Koch has donated $2.5 million to campaigns since 2006
Monday, September 20, 2010 at 12:50 pm
- 7 Comments
A new Greenpeace report finds that the Koch Brothers, via their PAC, contributed $2.51 million since the beginning of the 2006 election cycle to lawmakers’ campaigns, more than any other oil and gas industry PAC. At the same time, the report says that “Koch Industries, Koch employees, and Koch family members” spent $37.9 million lobbying on energy issues. Koch associates came in third in terms of energy lobbying behind ExxonMobil and Chevron Corporation. Locally, Koch runs the Flint Hills Resources refinery in Rosemount.
The report also finds more than 40 instances of Koch Industries donating to groups that have in the past opposed climate legislation.
Some examples from the report:
- “More than $5 million to Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFP) for its nationwide ‘Hot Air Tour’ campaign to spread misinformation about climate science and opposing clean energy and climate legislation.”
- “$365,000 to Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) which advocates against taking action on climate change because warming is ‘inevitable’ and expensive to address.”
- “$360,000 to Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRIPP) which supported and funded An Inconvenient Truth…or Convenient Fiction, a film attacking the science of global warming and intended as a rebuttal to former Vice-President Al Gore’s documentary. PRIPP also threatened to sue the US Government for listing the polar bear as an endangered species.”
7 Comments
Comment posted September 20, 2010 @ 12:57 pm
So what’s your point? Is this illegal or something?
Comment posted September 20, 2010 @ 3:14 pm
Not illegal, but definitely in poor taste. We need to ban political contributions entirely- money shouldn’t win, or even influence, elections.
Comment posted September 20, 2010 @ 10:03 pm
An election is a competition between opposing candidates and their ideas. Money is needed to buy advertising so a candidate’s message can be heard by the voters. The candidate’s message and the money used to pay for the advertising is political speech protected by the 1st Amendment.
Rather than banning political contributions, the free society would remove all limits to such contributions the same way there is no government-imposed limit on the amount of money a company can spend on advertising their product.
Comment posted September 20, 2010 @ 10:15 pm
Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment and Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy are all 501 (c)(3) tax exempt “charitable foundations.” The only thing that is “charitable” about propaganda mills like this is calling them “charitable.” The only thing that allows the Kochs and other individuals who have stolen their money to keep their money is their ability to brainwash the public or bribe elected officials to pass or repeal laws or their agencies to bend the law. There is an old saying that was misappropriated by the right a number of years ago that went:” Why doth treason never prosper? Because if it prosper, none dare call it treason.” I would say: “Why does crime not pay? Because if it pays, none dare call it a crime.”
Comment posted September 21, 2010 @ 9:01 am
Dang, and here I thought they made their money by people buying their gasoline.
Comment posted September 21, 2010 @ 9:42 am
No, they make their money the old fashioned way: by stealing it from others like the Indians.
Comment posted September 21, 2010 @ 11:22 am
>>>> We need to ban
And finally the leftists’ only weapon. When the brain fails the argument, silence your opposition with force. Nice.
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