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Charles G Koch and his younger brother David are the owners of
the second largest private company in the US, Koch Industries Inc,
which in 2010 generated $100 billion in revenue and had 70,000
employees, according to Forbes. Koch companies have
hundreds of US facilities in 40 American states and staff in 60
countries, with the company based in Wichita, Kansas. The brothers
each own
42 percent of the company's shares.
Charles
G. Koch has been the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries Inc
since 1967. David H. Koch
is executive vice president and board member. Charles and David
have a combined fortune of $43 billion and are ranked the joint
fifth wealthiest Americans by Forbes.
The
Kochs operate oil refineries in Alaska, Texas and Minnesota,
and currently own companies involved in pollution control
equipment and technologies, minerals, fertilizers, polymers and
fibers, commodity trading and services along with forest and
consumer products. Some of their products include Brawny paper
towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Stainmaster carpet, and
Lycra. The company dates from the 1920s when their father, Fred
Koch, founded an oil
delivery business in Texas.
Conservative thinktanks
David Koch, together with Richard Fink, a member of the board of
directors of Koch Industries,
founded Americans for Prosperity (AFP). A Koch spokesperson has
denied any direct links to the Tea Party saying that Americans
for Prosperity is "an independent organization and Koch companies
do not in any way direct their activities". David Koch told New York Magazine
"I've never been to a tea-party event. No one representing the tea
party has ever even approached me". It was alleged by DeSmogBlog that a 2010
video from the Americans for Prosperity gala dinner shows Koch
listening to detailed reports of tea parties organised around the
country.
Charles
Koch co-founded the Cato Institute, a libertarian thinktank, in
1977 and David Koch co-founded Citizens
for a Sound Economy, later called FreedomWorks. David Koch is a
member of
the board of
directors for the Cato Institute and a trustee of the Reason
Foundation. Charles Koch is a member of the board of directors
at Mercatus Center of George Mason University, run by Richard Fink,
another Koch employee.
The family has four main foundations:
Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation, Koch Cultural Trust, David H.
Koch Foundation and Charles G. Koch Foundation. The Kochs have
"poured more than a hundred million dollars into dozens of
seemingly independent organizations", according to the
New Yorker.
Greenpeace has listed the names of thinkthanks, organisations
and
institutions that have received funds from Koch Industries. The
Mercatus Center, Americans for Prosperity, Institute for Human
Studies, Heritage Foundation and Cato Institute received almost $20
million in total. Other beneficiaries listed are the George C.
Marshall Institute, Reason Foundation, Fraser Institute and
American Enterprise Institute. Many of these institutes have also
received funds from ExxonMobil. Twelve US
senators have received funds from Koch since 2004, among them
is well known climate sceptic James Inhofe, according to
Greenpeace.
Climate sceptic agenda
The New Yorker suggests that: "Cato scholars have been
particularly energetic in promoting the Climategate scandal." David Koch
stated that global warming could be good for the planet,
claiming: "A far greater land area will be available to produce
food."
Greenpeace has described most of the organizations funded by the
Koch's as being part of the
'climate denial machine'. The Kochs donated $24.9 million from
2003 to 2008 to organizations, thinktanks and institutes advocating
against legislation related to climate change. For comparison,
ExxonMobil donated $8.9 million during the same period. The network
of Koch funded organsations involved in opposition campaigns
against the Obama administration has been described as the "
Kochtopus".
Environmental record
Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI)
at the University of Massachusetts Amherst named Koch Industries
one of the top ten
toxic air polluters in the US.
In
two filed lawsuits, the Justice Department claimed that Koch
Industries were responsible for more than three hundred oil spills
into lakes and rivers. Koch paid a thirty-million-dollar civil
fine. According to Source
Watch, the department also levelled a 97-count federal
indictment against the company for illegal discharge of 91 tons of
benzene, a carcinogen, from its refinery in Corpus Christi,
Texas.
In 1999, Koch Industries were found
"guilty of negligence and malice" in the deaths of two Texas
teenagers in an explosion that resulted from a leaky underground
butane pipeline."
Lobbying
An investigation
by
the
political
watchdog,
Center
for
Public
Integrity
uncovered
the extent of the Brothers' political lobbying operation. The CPI
found they spent $20m dollars on lobbying in 2008 and a further
$20.5m over the next two years.
Koch Industries employs 30 lobbyists in Washington who have
sought to change or influence more than 100 pieces of federal
legislation.
This has included working to, "dilute
or
halt
tighter
federal
regulation
of
several
toxic
byproducts
that
could
affect
its
bottom
line,
including
dioxin,
asbestos
and
formaldehyde,
all
of
which
have
been
linked
to
cancer."
Koch Industries and its subsidiaries have lobbied hard against
the Obama Administration's attempts to regulate greenhouse gas
emissions. The CPI investigation said:
"The firm's lobbying expenditures soared in 2008 as Koch
Industries and its subsidiaries … peppered the EPA and members of
Congress with objections. Several worked on measures that would
strip the EPA of the power to regulate greenhouse gases through the
Clean Air Act."
The Kochs also work with other industry colleagues through
groups like the National Environmental Development Association's
Clean Air Project to lobby over greenhouse emissions
legislation.
...