Koch brothers Are Biggest Polluters in America

[Guest Defenders of Wildlife]

In anticipation of a "secret" meeting to be hosted in Palm Springs this weekend by two infamously anti-environmental billionaire brothers, the Sierra Club will launch a social media campaign with its 1.4 million members and supporters to expose the Koch brothers' planned assault on public health.

 

Charles and David Koch are billionaire oil tycoons who were featured in a recent New Yorker piece and are funding an enormous effort to roll back clean water and air protections. The brothers are expected to meet with wealthy friends and corporate CEOs in the Southern California desert this weekend to plan their agenda for the coming year – at the top of that list will be new efforts to gut environmental safeguards and clean air and water protections.

 

The Sierra Club is reaching out to its 1.4 million members and supporters using social media tools including Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about how the Koch brothers' agenda could increase cases of asthma, hinder children's brain development with toxic mercury and threaten lives nationwide.

 

"Koch Industries is one of the biggest polluters in America, so it's not surprising that they've spent millions blocking measures to protect our air and water," said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. "The Kochs have also served as one of the biggest obstacles to our transition to a clean energy economy. You can thank the Koch brothers for standing in the way of new jobs in the wind, solar and efficiency industries. They have a lot of money, and they're not afraid to spend it to influence politicians, fight public health safeguards and spread misinformation about pollution and climate disruption."

 

The Koch brothers own a firm with revenues estimated at $100 billion and they are out to expand their profits at the cost of Americans' health. A University of Massachusetts study identified Koch Industries as one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. From 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outspent even ExxonMobil in funding efforts against clean energy legislation.

 

"We can't allow corporate polluters and oil tycoons to buy our government," Brune said. "Americans need to know what the Koch brothers are up to, and we need to let our lawmakers know that we won't allow these two billionaires to undermine environmental and public health safeguards for profit."

[Guest David Randle]

The Koch brothers are a greater threat to our democracy than the threat of terrorism. If our government is allowed to be turned over to secret donors and the interests of multinational corporations, we no longer have a democracy whose interests are the people, but a plutocracy designed to benefit the wealthy few at the expense of the poor, the environment, and the rights of future generations.

[Guest Derek]

Whoa! I did not know about them. I just saw this Greenpeace clip. I need to get the word out about them.

 

[Guest Senior]

The Koch brothers father made his money building the energy resources for Stalin and is one of the founders of the John Birch Society, a virulent far-right group that dominated the civil rights debate. The John Birch Society organized an impeachment campaign against then-Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren for the Brown v. Board decision outlawing racial segregation, and mobilized its supporters to oppose integration of schools on the grounds that mixing black and white would lead to the “mongrelization” of the races. Fred supported the John Birch Society’s anti-civil rights campaign, and denounced the civil rights movement as communist-inspired.

[Guest ALWAYSRED]

I think we need to balance this equation with real facts.

 

http://kochind.com/kochfacts/?gclid=CPDntbe55KYCFUdN4AodthH32A

 

Koch Statement on California Meeting

 

Recent news stories have focused on a conference being held Jan. 30 - Feb. 1, 2011 in California, organized by Koch Industries, Inc. These conferences have been held since 2003 and hundreds of people have attended. They were described in this 2006 Wall Street Journal article and more recently in Politico. The meetings are an opportunity for attendees and presenters to discuss ways of preserving and advancing economic freedom in the United States and to share ideas about the free-market principles that have made our country great.

 

This conference brings together some of America’s greatest philanthropists and most successful business leaders whose companies have created millions of real jobs. Attendees will discuss solutions to our most pressing issues and strategies to promote policies that will help grow our economy, foster free enterprise and create American jobs. We respect all Americans’ rights to free speech and to peaceably assemble, and we hope that any protesters will respect the community and not cause an inconvenience for residents.

[Guest American4Progress]

Koch Industries, the private company of the billionaire Koch brothers Charles and David, is an oil and gas, chemicals, cattle, forestry, and synthetics giant -- and also a major force for punishing Main Street Americans. Charles and David Koch (pronounced "coke") have directed many millions of their shared $43 billion net worth into a vast propaganda machine that's corrupting American politics in order to reward their pollution-based enterprise. The Koch brothers have played an integral role in provoking Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's ® notorious attempt to crush Wisconsin's public sector unions. Koch Industries contributed $43,000 to Walker's gubernatorial campaign, and Koch political operatives encouraged the newly elected governor to take on the unions. Koch Industries is a major player in Wisconsin: Koch owns a coal company subsidiary with facilities in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan; six timber plants throughout the state; and a large network of pipelines. Since the showdown began two weeks ago, Koch-funded front groups like Americans for Prosperity (AFP) -- which is chaired by David Koch -- and the American Legislative Exchange Council have organized counter-protests, prepped GOP lawmakers with anti-labor legislative talking points and even announced an anti-union advertising campaign. For now, however, the AFP message doesn't appear to be resonating: Koch-backed pro-Walker demonstrations have had low attendance and were dwarfed by pro-union supporters in Madison this week.

 

KNEE-CAPPING UNIONS : In a speech earlier this month at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Americans For Prosperity-Michigan Executive Director Scott Hagerstrom revealed the true goal of his group and allies like Walker. Speaking at CPAC's "Panel for Labor Policy," Hagerstrom said that even more than cutting taxes and regulations, AFP really wants to "take the unions out at the knees ." Knee-capping free labor has long been a goal of the Koch brothers and their many front groups. In the run-up to the 2010 elections, the Kochs worked with other anti-labor billionaires, corporations and activists to fund conservative candidates and groups across the country. Now after viciously opposing pro-middle class policies for years, Koch Industries is trying to eliminate the only organizations which serve as a counterweight to its well-oiled corporate machine. Believing he was talking with David Koch, Walker told a prankster his plans to crush the unions. Koch's AFP operatives are now working with "state officials in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania to urge them to duplicate Walker's crusade in Wisconsin."

 

PUSHING POISON : According to EPA databases, Koch businesses are huge polluters, emitting thousands of pounds of toxic pollutants. As soon as he got into office, Walker started cutting environmental regulations and appointed a Republican known for her disregard for environmental regulations to lead the Department of Natural Resources. In addition, Walker has stated his opposition to clean energy jobs policies that might draw workers away from Koch-owned interests. The Koch political poison has spread across the nation. Robocalls from Koch's Americans for Prosperity group flooded New Hampshire in support of a bill that would repeal participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which has cut greenhouse pollution and created 1,130 jobs as a result of energy efficiency benefits. AFP climate deniers in New Jersey are trying to kill RGGI there as well. Koch's main man in Congress, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS), inserted an amendment to slash EPA funding in the House GOP's already wildly anti-environment budget. Koch's many subsidiaries have filed challenges against health and environmental rules from toxic chemical disclosure to dumping in streams.

 

RICH FINK DEFENDS KOCHS : Even while local business leaders have called for Walker to end his assault on Wisconsin unions, Koch executives have said that they "will not step back at all" and pointed to the importance of their "grassroots" group, saying, "it is good to have them on the ground, in the battle, trying to help out." Rich Fink, the executive vice president of Koch Industries who oversees their ideological campaigns, defended the billionaire brothers in an interview with the National Review Online by blaming "the Left." "With the Left trying to intimidate the Koch brothers to back off of their support for freedom and signaling to others that this is what happens if you oppose the administration and its allies, we have no choice but to continue to fight." The Koch brothers, who have been increasing their personal wealth by billions even as they have fired thousands of workers, are really just victims of a vast left-wing conspiracy, Fink claims. "This is part of an orchestrated campaign that has been going on for many months. It involves the Obama administration, the Center for American Progress, aligned left-wing groups, and their friends in the media. This is just the latest salvo in their attacks on the Koch brothers and Koch Industries. But it is an escalation -- they're now bringing in some labor groups, which they have not done before." Somehow, Rich Fink seems unaware that his own operatives have declared open war on American workers.

[Guest AmericansAgainstHypocrisy]

A finer, heavier load of BS (words that say a lot but mean nothing) I have never read: to wit:

I think we need to balance this equation with real facts.

 

http://kochind.com/kochfacts/?gclid=CPDntbe55KYCFUdN4AodthH32A

 

Koch Statement on California Meeting

 

Recent news stories have focused on a conference being held Jan. 30 - Feb. 1, 2011 in California, organized by Koch Industries, Inc. These conferences have been held since 2003 and hundreds of people have attended. They were described in this 2006 Wall Street Journal article and more recently in Politico. The meetings are an opportunity for attendees and presenters to discuss ways of preserving and advancing economic freedom in the United States and to share ideas about the free-market principles that have made our country great.

 

This conference brings together some of America’s greatest philanthropists and most successful business leaders whose companies have created millions of real jobs. Attendees will discuss solutions to our most pressing issues and strategies to promote policies that will help grow our economy, foster free enterprise and create American jobs. We respect all Americans’ rights to free speech and to peaceably assemble, and we hope that any protesters will respect the community and not cause an inconvenience for residents.

[Guest Jesse]

Scott Brown Begs David Koch For Money

 

 

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) caught on tape thanking petrochemical billionaire David Koch and his wife Julia for their support in Brown's special election, and asks for more money for his re-election campaign in 2012.

[Guest American4Progress]

Check out our new site for creative agitation against the Koch Brothers’ dirty money landing in our politics: KochBlocked.com.

 

Along with KochBlocked, we’ve launched our brand new video on the Kochs – this might be the single BEST video The Other 98% has EVER done. A big shout-out and hallelujah for The Church of Great Rain, an outstanding musical comedy group that helped us make this video truly great:

 

 

If we’ve learned anything since President Obama took office, it’s that the fundamental changes most Americans long for will be impossible until we end the stranglehold that big corporations and their lobbyists have on our democracy.

 

The public wants results, and solutions to many of our biggest problems are ready to go. But these solutions aren’t even on the table in Washington, because an army of corporate lobbyists stands in the way.

 

To fight back, we need a massive new movement to kick corporate lobbyists out of DC, hold our elected officials accountable, and fix our democracy to make Washington work for the other 98% of us.