The Koch Brothers Dished Out $21M to Front Groups Defending Exxon In NYT Ad

picture-14046-1464216053.jpg
on

This is a guest post by Connor Gibson, crossposted from Greenpeace USA

The Kochs have spent over $88 million in *traceable* funding to groups attacking climate change science, policy andย regulation.

Of that total, $21 million went to groups that recently bought a full page New York Times advertisement defending ExxonMobil from government investigations into its systematic misrepresentation of climate science. If you’re an executive at a big oil company watching as ExxonMobil is finally exposed for studying climate change, covering up the science and spreading misinformation, you’re probably worried now that state attorneys general are knocking on Exxon’sย door.

Charles and David Koch must be worried, anyway. Their foundations gave more than $21 million to the people and groups that signed a recent, full page New York Times advertisement that defends ExxonMobil’s longstanding efforts to ruin the public’s understanding of climate changeย science.

Here are theย numbers:

Koch money to climate deniers signing 2016 CEI ad in NY Times

For comparison, Exxon itself spent half as much on the same people and groups, $10.1 million; money that the front groups spent on tactics like โ€ฆ a $100,000-or-so full page ad buy in the New York Times! (More info at Climate Investigations Center from my former colleague, Kertย Davies.)

The ringleader group behind the letter, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), is of particular interest. Exxon dumped CEI for its unsupportable climate stance back in 2006, a crushing blow for the aggressive beltway front group that continued to humiliate CEI staff forย years.

But it appears that CEI is loyal to the cause of climate denial, despite being abandoned by Exxon a decade ago. Other financiers, like the Koch family and several coal and oil companies may explain why the denial campaign wasย sustained.

Traceable funds only represent a portion of the Koch familyโ€™s contributions to CEI. At CEIโ€™s annual fundraising events, Koch Industriesโ€™ lobbying subsidiary has been listed as a sponsor. Full-disclosure tax filings published by PR Watch revealed that Koch Industries directly paid Americans for Prosperity, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and otherย organizations.

PR Watch discovered another revelation in the full-disclosure tax documents that were leaked. Apparently, David Koch likes to cut CEI $100,000 checks straight from his own coffers. David Kochโ€™s money was not sent through his nonprofit foundation, which would have had to report the grants to CEI.

This incomplete patchwork of previously-undisclosed funds from Koch Industries and David Koch adds $3,124,834 to the accounting on groups that co-signed the CEI ad.ย This raises the question: who else is just cutting a direct check to the climateย deniers?

And then thereโ€™s the โ€œDark Money ATMโ€ sister groups, DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. The DonorsTrust franchise is run by CEIโ€™s former president, Lawson Bader, who helps donors โ€“ including Koch โ€“ anonymize tens of millions of dollars that go to dozens of front groups each year. DonorsTrust & Capital Fund have funneled millions of dark money dollars to CEI.

But that’s still not the end of the financial trail. Other mechanisms used by Charles Koch and his army of donor friends include Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a dark money umbrella group that has hidden hundreds of millions of dollars in politically-charged cash, shuffled between various trusts, nonprofits, and limited liabilityย corporations.

For the deep history, check out Kert Davies’ post for the Climate Investigations Center, which spurred my own interest in the sponsors of the recent New York Times ad. Kert details the crucial history of some of the letterโ€™s signatories, the role they have served in the climate denial machine over the years and the exact documents that inform hisย understanding.

I have reproduced Kertโ€™s ExxonSecrets map (below) of the players involved, as it helps show how a small group of people funded by a few oil and coal companies can cast a shadow that is deceptively deep. The tobacco industry crafted this deceptive model, and fossil fuel companies have innovated it since. It helps that the same people doing tobacco science denial moved on to climate scienceย denial.

One of those tobacco denial alumni, lawyer Steve Milloy, himself an aggressive defender of ExxonMobil, knows that a small group of people can have an outsized impact with enough funding โ€“ even in the face of 97-99 percent of the worldโ€™s climate scientists. Milloy once said, โ€œThereโ€™s really only about 25 of us doing this. A core group of skeptics. Itโ€™s a ragtag bunch, very Continentalย Army.โ€

This indicates that folks like Milloy arenโ€™t just deceiving the public, but themselves. If I was taking Charles Kochโ€™s money to attack science, I too would probably have to constantly remind myself of my Americanย heroics.

Mr. Koch is as awkward as ever in his half-hearted attempts to understand climate change science (you’d think aย MIT alumnus would get it), he has been wary of climate laws and regulations for a longย time.

That’s probably why he has rained cash on the organizations that stage the fight, groups that have given room for a top U.S. CEO, with a background in chemical engineering, to demonstrate such scientific ignorance. Since 1997, the Kochs have spent more than $88 million in *traceable* dollars into the network of groups that attack climate science, the scientists doing the research, the potential policy solutions and the champions of thoseย policies.

ExxonSecrets Map of theย Players

ExxonSecrets map of climate deniers signing CEI ad in NY Times 2016

Get DeSmog News and Alerts

picture-14046-1464216053.jpg
Connor Gibson is a researcher for Greenpeace USA and a guest author for DeSmogBlog. He focuses on polluting industries, their front groups and PR operatives. He specializes in tracking those who professionally deny climate change science and obstruct policy solutions to global warming. Connor Gibson is based in Washington, DC.

Related Posts

on

Tech firms like Amazon and Google โ€˜have enormous responsibilityโ€™ for driving fossil fuel expansions, climate expert argues.

Tech firms like Amazon and Google โ€˜have enormous responsibilityโ€™ for driving fossil fuel expansions, climate expert argues.
on

The Tory candidate is running her campaign from the home of a prominent anti-green activist.

The Tory candidate is running her campaign from the home of a prominent anti-green activist.
on

Peter Thiel, JD Vanceโ€™s former boss, also expresses confusion on climate, supporting expanded fossil fuel use while appearing unclear on the consequences.

Peter Thiel, JD Vanceโ€™s former boss, also expresses confusion on climate, supporting expanded fossil fuel use while appearing unclear on the consequences.
on

An emergency preparedness conference in Ottawa hosted two days of panels with only limited discussion of climate changeโ€™s root causes.

An emergency preparedness conference in Ottawa hosted two days of panels with only limited discussion of climate changeโ€™s root causes.