cmovement<\/a>\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Americans for Prosperity tries to crash the Copenhagen climate accords in December 2009. Guest speaker Christopher Monckton calls youth climate activists \u201cHitler Youth<\/a>.\u201d He told a Jewish youth climate activist whose grandparents escaped the Nazis that he was \u201cHitler Youth,\u201d and that \u201cyou people don\u2019t care\u201d that \u201cmillions are dying in third world countries.\u201d Americans for Prosperity again featured Christopher Monckton at a regional summit in March 2010.<\/p>\n

\u2013 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 \u201ceco-hypocrite<\/a>\u201d who \u201cown three homes and five cars, but always talk with my rich friends about saving the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 2010<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2013 A report finds that Koch is the largest funder of climate science denying organizations in the world, outpacing even ExxonMobil. Nearly $25 million<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week we learned that Koch Industries outspends Exxon Mobil on climate and clean energy disinformation.\u00a0 And we saw that a Smithsonian exhibit funded by David Koch whitewashes the danger of human-caused climate change. Yet this is but the latest effort in a nearly quarter-century effort to misinform the public by the billionaire polluter, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}