Billionaire polluting energy kingpins the Koch brothers have taken to personally attacking journalists who report on their shady dealings, according to the Washington Post’s Paul Farhi. But as the Better Future Project pointed out this week, the Kochs think full public disclosure is only for the little people – Oxbow Carbon baron and Cape Wind opponent William Koch not only thinks he should be able to hide behind a front group, he thinks he should get a tax break for his trouble:
New England climate movement leader Craig Altemose and several other concerned citizens have co-signed a letter to the Internal Revenue Service urging it to investigate the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound after its repeated failures to properly document its donations and expenses.
They point out that the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound has forwarded $394,000 to the Town of Barnstable to pay for its litigation against the Cape Wind project, America’s first offshore wind farm, and has failed to properly account for these grants as required in its recent Form 990 filings.
It’s part of an admitted strategy by the Kochs – invest in the political process to maximize their own interests and profits. But they know that billionaire polluting energy kingpins are the least-persuasive public spokesmen possible, so they fund a series of front groups and puppet spokespeople to make their case for them. And on top of that, the politicians they fund constantly fight for laws to help hide that funding and its connections.
All that stands in stark contrast to clean energy and its supporters. Cape Wind’s conservation, public health and labor allies are so transparent they put all their names on one website.
Show your support for Cape Wind by asking federal regulators to speed the development of clean, affordable offshore wind energy.
Koch Industries is the fifth largest air polluter: http://www.peri.umass.edu/toxic_index/
Koch Industries is the thirtieth largest water polluter:
http://www.peri.umass.edu/toxicwater/
They are inefficient industrialists, wasting money and resources because they refuse to clean up after themselves. When are they going to become responsible and begin to approach zero emissions in everything they do?