Get the Facts on Uber-Polluting Koch Industries

by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 11.15.10

Before last year, many had never heard of Koch Industries. Even though it's the second largest company in the US, and it rakes in nearly $100 billion every year, it's still something of an unknown entity to most Americans. And that's how company head David Koch prefers it -- he's fond of saying his company is "the biggest company you've never heard of." The majority of its business is in oil refining, coal, and manufacturing. And over the last year, a series of reports surfaced that revealed the company's huge monetary influence, and the murky activist involvement of its bosses, on efforts to kill clean energy bills, overturn environmental regulations, and so on. Finally, someone is giving us the straight facts on Koch Industries:

The new website Koch Industries Facts, run by the clean energy group Repower America, has been launched to act as a simple information depot on Koch Industries. Aptly enough, it's a series of frankly presented facts, with links to the source material, that reveal the extent to which Koch Industries has been a leading force pushing back against both clean energy, climate science, and green policy across the US.
Here's a sampling of the facts collected at the site:

• Koch is responsible for over 300 oil spills in the U.S. and has leaked 3 million gallons of crude oil into fisheries and drinking waters. (EPA)
• Koch Industries spent more than $48.5 million from 1997 to 2008 funding climate science opposition groups.
• Koch Industries operates oil refineries in Texas, Alaska and Minnesota, and controls roughly 4,000 miles of oil pipelines.
• Koch Industries has spent $16,922,000 so far in the 111th Congress on lobbying.
• Koch Industries spent $1 million trying to roll back California's clean energy law - and failed.

The site makes for a solid but breezy compendium of information on everything Koch -- it makes for a straightforward introduction to Koch's influence and activities, and serves as a good reminder of the scope of both. Check it out at Koch Industries Facts. More on Koch Industries
Billlionaire David Koch : 25 Years of Disinformation Campaigns and Polluter Front Groups
'Financial Kingpin' of Climate Change Denial Exposed: Koch Industries
Koch Industries Backs Formaldehyde Council, Fighting Regulation