"The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus."
2010-08-23T13:08:50Z
ArizonaRocks, that's exactly what they want. They don't want you to know who they are.
Anonymous2010-08-23T13:07:45Z
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"The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups."
That bears repeating.
Most on the right are unaware. Thank you very much for bringing up the Kochs. We almost never hear about them and I suspect most on the right either don't know about them or think they're heroes for some reason.
The Kochs aren't the only ones, either. Fox's biggest investor is a Muslim Saudi oil tycoon billionaire Al-waleed bin Talal, who wants us to stay hooked on oil.
Saudi Billionaire Boasts of Manipulating Fox News Coverage http://www.aim.org/press-release/saudi-billionaire-boasts-of-manipulating-fox-news-coverage/
So naturally Fox and the right wing are telling us global warming is a hoax. They don't want us developing alternate energy -- they want us to keep buying their oil at inflated prices. Those on the right are carrying water for them against your own country and against their own children and grandchildren.
Koch Industries is evil beyond measure. (Though Monsanto still beats them on my list of worst corporations on earth.) The problem is Cap & Trade. It seems to be the only solution being offered up and it's the wrong one. It will simply be an inconvenience to companies like Koch and they will use it to their advantage by buying up all the smaller companies' carbon credits, marginalizing competition, bribing high-up politicians and execs, and then passing that extra overhead on down to the consumer. The pollution will still be there and we'll be the ones paying the price.
The "deniers" are the way they are because they are rabidly against these types of misguided legislation. If your side can offer up better solutions, maybe their side will stop being so anti-environment.
People who believe in climate change are also part of a well funded machine as well. Wind farms for example do not repay their carbon footprint until 16 years into their 17 year life; the owners of such wind farms are breaking even on their investment within 2/3 years. 'Being green' has become a machine in its self. As for oil companies spending money on influencing the political world perhaps you should research what they are lobbying for. Iron triangles and heavy lobbying is a fact of washington and hard working farmers, for example, invest in lobbying. It is more about the image of the company investing in lobbyists and think tanks.