Charles G. Koch

Related Profiles & Research

• Koch Industries, Inc.
• Koch Industries, Inc. Lobbying Activities
• Koch Family Foundations
• David Koch
• Koch Vs. Clean

Credentials

• According to his profile at Koch Industries, Charles Koch received a bachelor’s degree in general engineering (1957) and two masters degrees in nuclear and chemical engineering (1958 and 1959, respectively) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [1]

Background

Charles G. Koch is the chairman and CEO of Koch Industries. According to Forbes, as co-owners of Koch Industries, Charles and his late brother David Koch had a net worth of $50.7 billion apiece in 2017. David Koch passed away on August 23, 2019. [1], [2], [56]

Charles Koch has been a longtime supporter of “Libertarian” causes. He co-founded the Cato Institute with Ed Crane in 1977, and chairs of the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS). He is also a board member at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Mercatus reports that seed funding from Koch “made the program possible,” however a more recent Mercatus history has removed all mention of its early Koch connection. [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]

Greenpeace has described Koch Industries as a “kingpin of climate science denial,” outpacing ExxonMobil when it comes to donations to organizations opposing established climate science and regulations to combat greenhouse gas emissions.

In an August 2010 issue of The New Yorker, Jane Mayer outlined how the Koch network operates to combat environmental regulation and, at the time, consistently pushed against a wide range of Obama-administration regulations. [8], [9]

Charles Lewis, the founder of the nonpartisan watchdog group Center for Public Integrity, told Meyer: [9]

“The Kochs are on a whole different level. There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.” [9]

Climate Change Disinformation

A study by Yale University researcher Justin Farrell, Ph. D.,  published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), examined over 20 years of data and found that ExxonMobil and the Koch brothers have been key actors in funding think tanks distributing climate change disinformation. [11], [12]

“The contrarian efforts have been so effective for the fact that they have made it difficult for ordinary Americans to even know who to trust,” Dr. Farrell told the Washington Post which was first to cover the news of the study’s release. “This counter-movement produced messages aimed, at the very least, at creating ideological polarization through politicized tactics, and at the very most, at overtly refuting current scientific consensus with scientific findings of their own,” Dr. Farrell said. [13]

From PNAS’s press briefing note about the article by Dr. Farrell: [13]

Corporate funding likely influences the nature and content of polarizing texts pertaining to climate change, according to a study. Political polarization has become a hallmark of climate change policy discussion, with multiple groups in various sectors contributing to public discourse regarding climate and energy. To quantify the influence of corporate funding in climate change discourse, Justin Farrell analyzed more than 39 million words of text produced by 164 organizations active in the climate change counter-movement between 1993 and 2013. The author examined the ideological content of the produced texts, as well as the funding behind the organizations that produced the texts.

Organizations with corporate funding were more likely to have produced polarizing texts, the author found, with ExxonMobil and the Koch family foundation acting as influential funders (emphasis added). Further, according to the author, corporate funding may have influenced the ideological content of produced texts. The results suggest quantitative evidence of the influence of funding in the climate change debate that had previously been hypothesized, and suggests an analytical model for integrating texts with the social networks that created them, according to the author. [13]

Another study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change (see full text here), written by Dr. Farrell, a professor of sociology at Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, also examined the influence of the Koch network on climate change communication. [14], [15]

“The individuals in this bipartite network include interlocking board members, as well as many more informal and overlapping social, political, economic and scientific ties,” Farrell wrote in the report. “The organizations include a complex network of think tanks, foundations, public relations firms, trade associations, and ad hoc groups.” [15]

He described the Koch brothers family foundations as “reliable indicators of a much larger effort of corporate lobbying in the climate change counter-movement.” [15]

He found that organizations taking funds from “elite” corporate funders of climate denial like Exxon and the Koch Brothers — groups like the CATO Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Heartland Institute — “have greater influence over flows of resources, communication, and the production of contrarian information” than other denial groups. [15]

In her 2017 book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, Nancy MacLean reported that efforts by the late James M Buchanan and also by the Koch brothers have had a “huge” impact on climate change policy in the United States and abroad. [17]

“In the US, the impact has been enormous and this Koch network has effectively taken over the Republican Party and turned it into a delivery vehicle for this project,” MacLean wrote. [17]

“A classic example is on climate change when in the 1990s there was no significant difference between the parties in the US on whether climate change was happening. [17]

“There were policy differences about how you would address it but there was no difference on the facts. [17]

“But by 2014, only eight out of 278 Republicans in Congress would admit that climate change was man-made. That’s an extraordinary development and I would explain that by the way that Charles Koch’s donor network has applied Buchanan’s insights into political economy to change the rules of American politics and to change the incentives.” [17]

“This donor network, by spreading so much misinformation, not just the donor network but the organizations that they fund, has spread so much misinformation that now the numbers have slipped to the level that action does not seem necessary to elected officials.” [17]

MacLean also suggested that the Koch-funded network had “co-opted” the Mont Pelerin Society, using its newsletters as a conduit to recruit for think tanks like the Institute for Humane Studies and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “He was clearly treating it as his own pipeline from the 70s forward,” she said of Charles Koch. [17]

Stance on Climate Change

June 2016

In an interview with Jim Tankersley (who wrote more about the full interview here), Charles Koch responded to a question on carbon dioxide emissions in which he “did not deny global warming, but he did downplay the risks of climate change, based on his read of the scientific evidence”: [18], [19]

“Yeah, I say that a lot of what is done by the climate lobby is anti-science. But there is some science behind it. Like, there are greenhouse gases, and they do contribute to warming. But if you look at the last, say, 160 years, the first 80 of that period, they went up four-tenths of a degree. And now, the second 80 that CO2 has gone up, what, 30 percent or something, it’s gone up five-tenths of a degree. And there’s been in the last 30 or 40 years, there’s been no real increase in storms or bad weather. So, let’s use the part that’s real science and then apply the Republic of Science to the rest of it.”

April 2015

According to USA Today, Koch said: [54]

“You can plausibly say that CO2 has contributed” to the planet’s warming, but he sees ‘no evidence’ to support ‘this theory that it’s going to be catastrophic.’”

Key Quotes

June 2016

“[T]hese agreements on limiting CO2 — well I liken it to, if you’re at a poker game, and you don’t know who the pigeon is, you’re it. And we’re it. So we’re going to regulate the hell, make our — particularly the poor — worse, stifle the economy by having less reliable, cheap, abundant energy, and make it more expensive,” Koch said in an interview with The Washington Post. [19]

Key Deeds

March 31, 2020

Charles Koch was included in a list by Rolling Stone  in an article titled “Climate Enemies: The Men Who Sold the World.” According to the magazine, “bad actors are not only failing to address the crisis, they’re actively exacerbating it” and the list includes “America’s worst offenders, from fossil-fuel industry magnates, to investment gurus, to the president himself.” [57]

“Koch Industries pumped more than 25 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2017, according to a University of Massachusetts study, more than Chevron, BP, and a host of other fossil-fuel-industry powerhouses. Charles, 84, and his brother David (who died in 2019) began funding climate denial long before the crisis went mainstream,” the article notes. “As Kochland author Christopher Leonard wrote for The New York Times in 2019, the Kochs’ ‘unrivaled’ political influence machine ‘has been employed to great effect to ensure that no government action is taken to control greenhouse gas emissions.’” [57]

November 2018

Documents uncovered by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and reported at Salon revealed how the Koch brothers worked with the data firm i360 developed persuasion models to target voters with tailored messages on certain issues. In 2016, i360 developed models while working with Sen. Rob Portman’s 2016 re-election campaign in Ohio. [55]

After polling, I360 found a “key local issue facing Ohio was the opioid epidemic” and subsequently created a a “heroin model” and a “heroin treatment model” that were effective at increasing voter support for Portman. [55]

“This manipulation of the opioid crisis for political gain has a perverse irony given the Kochs’ long-running work to provide corporate interests, including health care and pharmaceutical interests, with undue political power and influence over public policy decision,” Salon reported. [55]

Heroin was only one example of models that i360 developed to craft tailored messaging for Portman’s campaign. Other issue-based models included gun control immigration, energy, pro-life, and marriage. [55]

October 2017

Writing at the New Yorker, Jane Mayer highlighted the connections between the Koch brothers and Vice President Mike Pence. While Charles Koch had once said that a choice between a Donald Trump and Hilllary Clinton presidency was one between “cancer or heart attack,” the Kochs were very excited about the Vice-Presidential pick,” according to White House head of legislative affairs Marc Short. [20]

Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse worried that, if Pence were ever to replace Trump as president, it would lead to undue influence by the Kochs: [20]

“If Pence were to become President for any reason, the government would be run by the Koch brothers—period. He’s been their tool for years,” Whitehouse said. [20]

Steve Bannon was also concerned at the idea of Pence as President. “I’m concerned he’d be a President that the Kochs would own,” Bannon told Meyer. [20]

Meyer highlighted Pence’s relationship with a range of Koch-funded think tanks including Americans for Prosperity, describing it as a key to his rise. [20]

In 2009, Pence had signed and promoted the “No Climate Tax” pledge devised by Americans for Prosperity, which promised to avoid all spending on the curbing of carbon emissions. Pence also went on to make speeches denouncing the cap-and-trade bill. The Checks and Balances Project found that, after Pence signed and promoted the AfP “No Climate Tax” pledge, financial support from the Kochs increased dramatically. [20]

After signing the pledge, Pence “was the Kochs’ guy, and they’ve been showering him with money ever since,” Scott Peterson, the executive director of the Checks & Balances Project, told Meyer. [20]

At a 2014 Americans for Prosperity summit in Dallas, Pence said he was “grateful to have enjoyed” David Koch’s support. [20]

April 2017

As reported by Hiroko Tabuchi at The New York Times, the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity publicly backed a measure that would cancel a $6,000 tax credit for electric vehicles in Colorado. [21]

April 2017

DeSmog reported that the 60 Plus Association, a group funded by the Kochs, had lobbied for the Dakota Access pipeline, a project in which a Koch subsidiary stood to profit. Koch subsidiary Flint Hills Resources had proposed its own pipeline, Dakota Express, in January 2014. [22]

60 Plus increased its lobbying efforts in September 2016, just as a protest movement against the pipeline grew near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. [22]

During that month, it sent chairman Jim Martin to lobby for Dakota Access and to write an article supporting the pipeline for the business and politics publication Morning Consult. [23]

January 5, 2017

On January 5, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the REINS (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act of 2017. As reported by DeSmog, the act had formerly been pushed for years by Koch-funded groups, and also had origins in Canada’s SCRUB (Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome) Act. [24], [25]

December 19, 2016

Despite past disagreements, numerous news sources reported the Trump Administration was quickly being populated by allies of the Kochs. Politico described it as “Trump’s Koch administration,” while Talking Points Memo noted that “Behind Make America Great, the Koch agenda has returned with a vengeance.” Some have described Trump as an unwitting “puppet” of the Koch brothers. [26], [27]

DeSmog outlined some of the connections between the Trump Administration and the Koch brothers in a LittleSis network map, embedded below. [Scroll and zoom on the map to explore all the connections, or click “Next” to zoom in on some of the featured relationships.] [28]

August 2016

The pro-fossil-fuel organization Fueling U.S. Forward (FUSF) was launched using Koch dollars in the summer of 2016, working as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit business association, a designation that allows its involvement in both lobbying and political activities. [29] That group was also tied to Koch’s Generation Opportunity group.

FUSF was headed by industry lobbyist and executive Charles T. Drevna, who confirmed with DeSmog that he was working with Koch Industries board member James Mahoney. [29]

Peter Stone first revealed the Koch’s then-unnamed campaign plan in February 2016 at HuffPost. He reported that the group hoped “to spend about $10 million dollars per year to boost petroleum-based transportation fuels and attack government subsidies for electric vehicles, according to refining industry sources familiar with the plan.” [30]

As part of its campaign to combat electric vehicle subsidies, FUSF produced videos claiming that electric vehicle (EV) tax credits are a “massive wealth transfer from poor to rich.” See the FUSF video “The Hidden Cost of Electric Cars” archived below: [31]

DeSmog debunked the video, noting it cited figures from an outdated paper published when only three plug-in electric models were widely available to American drivers. [32]

The FUSF website shut down in October 2017 and no longer appears to be in operation, however DeSmog continues to document the Koch brothers’ ongoing efforts to undermine electric vehicles and renewable energy at KochVsClean.com. [32]

FUSF, which had sponsored a gospel concert as part of its public relations effort, was later criticized for a “an exploitative, sad and borderline racist strategy” by Eddie Bautista, executive director of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. [33]

August 2016

Charles and David Koch gave attendees of their bi-annual donors meeting a “library request card” that included 48 recommended books. [34], [35]

Among the books listed were Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy by Stephen Moore and Kathleen Hartnett White which makes “an unapologetic case for fossil fuels”, and The Evolution of Everything, the latest publication by British climate science denier Lord Matt Ridley. [35]

July 2016

Three Koch-connected groups were fined by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for concealing the sources of funds they spent on political ads in 2010. The fines amounted to a combined total of $233,000. [36], [37] 

The three groups involved were the American Future Fund, 60 Plus Association and Americans for Job Security, which had received funding from the Koch-connected Center to Protect Patient Rights (CPPR), now American Encore. [37]

The FEC found that CPPR‘s funding had been set to be spent on independent expenditures such as TV ads, and should have been disclosed. Classified as 501(c)(4) organizations, the groups are permitted to spend funds on political advertising as long as it isn’t their “primary activity.” However, if a donor gives money specifically earmarked for spending on an election, it must be disclosed to the FEC. [37]

November 3, 2016

The Koch Brothers were the subject of a documentary at Real News Network titled “The Doubt Machine: The Koch Brothers’ War on Climate Science,” which examined how Koch-funded entities threatened climate scientists such as Michael Mann and journalists like Jane Mayer. [38], [39]

2015/2016

In 2015, Politico reported that the Koch brothers promised to spend $889 million in the run-up to the 2016 elections, “a historic sum that in many ways would mark Charles and David Koch and their fellow conservative megadonors as more powerful than the official Republican Party.” [40]

In response to, among other issues, the emergence of Donald Trump, the Koch brothers did not spend all of the planned funds, but they did spend hundreds of millions on efforts to secure GOP control of the U.S. Senate, including GOTV efforts for Senate candidates, which bouyed voter turnout in the presidential election.

Roughly a year after their spending promise, the National Review reported that the Kochs were said to be  “reevaluating their approach to politics.” [41]

November 2015

As reported at Politico and at The New Yorker, the Kochs had been running a “competitive intelligence team” to gather intelligence on liberal groups and activists while monitoring potential threats to their network. [42], [43]

The Koch’s team was made up of a staff of 25, including one former CIA analyst, and its operations included regular “intelligence briefing” emails with information on things like tracking the canvassing, phone-banking, and voter-registration efforts of labor unions, environmental groups and their allies. [42], [43]

“Such stealth activities are the kind that campaigns and party operatives often fantasize about but mostly shy away from ― both because of cost and potential political backlash if exposed,” Politico reported. [42]

September 2015

The Koch brothers were behind a campaign to block the development of rooftop solar power generation in Florida. According to The Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch, the Kochs created a new astroturf group called “Consumers for Smart Solar” that is working to create a counter-initiative that would prevent consumers and businesses from contracting with solar companies that install solar equipment without charging an upfront fee. [44], [45]

EcoWatch reported on four states where the Kochs were fighting against solar power, listing Americans for Prosperity Florida as another in Florida, as well as the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Arizona, Americans for Prosperity Kansas, and ALEC in Ohio. [46]

June 25, 2012

As The New York Times reported, Charles and David Koch agreed to revamp the Cato Institute’s leadership to allow the group to maintain some independence. This was after the Koch brothers had filed two lawsuits seeking greater control over the Cato Institute’s board. [47]

Charles Koch founded the Cato Institute in 1977 and put Ed Crane in charge of it.  The Koch family philanthropies donated at least $30 million to it by 2012; any other corporate or individual donation via Koch are not known. Eventually, Koch and Ed Cran, had a falling out due to what the NYT described as “management and philosophical differences.” [47] 

After the election of President Barack Obama, Charles Koch sought to regain greater control of the board to redirect the organization to aid his other tactical efforts to defeat Obama and his policies. Koch sought to create a “more direct pipeline between Cato and the family’s Republican political outlets, including groups that Democrats complain have mounted a multimillion-dollar assault on President Obama.” This had caused tensions inside the governing structure, as Cato officials said this threatened their reputation for independent research. [47] Greenpeace noted that Koch wanted “the power to fold Cato into their suite of other front groups, making it another Koch-controlled cog in the Republican political machine.” [49]

Describing the lawsuit, then-Cato president Edward H. Crane said: [48]

“This is an effort by the Kochs to turn the Cato Institute into some sort of auxiliary for the G.O.P. What he is doing now is detrimental to Cato, it’s detrimental to Koch Industries, it’s detrimental to the libertarian movement.” [48]

The Kochs eventually withdrew the lawsuit on the condition that Ed Crane retired. 

2012

Koch Industries was among a number of organizations including ExxonMobil, Chevron, America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA), Peabody Energy, Edison Electric Institute, and other industry groups who lobbied for the “Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011,” designed to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. [50] 

January 3, 2011

As she detailed in her 2016 book, Dark Money, New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer was targeted with unfounded plagiarism accusations after she published an investigative piece on the Koch brothers in The New Yorker. [51]

“Their aim, according to a well-informed source, was to counteract The New Yorker’s story on the Koch brothers by undermining me,” wrote Mayer. “’Dirt, dirt, dirt’ is what the source later told me they were digging for in my life. ‘If they couldn’t find it, they’d create it.’”[51]

As she detailed in “Dark Money,” with verification from a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, a group called Vigilant Resources International (VRI) had received a retainer fee to help along the charges of plagiarism. [51]

Mayer received plagiarism inquiries from the right-wing The Daily Caller, as well as others from The Washington Post, ThinkProgress, and others. [51]

“Paul Kane, a reporter at The Washington Post, quickly looked up the story in question and sent me an e-mail saying, ‘Not only did you not steal from me, you Frickin’ credited me in the VERY NEXT line,’” Mayer explained in “Dark Money.” “The New Yorker had even linked to his story online. And, I later learned, my husband, who was then an editor at The Washington Post, had edited the story that I supposedly stole.” [51]

Lee Fang, now a reporter at The Intercept, also said that Mayer had properly credited him in her story. [51]

 “With only a few hours before these allegations were set to go online, all I could do was to try to get out the truth before the lies were spread,” Mayer explained. “By midnight, I had reached three of the four authors from whom I was alleged to have plagiarized. All offered to make public statements supporting me and denying I had misappropriated their work.” [51]

“In the end, even the Daily Caller found the allegations to be unfounded, and to its credit, abandoned the story,” wrote the New York Post. “The story is dead but the person or persons behind the allegations remains a shadowy mystery.” [52]

A source later told Mayer that Nancy Pfotenhauer, who sometimes works as a spokespearson for Koch (and the former head of Koch’s Americans for Prosperity/Citizens for a Sound Economy and the Independent Womens Forum, and also previously a lead lobbyist for Koch Industries) had been a key part of the effort. [52]

July, 2008

The Investigative Reporting Workshop at the American University School of Communication tracked the origins of the Americans for Prosperity’s “No Climate Tax” pledge, noting its backing by the Kochs. Of 85 Republicans who were elected from 2011 to 2013, 76 had signed the pledge. Of those 76, 56 had received campaign contributions from Koch Industries’ political action committee. [53]

Affiliations

• Koch Industries — Chairman of the Board and CEO. [1]
• Cato Institute — Co-founder. [3]
• Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) — Chairman. [4]
• Mercatus Center — Board member. [5]

Koch Foundations

• Fred C. and Mary R. Koch Foundation — Director.
• Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation (Now disbanded) — Former Director.

Social Media

• @CharlesGKoch on Twitter (Account is inactive).
• @Koch_Industries on Twitter.

Publications

• Jane Mayer (2016). Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Doubleday.

Investigative Reporting

Jane Mayer at The New Yorker has produced a long series of investigative reporting pieces on the Koch brothers:

• “Can Time Inc. Survive the Kochs?”The New Yorker, November 28, 2017.
• “In the Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, the Koch Brothers’ Campaign Becomes Overt,” The New Yorker, June 5, 2017.
• “A Whistle-Blower Accuses the Kochs of ‘Poisoning’ an Arkansas Town,” The New Yorker, September 9, 2016.
• “Koch for Clinton? Not a Chance,” The New Yorker, April 26, 2016.
• “New Koch,” The New Yorker, January 25, 2016.
• “Do the Kochs Have their Own Spy Network,” The New Yorker, November 18, 2015.
• “The Koch Brothers in California?“ The New Yorker, October 25, 2013.
• “Paying for ‘Citizen Koch’,” The New Yorker, August 13, 2013.
• “Koch Pledge Tied to Congressional Climate Inaction,” The New Yorker, June 30, 2013.
• “Stephen Colbert on David Koch and PBS,” The New Yorker, May 23, 2013.
• “A Word from Our Sponsor,” The New Yorker, May 27, 2013. 
• “The Kochs V. Cato: Winners and Losers,”The New Yorker, June 27, 2012.
• “Kochs Vs. Cato, Round Two,” The New Yorker, March 5, 2012.
• “The Kochs Vs. Cato,” The New Yorker, March 1, 2012.
• “Hermain Cain and the Kochs,” The New Yorker, October 20, 2011.
• “Cain and His Brothers,” The New Yorker, November 4, 2011.
• “Covert Operations,” The New Yorker, August 30, 2010.

Resources

1. “Charles G. Koch,” Kochind.com. Archived February 19, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/VYB9H
2. “Charles Koch,” Forbes, December 28, 2017. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/VaUjH
3. “25 years at the Cato Institute” (PDF), Cato Institute. PDF created April 5, 2007.
4. “FAQ,” Institute for Humane Studies. Archived June 13, 2010. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/IfLJX
5. “Charles Koch,” Mercatus Center. Archived February 18, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/8TZGU
6. “History and Timeline,” Mercatus Center. Archived September 20, 2015. Archive.is URL:  https://archive.is/S7AIS
7. “History and Timeline,” Mercatus Center. Archived February 19, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/Mgav0
8. “Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine (PDF), Greenpeace, March 2010.
9. Jane Meyer. “Covert Operations,” The New Yorker, August 30, 2010. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/DWBMP
10. “Koch Brothers Are Largest U.S. Lease-Holders In Oilsands,” HuffPost, March 21, 2014. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/AJs2z
11. Justin Farrell. “Corporate funding and ideological polarization about climate change,” PNAS Vol. 113. No. 1 (January 5, 2016). View full PDF here.
12. Brendan DeMelle. “Research Confirms ExxonMobil, Koch-funded Climate Denial Echo Chamber Polluted Mainstream Media,” DeSmog, November 23, 2015.
13. Joby Warrick. “Why are so many Americans skeptical about climate change? A study offers a surprising answer.” The Washington Post, November 23, 2015. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/j8wOC
14. Mike Gaworecki. “New Study Exposes True Extent, Influence Of Climate Denial Echo Chamber For First Time,” DeSmog, Decembe 1, 2015.
15. Justin Farrell. “Network structure and influence of the climate change counter-movement,” Nature Climate Change 6, 370–374 (2016). Full text on DropBox.
16. “Koch Brothers Are Largest U.S. Lease-Holders In Oilsands,” HuffPost, March 21, 2014. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/AJs2z
17. Graham Readfearn. “Future Historians Will Look Back in Horror at Koch Network’s Attacks on Climate Policy, says Author Nancy MacLean,” DeSmog, September 19, 2017.
18. Jim Tankersley and Chris Mooney. “What Charles Koch really thinks about climate change,” The Washington Post, June 6, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/tUrUR
19. Jim Tankersley. “Inside Charles Koch’s $200 million quest for a ‘Republic of Science’,” The Washington Post, June 3, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/NYRvl
20. Jane Mayer. “The Danger of President Pence,” The New Yorker, October 23, 2017. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/0mJYh
21. Hiroko Tabuchi. “Behind the Quiet State-by-State Fight Over Electric Vehicles,” The New York Times, March 11, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/cvnsu
22. Steve Horn. “How the Koch Machine Quietly Pushed for the Dakota Access Pipeline and Stands to Profit,” DeSmog, April 8, 2017.
23. “Lobbying Report,” Secretary of the Senate Office of Public Records, 2016.
24. Steve Horn. “GOP Congress, Trump Already Pushing Koch Industries’ Bill to Hobble Regulatory Agencies,” DeSmog, January 5, 2017.
25. Steve Horn,. “Pass a Regulation, Repeal Another: House Approves Provision Tied to Koch Industries,” DeSmog, January 6, 2017.
26. Kenneth P. Vogel and Eliana Johnson. “Trump’s Koch administration,” Politico, November 28, 2016. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/BKGoc
27. Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Theda Skocpol, and Caroline Tervo. “Behind ‘Make America Great,’ the Koch Agenda Returns with a Vengeance,” Talking Points Memo, November 21, 2016. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL:  https://archive.is/F3OeB
28. Ben Jervey. “The Trump Administration Is Filling Up With Koch Allies,” DeSmog, December 19, 2016.
29. Sharon Kelly. “New Koch-Funded Group ‘Fueling US Forward’ Aims to Promote the ‘Positives’ of Fossil Fuels,” Desmog, August 14, 2016.
30. Peter Stone. “The Kochs Are Plotting A Multimillion-Dollar Assault On Electric Vehicles,” The Huffington Post, February 19, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/jXPA4
31. “Hidden Costs of Electric Cars,” YouTube video uploaded by user “Fueling U.S. Forward” on July 11, 2017. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.
32. Ben Jervey. “Koch Front Group, Fueling US Forward, Bashes Electric Car Tax Credits in Latest Misleading Video,” DeSmog, July 22, 2017.
33. Ben Jervey. “Minority Communities in Virginia ‘Push Back on Koch Brothers,’ Call Fueling U.S. Forward a ‘Distasteful Effort’,” DeSmog, March 6, 2017.
34. Kyla Mandel. “Koch Bros’ Summer Reading List for Donors Promotes Freedom, Fossil Fuels, and Matt Ridley,” DeSmog UK, August 3, 2016.
35. “The Koch Brothers’ summer reading list for their super secret conservative millionaire consortium,” Quartz, August 1, 2016. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/BA9W0
36. Farron Cousins. “Koch-Funded Groups Slapped With Fines By Federal Election Commission,” DeSmog, July 15, 2016.
37. Libby Watson. “FEC fines Koch groups for illegal dark money,” Sunlight Foundation, July 13, 2016. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/FIg3A
38. “The Doubt Machine: Documentary Explores Koch Brothers’ War on Climate Science,” DeSmog, November 3, 2016.
39. “The Doubt Machine: Inside The Koch Brothers’ War on Climate Science,” The Real News.com. Accessed December 28, 2017.
40. “The Kochs put a price on 2016: $889 million,” Politico, January 26, 2015. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/fNY2Y
41. Tim Alberta and Eliana Johnson. “Exclusive: In Koch World ‘Realignment,’ Less National Politics,” National Review, May 16, 2016. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/fmMaZ
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44. Farron Cousins. “Sunshine State Solar Industry Fighting Onslaught From Koch Brothers in Florida,” DeSmog, October 27, 2015.
45. Jamie Corey. “Koch Brothers Backing Misleading Anti-Solar Campaign in Florida,” PR Watch, September 29, 2015.
46. Anastasia Pantsios. “4 States Where Solar is Under Attack by Koch-Funded Front Groups,” EcoWatch, March 27, 2015. Archived December 29, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/klBVP
47. Eric Lichtblau. “Cato Institute and Koch Brothers Reach Agreement,” The New York Times, June 25, 2012. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/wxgnr
48. Eric Lichtblau. “Cato Institute Is Caught in a Rift Over Its Direction,” The New York Times, March 6, 2012. Archived December 27, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/qz1nD
49. Jesse Coleman. “Why the Koch brothers are cannibalizing the Cato Institute,” Greenpeace, March 20, 2012. Archived December 28, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/CXtIk
50. “Clients lobbying on S.482: Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011,” OpenSecrets.org. Accessed December 28, 2017.
51. Steve Horn. “Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money” Book Reveals Koch Brothers Paid Firm Run by Former NYPD Chief to Smear Her,” DeSmog, January 19, 2016.
52. Keith J. Kelly. “Smear disappears,” New York Post, January 5, 2011. Archived March 28, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.li/ed0Ye
53. Eric Holmberg and Alexia Fernandez Campbell. “Koch: Climate pledge strategy continues to grow,” Investigative Reporting Workshop, July 1, 2013. Archive.is URL: http://archive.is/PQtUc
54. “Charles Koch: We’re not in politics to boost our bottom line,” USA Today, April 23, 2015. Archived March 29, 2018. Archive.is URL: https://archive.li/i4NGL
55. “Koch brothers are watching you: And new documents reveal just how much they know,” Salon, November 5, 2018. Archived November 9, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/5SFZj
56. Melanie Grayce West and John McCormick. “Billionaire David Koch, Who Used His Wealth to Reshape U.S. Politics, Dies at 79,” The Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2019. Archived August 23, 2019. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/j9sUH
57. Ryan Bort. “Climate Enemies: The Men Who Sold the World,” Rolling Stone, March 31, 2020. Archived April 9, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.vn/b4XwR

Other Resources

• “Charles G. Koch,” Greenpeace.
• “Charles Koch,” Wikipedia. 
• Kenneth P. Voge. “The Koch ATM,” Politico, November 17, 2015.
• Koch Brothers EXPOSED: 2014 (ft. Bernie Sanders) on YouTube.
• “Political activities of the Koch brothers,” Wikipedia.