Just before Memorial Day weekend, NPR’s Morning Edition featured a segment examining the role of Charles Koch at Florida State University (FSU):

NPR: Koch Foundation Criticized Again For Influencing Florida State

FSU students outline the various ways that Charles Koch’s multimillion dollar grants give his staff subtle control over hiring of economics faculty and de facto influence over what students are, and aren’t, taught. This limitation is a serious violation of academic freedom, as has been repeatedly asserted by the American Association of University Professors, which is dedicated to the protection of academic integrity at US colleges. AAUP president Rudy Fichtenbaum told NPR’s Greg Allen:

You know, it amounts to the Koch brothers’ foundation basically trying to buy a position on the faculty. And that certainly is a threat to academic freedom.

FSU students and faculty alike have been strongly outspoken against the Koch agreement since 2011, when Charles Koch’s influence was first exposed by two FSU professors writing in the Tallahassee Democrat. This year, FSU has come under renewed criticism for not taking preventative measures to limit the influence of outside interests like Charles Koch, whose multi-million dollar grants are craved by public schools in need of more funding.

This is often because Charles Koch bankrolls political groups working to defund public functions, including decreased higher education funding when corporate taxes are cut.

Charles Koch is the Kansan fossil fuel billionaire known for coordinating with corporate executives to dump hundreds of millions of dollars into election politics, union busting, opposition to the Affordable Care Act, and the privatization of education, among other things. The Koch family is known for spending tens of millions of dollars on politcal groups that deny climate change, which I have asserted is overlapping with the activities of FSU economics professors who are involved with global warming skepticism (well outside of their field of expertise–economics).

The up-brining of Charles Koch and his three brothers is the subject of a new book by Mother Jones editor Daniel Schulman, titled Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty. The book offers a lot of helpful context how Charles Koch and his brothers have lived their lives out of touch with the vast majority of people, apparently not in small part due to being worked ruthlessly by father Fred Koch, not to mention being born into his vast wealth from the oil company he co-founded.

Charles Koch in particular took his father’s ferocious work ethic to heart, now leveraging his own fortune in combination with that of weathly, politically active friends who work together to bend government into a service for corporate executives rather than prioritizing the needs of people living on the margins.

You can read more from Florida State University students and professors themselves in the Tampa Bay Times, and op-eds written by students and professors for the Tallahassee Democrat. Charles Koch’s influence on higher education was recently examined by Dave Levinthal for the Center for Public Integrity.

Check Greenpeace.org for more Koch Facts.

The post NPR Examines Charles Koch’s Influence at Florida State University appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

Let’s face it, governments and corporations are satisfied with the status quo. If the world is going to change for the better, we the people will have to organize our collective strength and get those in power to budge. As Gezi, Tahrir Square, and Occupy (not to mention the daily work of organizing for change around the world) have shown, the internet is increasingly crucial to the power of the people.

But it’s not just about saving the world. Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA’s illegal surveillance program allowed the US government to listen in on any of us, whatever the reason. If governments the world over have the tools to watch our activity online, what happens to our basic rights?

But there are ways to protect our privacy online. That’s why a coalition of web sites, companies, and rights groups ranging from Amnesty International to Greenpeace USA, has begun a campaign to #ResetTheNet. Today, one year to the day after Snowden’s first revelations, ResetTheNet goes live. The goal is to get as many people as possible to pledge to protect their own privacy.

It’s about rights, and it’s about responsibilities, too. The more we all protect ourselves, the more those we care about, those we communicate with, and those with whom we share information online are protected too.

To find out what you can do to protect your internet privacy, visit ResetTheNet. Sign the coalition’s petition, and consider downloading the security pack for your computer and mobile devices. If you run a website, consider installing tools that make mass spying more difficult.

Please also think about joining Greenpeace USA and the entire ResetTheNet coalition on a big social media Thunderclap today, so that this message reaches as many people as possible.

Rights do not come in neat little individual packages. Social justice and a healthy environment are intimately tied to free speech and assembly and communicating with your peers without being spied on by governments.

Let’s all protect ourselves — and each other — and get back to the business of living our lives. Yeah, and saving the world, too.

The post #ResetTheNet: Free yourself from government surveillance appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

A documentary is finally about to see the light of day, after being defunded and subject to de facto censorship thanks to the influence of billionaire David Koch of Koch Industries. Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s Citizen Koch examines how the billionaire Koch brothers used to wealth to exert influence in Wisconsin amid staggering union protests and a near-recall of its corporate-friendly governor.

The film provides an in-depth look into “KochWorld,” or the “Kochtopus,” or whatever you’d like to call Charles and David Koch’s vast political apparatus that allows them to coordinate hundreds of millions of dollars to pour into a secretive network of political front groups, which then implement campaigns to promote the business priorities of Koch Industries or the ideological preferences of its billionaire brother owners.

The defunding of Citizen Koch is one chapter of a saga that uncovered how PBS affiliates have bent over backwards to accommodate billionaire donor and board member David Koch, who didn’t appreciate Alex Gibney’s Park Avenue, a film critical of Mr. Koch and some other of America’s wealthiest people that aired on PBS stations. David Koch has since disassociated from New York’s WNET station, though Koch is a trustee of WGBH–Boston’s PBS affiliate. Groups like Forecast the Facts have protested Koch’s presence on the WGBH board.

Following PBS’ unusual arrangment to let Koch Industries influence the debut of Gibney’s Park Avenue, Lessin and Deal’s Citizen Koch suddenly found itself hung out to dry by the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Apparently, public television officials felt so pressured by Koch Industries and so eager for continued large donations from executive David Koch that ITVS suddenly and unceremoniously dropped its planned financial support for Citizen Koch. This was after early indications that ITVS was excited to support the film.

Despite David Koch’s success in intimidating PBS and ITVS to renege their support for Citizen Koch, the filmmakers used the controversy to successfully crowd-source the necessary funds to finish and promote the film. Citizen Koch kicks off tonight at New York City’s IFC Center.

Here is a list of select screenings in many major U.S. cities; for those wanting to spread the word, you can host a screening of  Citizen Koch!

Check Greenpeace.org for more Koch Facts.

The post Citizen Koch Film Finally Premiers in U.S. Cities After David Koch Censorship appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

A very important bill is sailing through the North Carolina Senate. Only four months following Duke’s massive coal ash spill at Dan River plant, S729 is the senate’s working answer to Duke’s coal ash problem. Whether the bill will contain all the necessary policies to solve that problem remains to be seen. On thing is certain: Duke’s corrupting influence isn’t helping.

Duke’s governmental investments

A quick rundown of S729. The bill is good in the sense that it puts deadlines on Duke as early as 2019 on transitioning away from coal ash dumps in their current form. The bill would clear out 4 dump sites, moving the ash to pits which would be lined along their basins so that contaminants would not seep into the groundwater.

But the bill has major weaknesses. The 10 other dump sites could be simply covered over with tarp and grass, leaving groundwater vulnerable to leaks from unlined basins. Illegal leaks of coal ash into local waterways could be legalized through the permit process. And NC ratepayers, not Duke, could end up paying for any costs. (For an explanation of why Duke can afford to take on the costs, see this report.)

All in all, S729 is a weak bill. What’s held it back? Start with NC Governor Pat McCrory, who proposed a similar version of the bill back in April.

McCrory’s plan called for a case-by-case clearing out of the ash, a far cry from the across-the-board removals needed. The proposal was similar to Duke’s, a fact that brings to mind McCrory’s 28 years as a Duke employee prior to assuming office. Duke has also invested handsomely in McCrory’s governorship. Its political action committee (PAC) donated 3 times the money to his campaign as it did to 5 other governors combined.

That S729 is so similar to McCrory’s plan should come as no surprise either. The senators who introduced the bill, Phil Berger and Tom Apodaca, have also received massive campaign funding from Duke. Duke’s PAC has donated $35,000 to Apodaca and $45,000 to Berger. Each senator received the state maximum of $8,000 from Duke in 2012.

Going clockwise from the upper left: NC Senator Tom Apodaca, Senator Phil Berger, NC Utilities Commission Chairman Ed Finley, and NC Governor Pat McCrory.

Favorable terms

S729 hasn’t just been hampered by Duke’s cozy governmental relations. The bill has the potential to strengthen Duke’s favor.

Under S729, the coal ash pit closure process would start with NC’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), which would rank Duke’s pits according to three levels of risk. Normally a state’s environmental department would serve as a natural place for such a process. Gov. McCrory’s DENR, however, has proven wanting to say the least.

DENR is under federal criminal investigation following revelations that it protected Duke’s coal ash dumps from lawsuits by environmental groups. The New York Times reported massive suppression of DENR’s regulatory role following McCrory’s ascendency to the governorship in 2013. And that same year, DENR settled with Duke for a corporate pittance of $99,000 over pollution from two coal ash sites (DENR quickly suspended the settlement after the spill).

S729 introduces another actor with high potential to protect Duke from its coal ash problem: a Coal Ash Management Commission. Appointed by the same Gov. McCrory and General Assembly that is shuttling through S729, the commission would have power over DENR to label coal ash dumps at the lowest possible risk level. Any recommendations by the commission would automatically gain passage by the assembly. And the commission could stop dump closures deemed too costly to Duke.

Consequences near and far

Unfortunately, Duke’s influence doesn’t stop with Gov. McCrory, legislators, DENR, or the possible commission. The North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) is also compromised. That matters on coal ash, because NCUC would approve all rate hikes passed onto customers from S729.

How compromised? NCUC chairman Ed Finley worked 27 years as a lawyer for a firm which counted Duke Energy as a client. Finley has been subpoenaed in the criminal investigation following Duke’s coal ash spill. And three other of NCUC’s 7 commissioners had ties to the utility industry previous to their positions.

S729 is scheduled to appear on the senate floor today. The house equivalent, H1228, should get its first round of committee hearings this week.

The house faces a major decision: whether to forward a bill like S729 that serves the financial interests of Duke, or pass legislation that protects the people of North Carolina.

People like Sherry Gobble. Gobble lives next to a coal ash pond at Duke’s Buck Steam Station near Salisbury, NC. Her well water shows concerning levels of lead and a cancer-causing compound, hexavalent chromium. Both chemicals exist in coal ash. “I feel like Duke is going to do everything they can to protect their interests,” Gobble told WCNC reporter Stuart Watson. “I don’t feel like they’re going to protect mine.” With the right bill, the house can.

The post Step #1 in making a better coal ash law? Stop Duke’s corrupting influence appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

Written with Nick Surgey of The Center for Media and Democracy. Image courtesy of CMD’s PR Watch.

Who’s pulling the strings at the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council‘s (ALEC) conference in Dallas, Texas, this week?

According to material obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Greenpeace, Big Oil and King Coal are heavily represented at ALEC’s 41st Annual Meeting. In ALEC task forces, lobbyists vote as equals with state legislators from across the U.S. on industry-friendly legislation, much of which has devastating impacts on our environment, and corporations underwrite parties and trainings where their lobbyists get unparalleled access to lawmakers from almost every state.

One-third of the official ALEC conference sponsors are dirty energy companies, their trade associations, and their political front groups.

The sessions on the ALEC agenda reflect the financial interests of these sponsors.

According to ALEC’s conference agenda, lobbyists instructed legislators how to “talk” and “think” about climate change on the first day of the meeting, clashing with ALEC’s recent insistence to the press that its operations are “completely legislator driven.”

Legislators also received a briefing from a scientifically irrelevant climate change denial group, the “Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change” (NIPCC), published by a fossil fuel front group that infamously compared climate advocates with “murderers, tyrants and madmen.”

In keeping with ALEC’s longtime denial of both the science and solutions to climate change, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a Republican, spoke about proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limits on carbon pollution. That session was sponsored by the world’s largest publicly owned coal company, Peabody Energy, and the trade association for the coal industry, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), of which Peabody is a member.

Other agenda items include a presentation to legislators on the federal government regulating pollution from coal plants and a session on increasing the export of fracked gas from the U.S., likely a result of new ALEC member companies like Cheniere Energy, a liquid natural gas export company.

All of this was set to prepare lobbyists and legislators to sit down, during ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force, to vote together on a new proposed ALEC “model” bill in opposition to the EPA limiting carbon from coal plants. Members of this task force have declared “guerrilla warfare” on the EPA’s newly proposed rule.

Of the 62 sponsors listed by ALEC, 21 represent dirty energy interests:

Chairman level sponsors:

• Partnership for a Better Energy Future
• America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA)
• The Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)
• TXU Energy & Luminant – subsidiaries of Energy Future Holdings, a financially bankrupt company on ALEC’s corporate board

Vice Chairman level sponsors:

• ExxonMobil – on ALEC’s corporate board
• Chevron
• Oncor – also a subsidiary of Energy Future Holdings, on ALEC’s corporate board
• Peabody Energy – on ALEC’s corporate board
• Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) – a rail company that ships coal

Director Level Sponsors:

• Breitling Energy
• Linn Energy
• Phillips
• American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE)
• American Electric Power (AEP) –  co-chair of ALEC’s Energy, Environment & Agriculture task force
• Devon Energy
• TransCanada
• NuStar Energy

Trustee Level Sponsors:

• Apache
• Pioneer Natural Resources
• Energy Transfer

——

See additional details about what else is on ALEC’s conference agenda here.

The post Coal and Oil Polluters Dominate ALEC Conference appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

The American Legislative Exchange Council doesn’t like clean energy. And ALEC doesn’t care about free markets.

Like most of its operations, ALEC won’t talk about these realities in an open way. I tried at ALEC’s recent Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas, but ALEC staffer John Eick stood by his organization’s reputation for secrecy and deflected my questions.

The question I posed references a debacle within ALEC’s Energy, Environment & Agriculture task force meeting, of which Mr. Eick is the director. Wisconsin state Representative Chris Taylor was in the meeting–not as a politician carrying water for coal and oil companies, but to provide the transparency that ALEC won’t.

Writing for The Progressive, Rep. Taylor illustrated a rare debate within the ALEC task force that has made a mission of attacking clean energy incentives and taxing homeowners who put solar panels on their roofs.

ALEC’s John Eick has referred to such self-sufficient homeowners as “freeriders on the system,” asserting they should pay monopolistic utility companies like Duke Energy for selling their excess solar electricity back into the grid.

Despite his suggestion that I arrange an interview at the appropriate time by sending an email, I have not heard back from Mr. Eick after repeated attempts.

ALEC free markets rhetoric is a thin guise.

Check out how the ALEC free markets mantra is contradicted by its roster of dirty energy bills.

The post ALEC has “No Comment” on Free Markets Contradiction appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

Microsoft has made great progress in its commitment to clean energy and climate leadership in recent years, introducing an internal carbon fee and purchasing large amounts of wind energy to power two of its data centers.

But like other leading tech companies which have increased their commitment to renewable energy – including Facebook, Google and Yahoo – Microsoft’s progress has been undermined by its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a shadowy, increasingly controversial organization that has led an attack by the fossil fuel industry against successful clean energy and climate policies in nearly all 50 states.

Today, we learned that Microsoft is correcting that inconsistency, as news spread, confirmed by Microsoft to Greenpeace, that the company has dumped its ALEC membership.

ALEC’s energy agenda is dominated by deep-pocketed coal and oil interests like Exxon Mobil and Peabody Energy. Those companies write “model legislation” for ALEC to try to pass in states that would repeal renewable energy laws, add fees to home and business owners with solar panels, attack EPA standards for carbon pollution, and mandate climate denial instruction in schools, among other initiatives.

Microsoft remains a member of other groups, like the US Chamber of Commerce, CEI, and State Policy Network, that continue to attack clean energy and climate policies, so it still has work to do to ensure that its political activities aren’t undermining its carbon and renewable energy goals, but ALEC has led the charge against the clean energy revolution in recent years, so Microsoft’s dumping its membership is a big move in the right direction.

Google, Facebook, eBay, Yahoo, Yelp and other technology companies that are currently still ALEC members would do well to learn from Microsoft’s leadership. Many of these companies, especially Google and Facebook, have made significant progress powering their operations with renewable energy, and have steadily become stronger advocates for clean energy policies. But they have rationalized their ALEC membership with the excuse that it is an important vehicle for their other, non-energy related political priorities.

Microsoft’s departure from ALEC proves that argument specious: technology companies can advocate for their political agenda without loaning their credibility to organizations that undermine their environmental commitments at every turn.

Greenpeace has seen a positive change in Microsoft’s commitment to renewable energy in the past year, with the company signing significant contracts for renewable energy to power its data centers in Texas and Illinois, moving away from its reliance on the purchase of unbundled renewable energy credits. Its decision to dump ALEC is hopefully another signal that under its new CEO, Microsoft recognizes that renewable energy is smart for the economy, the environment, and Microsoft’s bottom line.

It’s time for Google, Facebook and the other ALEC members to follow Microsoft’s decision, dump ALEC, and stop undermining their own progress that is jumpstarting our clean energy revolution.

The post Microsoft Drops ALEC membership, moves forward with renewable energy appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

Yesterday, about 80 clean energy advocates visited the Arlington, Virginia office of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to protest its dirtywork for polluting companies like Dominion Resources, a major utility in Virginia.

Click here to add your voice: tell Dominion to Dump ALEC!

Brandishing small wind turbines, banners and posters calling on Dominion to sever ties to ALEC, noting the company’s role in causing climate change. Many protestors are Dominion customers out of necessity, due to market monopolization, and are demanding that Dominion make wiser investments with the royalties they provide as customers.

Here are some photos, Courtesy of Oceana’s Caroline Wood. Greenpeace was among the supporting organizations, led by Sierra Club, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Black Youth Project, Food & Water Watch, Oceana, and Progress VA.

Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille

ClimateProgress author and Physicist Joe Romm.

Oceana volunteer Priscilla Lin advocates for quality climate science education.

Jonathan Lykes of the Black Youth Project (BYP100) urges activists to practice unity among movements for economic, racial and climate justice.

Ivy Main, Chair of Sierra Club Virginia Chapter

Protestors Engage Traffic Before the Event

The following guest speakers urged for action on climate change, clean energy development, unity across movements, and racial and economic justice:

• Bill Euille – Mayor of Alexandria VA
• Joe Romm – Physicist and Founder of Climate Progress
• Jonathan Lykes – Co- Chair Black Youth Project 100, D.C. Chapter
• Jorge Aguilar – Southern Region Director at Food & Water Watch
• Priscilla Lin – Recent graduate of William and Marry College and Volunteer with Oceana
• Ivy Main – Chair Sierra Club Virginia Chapter and  member of Virginia Governor’s Climate Commission
• Seth Heald – Vice Chair, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter

Building Pressure on Dominion to Dump ALEC:

This protest is the latest in ongoing calls for Dominion Resources to sever ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council. Alexandria Mayer Bill Euille wrote an op-ed in the Fairfax Times, encouraging readers to “to join me in Crystal City at the Sept. 4 rally calling on Dominion to sever its ties with ALEC.”

Shareholders have filed resolutions at Dominion’s last annual meeting, and formally requesting increased commitment to addressing climate change and disassociation from ALEC, citing climate change denial and complaints to the IRS about ALEC’s potential tax status violations.

Of nine ALEC member utilities contacted by Greenpeace earlier this year, Dominion was one among three that continued to stand by ALEC.

Why all the pressure and protest?

ALEC is currently helping dirty energy companies wage “guerrilla warfare” against the country’s first rule to curb climate pollution as part of a decades-long effort to deny climate change science and block policy solutions. In recent years, ALEC’s coal and oil company members have used the shadowy lobbying group–through its state politician members–to attack incentives for clean energy and penalize homeowners who install their own solar panels. ALEC infamously labeled such people “freeriders on the system.”

Despite being repeatedly pressed by Greenpeace on how ALEC upholds its “free market” slogan when it consistently attacks clean energy incentives while advancing fossil fuel industry interests, ALEC staff have not been able to account for the contradiction:

Leading this charge within ALEC is the Edison Electric Institute, the primary trade association for utility companies like Dominion and Duke Energy. Todd Wynn, a climate change denier who previously directed ALEC’s Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force, is now working for Edison Electric Institute. EEI remains a primary voice within ALEC’s anti-environmental task force, which on churns out model policies to undermine pollution safeguards and stunt the growth of clean energy development.

Not accountable to customers, lobbyists like Wynn at EEI provide some political cover for its utility members like Dominion, Duke Energy, and Arizona Public Service, all of which have ignored calls to dump ALEC and have acted aggressively against distribute generation solar energy–homeowners and small businesses taking steps to become energy independent.

@PolluterWatch Live Tweets from the Protest:

Mayor @BillEuille calls on dirty utility @DomVApower to embrace #cleanenergy and dump @ALEC_States #ALECexposed #StandUpToALEC

— Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014

.@climateprogress Joe Romm: @domvapower support for @ALEC_states is “immoral.” ‘Corps dont need livable #climate, people do.’ #alecexposed — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014

Romm: Thomas Jefferson wouldnt support ALEC disregard 4 sustainability, #climate policy interference. #alecexposed pic.twitter.com/jdMJTBuIJw

— Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014

.@sierraclub‘s ishmael buckner moderates ALEC protest calling on @domvapower to #DumpALEC! #alecexposed pic.twitter.com/tWztkOwP1s — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014

.@jonathanlykes calls for unity among siloed movements to #StandUpToALEC! @damvapower dump ALEC! #alecexposed pic.twitter.com/sQv2rGpi7h

— Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014

Student Priscilla stands up for recognition of #climate science – someone tell @domvapower! #alecexposed pic.twitter.com/zaDkYIMgbG — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014

Ivy Main on ALEC’s anti-all-things-people policies for companies like @dompowerva #alexexposed #standuptoalec pic.twitter.com/iNxyjjEjqZ

— Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014

Creative paraphrasing of @jonathanlykes: @Domvapower – dont #StandYourGround on bad ALEC anti-person policies! pic.twitter.com/mGmOfs6k2W — Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014

Protest wrapping up – time for @domvapower to #ActOnClimate and dump @alec_states! #alecexposed #standuptoalec pic.twitter.com/bREoWKSfiE

— Polluter Watch (@PolluterWatch) September 4, 2014

Supporting Organizations.

The post Climate Advocacy Heats Up on Dominion to Dump ALEC appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

Greenpeace has been a longtime supporter of the Moral Monday movement. Most recently, we co-sponsored Moral Monday Labor Day in Charlotte. We recognize that environmental issues are social justice issues. We were proud to stand with over 500 people to celebrate labor and call for necessary changes in our community.

I had the opportunity to speak before the crowd. Here is what I said:

On February 2nd, we experienced one of the worst environmental disasters in our state’s history when Duke Energy dumped 39,000 tons of toxic coal ash into the Dan River, devastating entire communities and ways of life.

Here we are 7 months later, and Duke says they are done cleaning the river after only having removed 7% of the coal ash.

Our community is at risk. 80% of our water supply sits directly beside multiple toxic coal ash dumps.

Unfortunately the NC Legislature has sided once again with the utility monopoly and not with the people of North Carolina. The NC Legislature recently passed a bill allowing Duke to leave most of their toxic coal ash dumps in place, risking the health and economic well-being of communities across the state.

A recent poll shows that 93% of NC voters believe Duke Energy should pay for coal ash cleanup. And yet this bill allows Duke to raise our bills as early as January, forcing ratepayers to pay for their mess. This, from a company that has raised our electrical bills 3 times in the last 4 years. This, from the company that recently reported an 80% jump in profits over last quarter.

This bill continues to highlight the cozy relationship between Duke, and our so-called representatives, whether elected or appointed.

But we know that there is only one way we can solve the coal ash problem, and that is to not create coal ash in the first place. We can do this by moving away from dirty energy like coal and moving toward clean, renewable energy like solar.

Solar energy is more affordable than ever before and  is rapidly growing in North Carolina. Solar is key to the new green economy. It is an investment in our future.

As solar grows, so does the demand for green jobs, skilled jobs that pay a fair wage, jobs that can support a family, a community, jobs that cannot be outsourced.

Greenpeace is proud to have worked with many community partners, including the NAACP to successfully bring solar to homeowners in our community, through Solarize Charlotte.

We are excited to begin working to bring  solar energy to our schools, creating jobs and cleaning the air for our children in the process.

I would also like to invite you to join us for what will be the largest climate march in history.

On  September 21st, over 100,000 people will gather in New York City for the People’s Climate March.

This is an invitation to change everything.

With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we will take a stand to bend the course of history. We will take to the streets to demand the world we need: a world with an economy that works for people and the planet; a world safe from the ravages of climate change; a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities.

To change everything, we need everyone on board.

Please sign-up at our table if you are interested in getting involved with solar schools and the the Peoples’ Climate March.

Greenpeace is proud to stand with all of you today!

Forward together, not one step back!

RSVP for the People’s Climate March

The post VIDEO: Greenpeace Proudly Participates in Moral Monday Labor Day appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

INTERACTIVE DATABASE: Koch Foundation Funding to Colleges and Universities

Key findings from our full report:

• Koch financed just seven universities in 2005, rising to about 250 in 2014
• Koch compensated a Florida State University Ph.D student over $500,000 while Koch and FSU negotiated contract

Part 1 of a blog series taken from our full report.

Over the last several years, Greenpeace has exposed how foundations controlled by Kansas billionaires Charles and David Koch, owners of Koch Industries, have sent tens of millions of dollars to groups that deny climate change science, undermine policy solutions to the problem, and attack subsidies for clean energy competition while preserving handouts to fossil fuel companies.

Koch Industries itself has a sordid history of environmental problems, from toxic gas leaks to pipeline ruptures and explosions to contamination of U.S. waterways from petroleum coke and industrial chemicals.

Koch’s pollution isn’t limited to the physical world. Koch pollutes our democracy by raising and coordinating hundreds of millions of dollars to funnel through the “Kochtopus” network of front groups, bankrolling political campaigns to advance the business interests of Koch Industries and the ideologies that have made Charles Koch rich.

Now Greenpeace is tracking Koch’s intellectual pollution of college campuses. Charles Koch has rapidly expanded giving to universities, sending $50 million to 254 U.S. and Canadian institutions of higher education. Koch’s investments in universities has skyrocketed in recent years, from just seven schools in 2005 to about 250 today. This massive shift in investment comes at the supervision of Koch Industries executive Richard Fink. Fink’s political strategy, the “Structure of Social Change,” is built around universities, which provide ideas for Koch political groups to manufacture into policies they later advocate for.

Greenpeace’s interest comes from a years-long backlash against Koch’s attempts to control academic discourse by students, faculty and alumni. We have mounting evidence that Koch-funded departments are helping wage Koch Industries ongoing campaign to undermine the climate change science and policy solutions, all of which is detailed below.

Evidence at schools like George Mason University, Florida State University, Clemson University and Suffolk University fits a familiar pattern: Charles Koch expects a specific return on his large investments.

Charles Koch’s University Contracts: Strings Attached

As detailed by reporters like Lee Fang, Dan Berrett, and Dave Levinthal, Koch-funded university programs tend to promote a specific agenda, at the expense of independence and academic freedom. Few grant agreements are publicly available, leaving students at most universities in the dark about the influence of Koch and other corporate donors. The following schools offer a window into that world:

Florida State University

New internal emails from FSU published by the Center for Public Integrity show how Koch worked with FSU’s Economics chair, Bruce Benson, who was offered another $105,000 from Koch to stay at FSU and see the Koch contract through to completion (though Benson says he didn’t end out taking the money). In a lengthy memo, Benson clearly described to his staff the “ethical/moral issues” they were committing to in signing a deal with the Charles Koch Foundation:

“some will object to having any group trying to use our department (or any other department) as a means of furthering their political agenda. I have considerable sympathy for these normative arguments. Indeed, I wish that universities were free of political manipulation. Unfortunately, the reality is that we live and work in an environment that is subject to all sorts of political manipulations”

Benson wasn’t the only FSU official Koch offered money to during negotiation with FSU. While working on his economics dissertation under FSU’s Bruce Benson and James Gwartney, a graduate student named Matt Brown was compensated $549,931 over a three-year period as he helped FSU negotiate its contract with Koch, according to IRS 990 tax filings from the Charles Koch Foundation in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and whistleblower information shared with Greenpeace.

The first FSU Koch Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 2008, but was later critiqued in a FSU Faculty Senate report in 2011. The faculty Senate’s review resulted in an Amended FSU/Koch Memorandum of Understanding in 2013. FSU students and faculty still report that provdes inappropriate influence to Charles Koch.

Utah State University

As reported by Dan Berrett for Inside Higher Ed in 2011: “In at least one case besides that of Florida State, Utah State University, the grant agreements give the foundation a role in reviewing candidates for positions.” Berrett notes that USU’s “hiring processes are spelled out more explicitly” than at other schools. The Utah State University Koch grant contract mandates Koch-funded, tenure-track professors follow specific “Objectives and Purposes” that vaguely describe Charles Koch’s ideological preferences, which are described in more tangible ways in contracts with West Virginia University and Clemson (see below).

USU’s contract makes it clear that Koch can pull funding at any time, despite requiring professors to be tenured or on track to tenure, potentially leaving the university on the hook after ceasing a relationship. Koch also includes a legally-shaky “Confidentiality” clause that requests Utah State hide public records “subject to disclosure requirements of public Universities under Utah law,” in order to avoid FOIA requests for communications and documents relating to Koch’s partnership with Utah State.

USU now has a “Koch Scholars” program that pays students $1,000 to join study groups. The Koch Scholars reading list includes Charles Koch’s The Science of Success.

West Virginia University

West Virginia University’s Koch contract makes “human freedom” and “free market economics” the central objective of WVU professors hired on Koch’s dime. The Charles Koch Foundation explicitly required supervision from Professor Russell Sobel (now at Citadel College), and gave Koch preferential power over which professors to hire at WVU, naming Donald J. Lamcombe and Andrew Young as prospects for tenure-track professor hires, threatening to revoke money if those men were not hired on. Both Lamcombe and Young currently work at WVU.

Koch made the hiring process clear, contracting WVU to follow specific protocol:

“Prior to the extension of any offer for the Donor Supported Professorship Positions [professors hired with Koch grants], the Dean of the College of Business and Economics, in consultation with professor Russell Sobel or his successor, shall present the candidate’s credentials to CGK Foundation.”

As with Utah State University and Clemson, WVU’s contract explicitly leaves the school responsible for continuing to fund professors hired on by Koch grants if the Koch foundation pulls out.

Clemson University

Clemson’s Koch contract includes similar hiring control and “Objectives” as Utah State University and West Virginia University, with explicit language ensuring that Koch-funded professors would “support the research into the causes, measurements, impact, and appreciation of economic freedom.”

It’s a red flag for Koch to narrow its programs at Clemson to promote “economic freedom,” a concept that’s actually created by Koch itself through the Fraser Institute in Canada, working in conjunction with professors in Florida State University’s Koch-funded economics department, like James Gwartney (see Charles Koch Institute’s Economic Freedom website and Fraser Institute‘s 2013 Economic Freedom of the World report, supported by Charles Koch Foundation, p. 251, written by by James Gwartney Charles G. Koch Doctoral Scholarship recipient Alice M. Crisp, p.250).

The other major index of “economic freedom” comes from the Heritage Foundation, another organization funded by Koch foundations. Heritage Foundation’s metrics prioritize privatization, lower wages, weaker labor protection laws, and less regulation – i.e. more potential to pollute for free and harm people without suffering any consequences, one of many examples where Charles Koch’s ideological campaigns match his business interests.

The most prominent activist group founded by the Koch brothers, Americans for Prosperity, currently displays the following on its website: Americans for Prosperity is…ECONOMIC FREEDOM IN ACTION.

Charles Koch: Violating Academic Freedom

When Charles Koch finances the very idea of “economic freedom” and then bankrolls university departments to teach the concept to its students, he is doing so at the expense of another crucial freedom: academic freedom.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has made it clear that Koch contracts at schools like FSU, Clemson and Utah State violate the principles of academic freedom by narrowing professor’s duties to serve what Koch outlines, rather than offering grants free of strings for schools to make independent choices about how to explore subjects with their students. Former AAUP president Cary Nelson told Inside Higher Ed:

“Although the Koch Foundation’s objectives are written so as to sound upbeat and cheerful, they amount to code words calling for the dismantling of the welfare state. ‘Economic freedom,’ sounds like mom and apple pie until you realize it means the government shouldn’t collect taxes, and ‘free voluntary processes’ means buy health care on your own if you can afford it.

“It is wholly inappropriate for an outside foundation to use a university to promote its ideological biases in this way. The Kochs can fund positions to hire faculty members who study these issues, but not control what stand the faculty members hired take on them. That distinction is part of the firewall protecting academic freedom.”

This is consistent with documentation of Charles Koch’s direct approval of high school curricula with very specific ideological goals, including dismissing ideas that the “Rich get richer at the expense of the poor” or that “Minimum wage, ‘living wage,’ laws are good for people/society.” This high school program was created by Youth Entrepreneurs, an organization founded by Charles Koch in 1993, supported by the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, which Mr. Koch has chaired and funded for decades.

In his ongoing capacity as the IHS chairman, Koch has described in clear terms how he believes universities should to serve as an extension of business interests if they are to accept corporate money. Here is Charles Koch in his own words, speaking to the IHS Board of Directors in 1974:

“[W]e have supported the very institutions from which the attack on free markets emanate. Although much of our support has been involuntary through taxes, we have also contributed voluntarily to colleges and universities on the erroneous assumption that this assistance benefits businesses and the free enterprise system, even though these institutions encourage extreme hostility to American business. We should cease financing our own destruction and follow the counsel of David Packard, former Deputy Secretary of Defense, by supporting only those programs, departments or schools that ‘contribute in some way to our individual companies or to the general welfare of our free enterprise system.'”

In the speech, Koch cited the Lewis Powell memo, penned by the Supreme Court Justice who previously served on the board of major corporations like Phillip Morris. Powell’s 1971 memo to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce demanded aggressive involvement of business leaders in the realms of politics, media, courts and education. Charles Koch appears to have taken Powell’s call to action more seriously than any other business executive in modern American history.

But in pursuit of his goals, Charles Koch not only threatens academic freedom but shoots holes in his own ideological convictions. Through groups controlled by Koch and his “grand strategist” Richard Fink like the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Koch attacks regulations that he doesn’t find favorable, an ironic exercise of the very “corporate cronyism” that Koch decries his public opining.

Now it is time for politicians, pundits, professors and legal professionals alike to questions if they are serving their various constituencies, or if they are being used to deploy the decades-long mission of Charles Koch.

Database of Koch Funding to Colleges & Universities:

The post Academic Pollution: Greenpeace Traces Koch Money on Campus appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

INTERACTIVE DATABASE: Koch Foundation Funding to Colleges and Universities

Key findings:

• Professors in Koch-funded departments are involved in climate science denial despite lack of scientific credentials
• Political groups hosted by Koch-funded universities are used to attack clean energy policies and pollution regulations

Part 2 of blog series taken from our full report: Koch Pollution on Campus Academic Freedom Under Assault From Charles Koch’s $50 million Campaign to Infiltrate Higher Education

We Sold Our Souls for Koch Control

Covering a deal struck between Koch and Arizona State University, LA Times reporter Michael Hiltzik asked, “When universities sell their souls, why do they have to sell so cheaply?” Koch’s sudden invasion of higher education has been widely protested and continues to escalate.

Brooklyn City University of New York (CUNY) flat-out rejected Koch’s offer for a multi-million dollar grant this year, to the ire of a professor negotiating with the Koch foundation.

At Florida State University (FSU), students and professors have exposed Koch influence since 2011, protesting how Charles Koch’s staff hold undue control over professor hires. The conversation at FSU remains heated, with students declaring that FSU’s revised contract with Koch is no better than its old contract, still conceding informal hiring control and other functions to Koch.

As FSU searches for a new president, one nominee in particular has drawn criticism from students and faculty for his lack of academic background, connections to Koch-funded groups and politicians, and his role as a Florida Senator in passing new legislation exempting university donor communications from public record requests.

At Suffolk University, an alumna has petitioned the university to address concerns over Koch money on campus. Suffolk University’s administration has been under fire for continuing allow Koch to run political campaigns out of the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) in Suffolk’s name, on Suffolk’s campus.

George Mason University students have recently called upon their administration to make transparent their financial arrangements with Koch and other corporate interests (p. 12). GMU president Ángel Cabrera put up a response that didn’t address transparency concerns outlined by a student group calling itself “Transparent GMU.” On a recent Reddit AMA with President Cabrera, students cited a Politico Magazine article that implicated GMU as a major part of Koch’s political apparatus and pushed for answers. President Cabrera agreed to meet with students, though there is no indication that has yet happened.

The United Negro College Fund has become central in the Koch university debate after UNCF took $25 million from Charles Koch. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) withdrew its partnership with UNCF after learning UNCF president Michael Lomax personally attended Koch’s political strategy & fundraising meeting in June, 2014. Michael Lomax mocked his critics at the Koch donor summit, according to audio leaked to the press.

Students, faculty, alumni and activists alike have also spoken out at Catholic University, George Washington University, and University of Arizona.

Climate Science Denial on Koch-Funded Campuses

Of primary concern to Greenpeace is evidence of professors in Koch-funded university departments denying the science of climate change. Some universities that are threatened to be staffed or controlled by known financiers of climate “skepticism” or play roles in Koch’s political campaigns against climate policies.

FSU – Climate Denial Econ 101

Professor James Gwartney at Florida State University co-authored a textbook called Economics: Private and Public Choice. This “widely used” textbook has been criticized for six years straight by Ph.D economist Yoram Bauman for misrepresenting the science of climate change – a field well outside of the authors’ credentialed experience. Since 2010, when Dr. Bauman began ranking economics textbooks that include climate change back, Gwartney et al. have not only ranked dead-last every time, but have made little progress in updating the inaccurate and false assertions made in their widely-used textbook.

Three authors of Economics: Private and Public Choice have overlapping connections to Koch-funded universities and political groups.

• James Gwartney works in the Koch-funded Florida State University economics department, and is on the Research Advisory Council of the Koch-funded James Madison Institute, itself a member of the Koch-funded State Policy Network. Gwartney is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, founded by Charles Koch and currently directed by David Koch and other close Koch associates. Gwartney received the Adam Smith award and Distinguished Scholar Award from the Association for Private Enterprise Education (APEE), which organizes professors at schools receiving Koch grants. Gwartney has served as president, vice president and executive board member of APEE. APEE itself receives money from Charles Koch. James Gwartney has authored at least 11 editions of “Economic Freedom of the World” for the Fraser Institute and the Cato Institute, a project funded by Koch. “Economic freedom” is written into the “Objectives” of Koch’s contract with Clemson University, as noted above.

• Richard Stroup teaches at North Carolina State University, which helps the Charles Koch Institute place “summer fellows” into paid internships at Koch-funded political groups. Stroup is a director of the Institute for Energy Research (IER), itself founded by Charles Koch, and is a fellow at the Cato Institute, also founded by Charles Koch. Along with Charles Koch, Dr. Stroup is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society. Stroup authored “Free Market Environmentalism” for the anti-environmental Property and Environment Research Council (PERC), yet another organization financed by Koch foundations, which created a Free Market Environmentalism college course syllabus.

• Russell Sobel now teaches at Citadel College Military College of South Carolina, after abruptly leaving West Virginia University in 2012, a top Koch-Funded school where Sobel was hand-chosen by the Charles Koch Foundation to direct the programs it funds. Sobel earned his economics Ph.D at FSU under Randy Holocombe. Sobel is a visiting fellow at the South Carolina Policy Council, part of the Koch-funded State Policy Network, and is affiliated with the Mercatus Center, the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute, Tax Foundation, and Koch-funded hubs at Troy University in Alabama and Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. Sobel served on the executive board of the Koch-funded consortium of professors, the Association of Private Enterprise Education, and received an award from APEE in 2007. Sobel has argued that mine safety regulations make coal miners less safe.

Ironically, the 2008 and 2013 contracts between Koch and FSU were signed by former president Eric Barron, a climate scientist who is now president of Penn State University, which has received $74,500 from Charles Koch since 2008.

Climate Disbelief Ground Zero – George Mason University Economics

Perhaps most prominently, George Mason University’s involvement in undermining environmental priorities is well-known, undermining other GMU divisions, like the respected Center for Climate Change Communication.

GMU Professor Walter Williams has publicly rejected the science of climate change. After employing some popular disproved remarks to encourage doubt over scientists’ findings, Williams stated in June, 2014, “Only idiocy would conclude that mankind’s capacity to change the climate is more powerful than the forces of nature.” Williams is a Rush Limbaugh stand-in host and charter board member of Americans for Prosperity. Williams mentored longtime Koch political operative Nancy Pfotenhauer, herself a former Koch Industries lobbyist her served as AFP’s first president, who until recently served as treasurer on GMU’s Board of Visitors.

The Mercatus Center at GMU was founded by Charles Koch and its ongoing president Richard Fink. Fink established Mercatus from a predecessor organization at Rutgers University, and was followed by GMU economics professor Tyler Cowen. Mercatus has history of opposing attempts to control greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming, an inherent consequence of Koch Industries’ oil and gas business divisions. Mercatus has continued this work into 2014, opposing attempts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to limit carbon pollution at coal plants.

The Institute for Humane Studies, also at GMU and chaired by Charles Koch, was called “a haven for climate change deniers,” by Mother Jones, recruiting students to work for Koch-funded organizations that have battled climate change policy, clean energy development incentives and laws & regulations in the crosshairs of Koch Industries.

Suffolk University – The Backbone of Attacks on Clean Energy & Climate Policy

The Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) at Suffolk University serves as a factory of economic policy studies for the Koch-funded State Policy Network. BHI’s research methodology (STAMP model) has been widely dismissed by economists and journalists citing BHI’s liberal use of “mathematical adjustment.” BHI has published anti renewable energy studies in states across the country, a tactic to interfere with addressing climate change, not to mention competition with fossil fuel companies like Koch.

The Suffolk Journal confirmed that over $750,000 in Koch donations have gone to BHI. The Journal interviewed BHI director David Tuerck, who admitted to Koch funding but denied any influence over research.

But shortly after, The Guardian published a grant proposal from BHI to undermine the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade program practiced by 10 northeast states that the Koch brothers actively oppose. The grant proposal proved that the BHI study’s outcome preceded the research: “Success will take the form of media recognition, dissemination to stakeholders, and legislative activity that will pare back or repeal RGGI.” BHI’s grant request was sent to the Searle Freedom Trust, one of several corporate foundations that bundles grants in coordination with Koch.

In response, Suffolk denounced the actions of the Beacon Hill Institute, but has allowed BHI to use its campus office to continue attacks on state clean energy laws around the country and undermine the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

A Pope of Climate Denial Looms – UNC Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina schools Chapel Hill and Greensboro are on the Charles Koch payroll, and receive money from one of Koch’s closest political allies, Art Pope. Pope, himself a major funder of groups that deny climate change, has leveraged his political groups, his personal donations and his former position as North Carolina’s budget director to bring the university system to its knees.

Pope was a charter director of Koch’s Americans for Prosperity, which runs a pledge to commit politicians against addressing global warming. Pope previously served on the board of AFP’s predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy, another group created by the Kochs. He attends Charles Koch’s regular donor summits and gives over $1 million to Koch’s political campaigns, as acknowledged by Charles Koch himself.

Groups founded by Art Pope, including the Civitas Institute and the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy (named after Pope’s father, a former UNC Chapel Hill trustee), have been critical of the UNC system, lining up behind Pope’s consistent pressure to weaken UNC’s budget. The president of the Pope Center for Higher Education, Jane Shaw, is married to Richard Stroup, the NC State professor who co-authored the economics textbook misrepresenting climate science (see above).

Freshly departed from his appointed position as NC Gov. Pat McCrory’s budget director, Art Pope is now rumored to be seeking presidency at the entire University of North Carolina system, composed of 17 schools.

Climate Denier Slips into University of Colorado, Boulder & Pepperdine University

In the spring of 2014, Steven F. Hayward taught “Free Market Environmentalism” at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Hayward has no credentials as a scientist nor economist, and has a long history of involvement anti-environmental campaigns for fossil fuel interests like Koch and ExxonMobil. “Free Market Environmentalism” is a concept promoted by the Koch-funded Property and Environment Research Center, of which Hayward is a board member.

Steven Hayward’s appointment as Boulder’s “Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought” was controversial after he published offensive commentary on the LGBTQ community that was protested by students and faculty.

The University of Colorado Foundation, located in Boulder, has received $58,000 from Charles Koch since 2009. Now, Hayward is teaching at Pepperdine University in Malibou, CA, which has received $49,650 from Koch since 2009.

Steven F. Hayward has been one of the most outspoken deniers of climate change science for over a decade. He wears numerous hats among Koch-funded groups opposing environmental policies, and oversees tens of millions of dollars as a board member of organizations that coordinate funding with Koch foundations or launder Koch money to front groups.

Hayward controls tens of millions of dollars flowing to SPN & climate denier groups every year:

• On the board of Searle Freedom Trust as a grant adviser
• On the board of Donors Capital Fund as a treasurer. Koch foundations have funneled $8.865 million to Donors Capital Fund and sister group Donors Trust since 2005, which in turn sends money to groups in the State Policy Network, including groups employing Steven Hayward. Searle Freedom Trust also gives money to Donors Trust. Searle president Kim Dennis is on the boards of Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, and is on George Mason University’s board of visitors.

Hayward’s various positions before U-Colorado and Pepperdine:

• On the board of Koch-funded Institute for Energy Research
  • IER was founded by Charles Koch in TX, and former Koch Industries lobbyist Tom Pyle is IER’s president.

• On the board of CFACT (Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow)
  • More than half of CFACT’s budget is through Donors Trust & Donors Capital Fund, where Hayward is the treasurer

• Former FK Weyerhauser fellow at Koch-funded American Enterprise Institute
  • At AEI, Hayward offered $10,000 to scientists willing to deny climate change in published essays

• Former fellow at Koch-funded Pacific Research Institute

• Former senior fellow at Koch-funded Heritage Foundation

• On the board of Koch-funded Property and Environment Research Center (PERC)
  • SYLLABUS: “Free Market Environmentalism,” written in 2002 by PERC‘s J. Bishop Grewell, containing readings from numerous people at Koch-funded organizations.

Other financial ties back to Koch:

• Hayward is a former fellow of the Mont Pelerin Society, a secretive international society that pushes Austrian Economic perspective around the globe. Charles Koch is a member of Mont Pelerin and was a personal friend of MP’s Austrian co-founder, Friederich Hayek.

• Contributes to Powerline Blog, run by a lawyer who has represented Koch Industries

• Contributor to Reason Magazine.
  • David Koch as a trustee of the Reason Foundation, which regularly gets large Koch grants

• Contributor to Koch-funded National Review
  • National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru has attended Koch meetings. NR contributors regularly publish misleading information on climate change for NR’s Planet Gore blog

• Contributor to Koch-funded Daily Caller
  • Daily Caller was founded by Carson Daily, a Cato Institute scholar, with money from billionaire Foster Friess, who coordinates political spending with the Koch brothers at their bi-annual summits.
• Contributor to Weekly Standard
  • WS is owned by oil/gas billionaire Phil Anschutz, who attends KochWorld meetings. WS’ Michael Goldfarb was contracted to do public relations for Koch

Steven Hayward and climate science denial:

• Author of Mere Environmentalism: A Biblical Perspective on Humans and the Natural World

• Hayward created and starred in the climate denial documentary “An Inconvenient Truth….or Convenient Fiction?“

• He’s a guest in the other denier documentaries like Resisting The Green Dragon (by the Christian anti-environmental group the Cornwall Alliance, almost entirely funded by Donors Trust/Capital Fund through the James Partnership)

• More on Hayward from DeSmogBlog, ExxonSecrets, SourceWatch

Database of Koch Funding to Colleges & Universities:

The post Climate Denial College: Students push back on Koch Attack on Academic Freedom appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

Here’s a nice, shot, submitted to Democracy Now! by an anonymous pilot of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV – a.k.a. “drone”).

Attendance estimates at the People’s Climate March officially range from 125,000-311,000, according to different measurements by protest organizers and journalists that have been widely reported.

Momentum from the immense protest carried through yesterday’s activities at Flood Wall Street to draw attention to the financial sector’s looming role in climate change, where incentives to make money are notoriously more coveted than incentives to serve people and the country. Among the 104 arrested was a polar bear.

The pressure continued into the night, on the eve of the United Nations Summit, as Greenpeace shone the message “Protect the People, not the Polluters” onto the UN building in Manhattan, in nine different languages. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon joined protestors at the People’s Climate March.

Just watched a polar bear get interviewed for CNN #FloodWallStreet http://t.co/1KcNEmCSKo pic.twitter.com/HItZgsNeER — Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) September 22, 2014

Police have arrested the polar bear #FloodWallStreet pic.twitter.com/jKq7byFUxG

— Jordan Mammo (@jordanmammo) September 22, 2014

The post Aerial Video: Immense Crowd at People’s Climate March appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt set off a rush to the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) exit doors by other companies this week because, as he put it, ALEC has been “literally lying” about climate change and his company wants nothing to do with it.

ALEC claims Google’s decision to drop out is based on “misinformation from climate activists who intentionally confuse free market policy perspectives for climate change denial.”

It’s a preposterous claim. ALEC regularly invites climate deniers from the Heartland Institute and other front groups to make presentations at its closed-door meetings. ALEC has also pushed model legislation written by climate deniers which suggests that global warming will be “possibly beneficial.”

Beneficial to whom? Perhaps to ALEC itself. ALEC has received strong financial support from big fossil fuel companies like Exxon, Peabody Coal and Koch Industries.

In recent years ALEC has been attacking renewable energy by pushing various bills, including one that would impose a fee on any homeowner who chooses to install solar panels on their roof. That’s ALEC’s “free market policy perspective”: Intervene in the market to dissuade homeowners from the many benefits of solar, including lower utility bills, less asthma-inducing coal pollution, and a community that is more more resilient to superstorms and other threats, including terrorist attacks on the electricity grid.

The New York Times summed it up pretty well: “The Koch brothers and their conservative allies in state government have found a new tax they can support. Naturally it’s a tax on something the country needs: solar energy panels.”

Since Google’s recent announcement, a bunch of companies have started to follow, including Facebook and Yahoo. You’d think there’d be a lot more companies rushing for the door. Why would any self-respecting company side with habitual liars like the Kochs, who are probably the single biggest source of climate denier front group funding (at least $67 million since 1997)?

The Kochs’ lies are not just polluting the air, but the airwaves:

Non-partisan media analysts at Politicfact.com report that NONE of the statements made by Americans for Prosperity — the Koch brothers’ lead political arm – are true or even “mostly true.” None. 86% are “mostly false,” outright “false” or deserving of a “pants on fire” rating.

Considering that Koch-connected non-profits ran over 43,000 mid-term TV ads between January and the end of August – nearly one out of every 10 political ads aired in the entire country — if the sample analyzed by Politifact reflects the broader pattern, then the Kochs are basically carpet-bombing the country with all sorts of lies.

That’s the kind of political “speech” John Roberts and rest of his Supreme Court majority unleashed in their Citizens United decision. And the effect is so corrosive to the entire political discourse that as Rob Sisson, president of ConservAmerica (formerly Republicans for Environmental Protection) has said, Republicans are now “afraid” to even talk about global warming, fearing “political repercussions” of doing so. The only Republican running for Senate in 2014 to even mention climate change on his web site – Jim Rubens – fell silent after signing the Koch brothers’ pledge not to do anything about global warming.

Where’s the “free speech” in that?

Everyone but Congress understands the urgency.

Scientists get it. Health professionals get it. Companies with extended supply chains at risk from increasingly intense and frequent superstorms get it.

National security leaders get it and are saying it clearly and repeatedly: Both the 2010 National Security Strategy and the U.S. Quadrennial Defense Review of 2014 describe global warming as a top national security threat. And yet, as Michael Chertoff and Leon Panetta suggest in their introduction to a Military Advisory Board’s 2014 report on the national security risks of projected climate change, “We are dismayed that discussions of climate change have become so polarizing and have receded from the arena of informed public discourse and debate.”

The congressional climate deniers are way out of step with their own base, which suggests that siding with the Kochs and climate liars is a very big risk to take: According to a survey conducted for the League of Conservation Voters, over half of young Republican voters (i.e. under 35 yrs old) think politicians who deny climate change is happening as “ignorant,” “out-of-touch” or “crazy.”

If they win this fall, the Republicans in control of Congress will have a hard time convincing the American people that spewing a poisonous fog of lies about the global warming “hoax” and the Obama administration’s reckless “war on coal” is real leadership.

In truth, it’s becoming clear that there IS a war — a war on democracy waged by the conservative billionaires like the Kochs who hailed Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at their secret retreat in June, when he vowed to destroy the EPA if Republicans win back the Senate this fall.

McConnell, who was coal baron Shaun McCutcheon’s co-plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that gave the assembled plutocrats the right to spend $3.6 million each election cycle, praised the Supreme Court during his speech for “level[ing] the playing field for corporate speech.”

“We now have, I think, the most free and open system we’ve had in modern times,” McConnell told the assembled plutocrats. “The Supreme Court allowed all of you to participate in the process in a variety of different ways. You can give to the candidate of your choice. You can give to Americans for Prosperity, or something else, a variety of different ways to push back against the party of government. It has nothing to do with overly political speech.”

In other words, in addition to the $3.6 million they can give directly to candidates and party committees, they can give millions of dollars to the Kochs’ network of dark money groups and super PACs, which added up to about $400 million in 2012.

Although almost everyone has heard about the Kochs, not many of the other top donors are so well known. In our new report, “The Kingpins of Carbon and Their War on Democracy,” Greenpeace analyzed the list of top 2012 political spenders, identifying 88 individual top donors who are connected to the fossil fuel industry. That’s 88 Carbon Kingpins who (because of the McCutcheon decision) can now give up to $3.6 million each directly to candidates and party committees every two-year federal campaign cycle.

We also identified 67 top political donors who are also closely tied to the Koch brothers. Many of whom were no doubt in the room when McConnell praised the court for setting them “free” from the onerous regulations that restricted them to contributing “just” $123,200 – i.e. twice the amount that an average American family makes each year.

This is what plutocracy looks like: The Koch brothers and their billionaire cronies have so oiled the Congress and many state legislatures (as well as some universities and colleges) – that, in essence, they have set our ability to address climate change far back enough to become a national security threat.

(Speaking of national security — Koch Industries also put more lobbying muscle than any other company into killing proposed legislation to protect communities from chemical disasters caused by terrorist attacks or accidents like the one in West, Texas a few years ago. The company operates 57 facilities that put 4.4 million workers and nearby residents at constant risk from a catastrophic release of the poison gases they store on-site.)

Of course the Koch brothers are not the sole source of congressional climate denial.  Together the dozens of other carbon kingpins (should we call them “pollutocrats”?), their corporate lobbyists, trade associations, think tanks and congressional sock puppets have, as the Union of Concerned Scientists puts it, “dictated how the public understands (or misunderstands) climate science and how the national discussion on climate policy has progressed – or not progressed.” And these enormous political investments even pays them back in spades. Oil Change and the Sierra Club calculate that the subsidies, tax breaks and handouts the federal government gives to the fossil fuel industries each year is over 5,000 percent larger than their total political contributions and lobbying expenditures.

This kind of outsized influence and its destructive consequences for communities, businesses and the environment extends across the board to other issues, leading one to reach the reasonable conclusion that the Koch brothers’ club of billionaire cronies and other Carbon Kingpins and plutocrats have so stymied common sense and congressional action addressing so many issues of importance to the country that they pose a fundamental threat to the very future of American democracy.

It’s no wonder that 54 Senators voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s destructive Citizens United decision and that unions, civil rights groups and environmental groups (including Greenpeace) have joined together through the Democracy Initiative.

Some, at least, understand the nature of the crisis and the need for real leadership.

Any honest, self-respecting leader – regardless of his or her political affiliation – has to agree with Schmidt that the Kochs and other Carbon Kingpins and front groups like ALEC who have effectively sabotaged every effort to pull the world back from the climate change cliff “are really hurting our children and our grandchildren and making the world a much worse place…we should not be aligned with such people – they’re just, they’re just literally lying.”

As children we learn the importance of standing up to lying bullies. When someone is courageous enough to do so, it’s everyone else’s responsibility to back them up.

The post The Carbon Kingpins’ War on Democracy appeared first on Greenpeace Blogs.