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Accelerated Attacks on Clean Energy by Koch Bros
Checks and Balances Project Documents: Accelerated Attacks on Clean Energy by Koch Bros. $192 Million to 72 Groups Associated with Opposition to Clean Energy Solutions and Climate Change Denial from 1997-2013 $108 Million to At Least 19 Groups to Fight State Renewable Energy Policies 2011-2013 (Over 18 months, Checks and Balances Project conducted the first in-depth investigation into Koch Industries, Inc. AND what we call the Koch Advocacy Network. Over 350 low-profile regulatory disclosures and more than 8,000 legal disclosure forms drawn from over 60 public agencies, databases and courts were examined. Research was completed prior to the 2016 election.) In August 2015 President Obama singled out the “massive lobbying efforts backed by fossil fuel interests, or conservative think tanks, or the Koch brothers pushing for new laws to roll back renewable energy standards or prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding.” The President described these anti-clean energy efforts as “rent seeking and trying to protect old ways of doing business and standing in the way of the future.”1 Charles Koch responded that, “We are not trying to prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding” and warned against “subsidizing uneconomical forms of energy — whether you call them ‘green,’ ‘renewable’ or whatever.” He continued, “And there is a big debate on whether you have a real disease or something that’s not that serious. I recognize there is a big debate about that. But whatever it is, the cure is to do things in the marketplace, and to let individuals and companies innovate, to come up with alternatives that will deal with whatever the problem may be in an economical way so we don’t squander resources on uneconomic approaches.” 2 The defense outlined by Charles mirrors the strategy of the network he oversees. -
EXPOSED:The State Policy Network
EXPOSED: The State Policy Network The Powerful Right-Wing Network Helping to Hijack State Politics and Government CENTER FOR MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY | ALECEXPOSED.ORG November 2013 ©2013 Center for Media and Democracy. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by information exchange and retrieval system, without permission from the authors. Center for Media and Democracy ALECexposed.org | PRWatch.org | SourceWatch.org 520 University Avenue, Suite 260 Madison, WI 53703 | (608) 260-9713 (This publication is available online at ALECexposed.org) CMD, publisher of ALECexposed.org, PRWatch.org, and SourceWatch.org, has created a clearinghouse of information on the State Policy Network at sourcewatch.org/index.php/Portal:State_Policy_Network and a reporter’s guide to SPN at prwatch.org/node/11909/. Please see these online resources for more information. This report was written by Rebekah Wilce, with contributions by Lisa Graves, Mary Bottari, Nick Surgey, Jay Riestenberg, Katie Lorenze, Drew Curtis, and Sari Williams. This report on SPN is also part of a joint effort with Progress Now called www.StinkTanks.org, which includes information about what citizens can do in response to SPN's secretive influence on the state laws that affect their lives. Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 SPN’s Founding and Role in the National Right-Wing -
Accelerated Attacks on Clean Energy by Koch Bros
Checks and Balances Project Documents: Accelerated Attacks on Clean Energy by Koch Bros. • $192 Million to 72 Groups Associated with Opposition to Clean Energy Solutions and Climate Change Denial from 1997-2013 • $108 Million to At Least 19 Groups to Fight State Renewable Energy Policies 2011-2013 (The following is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-released “The Disrupted: The Definitive Investigation into Koch Self-interest, Infrastructure and Strategies to Control Government.” Over 18 months, Checks and Balances Project conducted the first in-depth investigation into Koch Industries, Inc. AND what we call the Koch Advocacy Network. Over 350 low-profile regulatory disclosures and more than 8,000 legal disclosure forms drawn from over 60 public agencies, databases and courts were examined. Research was completed prior to the 2016 election) In August 2015 President Obama singled out the “massive lobbying efforts backed by fossil fuel interests, or conservative think tanks, or the Koch brothers pushing for new laws to roll back renewable energy standards or prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding.” The President described these anti-clean energy efforts as “rent seeking and trying to protect old ways of doing business and standing in the way of the future.”1 Charles Koch responded that, “We are not trying to prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding” and warned against “subsidizing uneconomical forms of energy — whether you call them ‘green,’ ‘renewable’ or whatever.” He continued, “And there is a big debate on whether you have a real disease or something that’s not that serious. I recognize there is a big debate about that. -
Killing Our Climate
Killing Our Climate A Primer on the Koch Network’s Impact on the Environment Through Dark Money, Deceit, and Disinformation Table Of Contents Overview 3 Education 4 Politics 11 Communications 13 Judges & Courts 15 unkochmycampus.org Killing Our Climate - April 2021 2 Overview From funding university-affiliated research centers and state-based think-tanks to making sure climate-denying politicians are seated in legislatures across the country, the Koch network has been one of the largest driving forces behind climate misinformation in the United States. This has stalled government action on climate change, disrupted efforts by the states to transition to renewable energies, and paved the way for the Trump administration’s privatization of public lands. The Koch network is helmed by billionaire Charles Koch, head of Koch Industries -- a multinational corporation with subsidiaries involved in the manufacturing, refining, and distribution of petroleum, chemicals, energy, fiber, and more. Koch has a vested interest in delaying climate action: he’s made billions from his ownership and control of Koch Industries, an oil corporation that is the second largest privately-held company in America. Much of the Koch network’s success in cutting environmental regulations and delaying action on climate change can be attributed to its commitment to a “battle of ideas” that seeks to mainstream favorable narratives of privatization and limited government intervention, along with the direct promotion of climate change denial content. “...there are basically four ways in which [the pro-capitalist businessman] can fight for free enterprise - through education, through the media, by legal challenges, and by political action.. -
National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Building a Scalable Network to Share Its Curriculum Broadly
OCTOBER 2OO4 National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Building a scalable network to share its curriculum broadly Copyright ©2005 The Bridgespan Group, Inc. Bridgespan is a registered trademark of The Bridgespan Group, Inc. All rights reserved. 2 Summary NFTE has developed a curriculum with an award-winning textbook and workbook for teaching young people to start and run businesses, and has created a network of programs in communities across the globe. The organization has grappled with such issues as how to widely deliver its program while protecting the integrity of its model; how to delegate maximum responsibility to local sites and find the right local site talent; and how to run an extensive network effectively from a national office. Developing a new strategic plan and adding strong management talent have helped NFTE manage these complex issues. Organizational snapshot Organization: National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship Year founded: 1987 Headquarters: New York City, New York Mission: “To teach entrepreneurship to young people from low-income communities to enhance their economic productivity by improving their business, academic, and life skills.” Program: NFTE’s national office has five program areas: teacher education at NFTE University; program partner support; alumni services; research and evaluation; and curriculum development. NFTE University offers an accredited entrepreneurship training program for youth-development professionals and teachers who are planning entrepreneurship programs at their schools and organizations. The three- and five-day courses take place at NFTE’s national office in New York during the year, and over the summer at university partners around the country, including Babson College, Georgetown, Yale School of Management, Stanford University, and the European Business School London. -
April 14, 2014 Jane E. Rosenthal Custodian of Public Records Office
201 E 21st Street Lawrence, KS 66046 tel: (785) 727-9767 facebook.com/studentsforasustainablefuture April 14, 2014 Jane E. Rosenthal Custodian of Public Records Office of the Provost University of Kansas 1450 Jayhawk Boulevard, 250 Strong Hall Lawrence, KS 66045-7535 Dear Ms. Rosenthal: A. KANSAS OPEN RECORDS ACT REQUEST In light of recent testimony made by Dr. Arthur P. Hall in favor of S.B. 433, an effort to repeal Kansas Renewable Portfolio Standards, Students for a Sustainable Future (SSF) endeavors to bring KU students and Kansas citizens greater transparency regarding Dr. Hall’s background, connections, and affiliations to disclose significant conflicts of interest. Additionally, SSF is concerned that the processes by which Dr. Hall and others were hired at KU were orchestrated by Charles and/or David Koch, which would be just one manifestation of policies practiced by the university that systematically undermine academic integrity and freedom. If this is the case, the public has a legal and moral right to be informed. Certainly, so do tuition-paying students, including SSF’s membership. SSF thereby is submitting a legal Kansas Open Records Act request for all documents pertaining to: • donations and associated restrictions by Koch family foundations; • donations and associated restrictions contributed to Dr. Arthur Hall and/or the Center for Applied Economics; • records of the hiring processes for Dr. Douglas A. Houston, Dr. Koleman Strumpf, and Dr. Arthur P. Hall; • and the aforementioned faculties’ CVs and personal affiliations. SSF submits this request seeking to defend the principles on which academia was founded and restore justice to our fellow students and citizens. -
Buying a Movement: Right-Wing Foundations and American Politics
BUYING A MOVEMENT Right-Wing Foundations and American Politics Executive Summary Each year, conservative foundations pour millions of dollars into a broad range of conservative political organizations. These foundation gifts are remarkable for two principal reasons: first, their sheer size and concentration; second, the willingness of the foundations to promote a highly politicized agenda by funding a broad range of organizations. The following report examines the funding patterns of a number of significant conservative foundations and their grantees. The report demonstrates: • Right-wing foundations have developed a truly comprehensive funding strategy, providing grants to a broad range of groups, each promoting right-wing positions to their specific audiences. The grants have created and nurtured an enormous range of organizations all bent on promoting a far-right-wing agenda. Recipients of foundation largesse include the right-wing media; national “think tanks” and advocacy groups; a budding network of regional and state-based think tanks; conservative university programs; conservative college newspapers; conservative scholars and more. In many of these funding areas, progressive and mainstream foundation giving lags far behind. • Five foundations stand out from the rest: the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Koch Family foundations, the John M. Olin Foundation, the Scaife Family foundations and the Adolph Coors Foundation. Each has helped fund a range of far- right programs, including some of the most politically charged work of the last several years. For example, the American Spectator magazine, which led the charge on President Bill Clinton’s state trooper contretemps and launched a slash-and-burn strategy targeting Anita Hill, is a prime recipient of foundation support. -
Koch-Ind-Still-Fueling-Climate-Denial
greenpeace.org/kochindustries 2 011 U P D AT E Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organization that acts to expose global environmental problems and achieve solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. Published April 2011 by Greenpeace USA 702 H Street NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20001 Tel/ 202.462.1177 Fax/ 202.462.4507 book and cover design by andrew fournier page 002 © Kate Davison / Greenpeace Table of Contents: Executive Summary 1–2 Case Studies: How does Koch Industries Influence the Climate Debate? 1. KOCH INDUSTRIES BACKS CALIFORNIA PROPOSITION 23 3–4 2. KOCH FRONT GROUPS ATTACK RGGI— The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative 5–7 3. THE KOCHTOPUS MEDIA NETWORK 8–11 Koch Climate Opposition Funding 12–14 Lobbying and Political Spending 1. FEDERAL DiRECT LObbYING 15–17 2. KOCH PAC 18–22 Sources Cited 23–32 page 003 © illustration by Andrew Fournier/Greenpeace © Kate Davison / Greenpeace Executive Summary One year ago, not many knew the name Koch Industries, a overwhelming even before an enormous campaign finance publicity-averse private company run by two brothers, David loophole was opened by the Supreme Court’s decision and Charles Koch. The Koch brothers each have an esti- in the Citizens United v. FEC case.6 Now David Koch is mated net personal wealth of more than $21 billion and are recognized in New York social circles not only for funding now tied for the fifth richest man in America, ranking among the ballet and major museums, but for his all out assault on the top 20 richest people in the world.1 A year ago, even the Obama Administration, climate and clean energy policies, reporters at major outlets responded “who?” in conversation and other perceived threats to their oil profits and strong about the Koch brothers or Koch Industries. -
The Billionaire Koch Brothers
A REPORTER AT LARGE COVERT OPERATIONS The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama. by Jane Mayer AUGUST 30, 2010 David H. Koch in 1996. He and his brother Charles are lifelong libertarians and have quietly given more than a hundred million dollars to right-wing causes. n May 17th, a black-tie audience at the Metropolitan Opera House applauded as a tall, jovial-looking O billionaire took the stage. It was the seventieth annual spring gala of American Ballet Theatre, and David H. Koch was being celebrated for his generosity as a member of the board of trustees; he had recently donated $2.5 million toward the company’s upcoming season, and had given many millions before that. Koch received an award while flanked by two of the gala’s co-chairs, Blaine Trump, in a peach-colored gown, and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, in emerald green. Kennedy’s mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, had been a patron of the ballet and, coincidentally, the previous owner of a Fifth Avenue apartment that Koch had bought, in 1995, and then sold, eleven years later, for thirty-two million dollars, having found it too small. The gala marked the social ascent of Koch, who, at the age of seventy, has become one of the city’s most prominent philanthropists. In 2008, he donated a hundred million dollars to modernize Lincoln Center’s New York State Theatre building, which now bears his name. He has given twenty million to the American Museum of Natural History, whose dinosaur wing is named for him. -
The Kingpins of Carbon and Their War on Democracy
Page 1 The Kingpins of Carbon and Their War on Democracy ©Tim Aubry/Greenpeace Page 2 The Kingpins of Carbon and Their War on Democracy published by: Greenpeace US September 2014 all photos © Greenpeace Written by: Charlie Cray and Peter Montague Charlie Cray is a Research Specialist for Peter Montague, Ph.D., is a journalist and histo- Greenpeace US. Research assistance rian living in New Brunswick, N.J., where he is provided by Skyler Kopko and Connor active in the New Jersey Environmental Justice Gibson. Alliance. He is a member of the National Writer’s Union (UAW Local 1981, AFL-CIO), the NAACP, Greenpeace, and Sierra Club, and a fellow with the Science and Environmental Health Network in Ames, Iowa. © Les Stone /Greenpeace Page 3 The Kingpins of Carbon and Their War on Democracy Abstract Global warming is a potentially devastating problem requiring urgent action by governments. However, to date the U.S. government has remained largely paralyzed. Now new Greenpeace research has shed light on the sources of paralysis, a multi-decade war on democracy by the kingpins of carbon – the coal, oil, and gas industries allied with a handful of self-interested libertarian1 billionaires. Their strategy has aimed to (1) shrink, disable and paralyze progressive government and (2) manipulate the remaining levers of government power by (a) eliminating all restrictions on private money in elections and (b) disenfranchis- ing blacks, Latinos, the young, the elderly, and the disabled, all of whom are presumed to favor Democrats. Since 1975, their strategy has rolled back New Deal programs, weakened labor unions, and reversed victories of the civil rights movement, undermining the strength and cohesion of the middle class, further enriching and empowering a tiny self-interested elite. -
Increased Funding, Increased Influence
INCREASED FUNDING, INCREASED INFLUENCE KOCH UNIVERSITY FUNDING UPDATE MAY 2005 - 2019 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY s the epicenter of modern- day lobbying veers farther away from AWashington, D.C. and into our daily lives, college campuses are increasingly subject to the influence of private and corporate influence. There are many culprits we can point to in this arena, but one billionaire donor has distinguished himself for his aggressively coordinated spending and wielding of “… there are basically four ways is over a hundred million dollars political influence through in which [the pro-capitalist more than Koch foundations university grants. businessman] can fight for free spent annually on universities a enterprise – through education, decade ago, at $10.5 million in Charles Koch, CEO of Koch through the media, by legal 2009. Industries, has overseen over challenges, and by political George Mason University (GMU) $458 million in grants to over action… I do maintain, however, in Virginia continues to eclipse 550 universities and higher ed that the educational route is all other schools that Koch adjacent non-profits since 2005. both the most vital and the most funds. GMU, and the two Koch- Unlike other philanthropists neglected... We should [support] controlled political organizations backing higher education, Koch only those programs, departments that are formally affiliated with gives to schools with the explicit or schools that contribute in some GMU, the Mercatus Center goal of creating intellectual way to our individual companies and the Institute for Humane fodder for his network of or to the general welfare of our free Studies (IHS), received a political interest groups, and enterprise system.” recruiting and training students combined $23.4 million in 2019. -
Comparing Conservative and Progressive Investment in America’S Youth
WWW.AMERICANPROGRESS.ORG December 2012 December in America’s Youth in America’s and Progressive Investment Investment and Progressive Comparing Conservative Conservative Comparing Anne Johnson and Tobin Van Ostern Van Tobin Anne Johnson and ASSOCIATED PRESS/BRENNAN LINSLEY Comparing Conservative and Progressive Investment in America’s Youth Anne Johnson and Tobin Van Ostern December 2012 Contents 1 Introduction 4 Historical background of this study 7 Comparison of data 10 Key findings and analysis 14 Historical trends 15 Conclusion 17 Methodology 18 Endnotes 19 Appendix A 38 Appendix B Introduction The Millennial generation is the largest, most diverse, and most progressive generation in American history.1 Young Americans between the ages 12 and 29 comprise the Millennial generation and, as of this year, represent a full quarter of the voting-age American public; in total, 46 million Americans are considered Millennials.2 In 2012 they surpassed the 39-million-strong bloc of voters older than 65, and by the 2020 election, when all Millennials will have reached voting age, they will total 90 million eligible voters—or 40 percent of the electorate.3 In the 2012 elections the group’s national turnout of roughly 50 percent meant their 18-percent share of the electorate surpassed the 16-percent share of the electorate for those voters older than 65. This also demonstrates the significant work that remains to be done to ensure more than half of Millennials vote in the future.4 Millennials have already begun and will continue to shape America’s increasingly diverse culture, with 44 percent identifying as people of color, according to a recent Campus Progress analysis.5 Additionally, 44 percent of young Americans consider themselves liberal or progressive, as opposed to 28 percent who identify as conservative or libertarian.6 Even those who identify as young Republicans demonstrate a more progressive outlook than older members of the same party.