How Charles Koch Purchased the Supreme Court's EPA Decision

[Kid Berwyn]

HOW CHARLES KOCH PURCHASED THE SUPREME COURT’S EPA DECISION

Decades of contributions aimed at influencing the judiciary bought the fossil fuel billionaire the ruling he’s always wanted.

Sharon Lerner
June 30 2022, The Intercept

Excerpt…

The Kochtopus

To ensure further growth of his riches even as science showed that the continued use of fossil fuels would accelerate climate disaster, Koch has funneled some of his vast fortune into an extraordinary network of political front groups, lobbying efforts, think tanks, and activist networks that aim to stifle climate action. For decades, the Kochtopus, as some call his many-tentacled political influence machine, has sought to undermine not just the environmental regulation in Koch Industries’ path but also the science and philosophy of government on which it is based.

Koch’s lobbyists and political operatives helped kill a 2009 bill aimed at tackling climate change through a cap-and-trade system that could have cut into his companies’ profits. While the mounting findings of climate scientists led other titans of industry to begin adjusting their business plans to lower carbon emissions, Koch-funded groups were among the first climate denialists, flatly lying about the well-documented planetary trend of global warming and then schooling lawmakers on the alternate reality they had crafted. Koch also pioneered the attack on Republicans from the right, pushing the party into its current extremism.

Today’s Supreme Court decision marks perhaps the biggest payoff yet for Koch’s decades of plotting against environmental regulations — and the most devastating loss for everyone else. Three of the extremist judges who joined the decision — Gorsuch, Barrett, and Kavanaugh — wound up on the Supreme Court in large part because of Koch’s activism and contributions.

Americans for Prosperity, an astroturf political group founded by Charles Koch and his brother David, conducted extraordinary campaigns to put all three judges on the highest bench. To support Kavanaugh’s nomination, the group reached out to more than 1.2 million Americans through mail, phone calls, and knocking on doors, according to a flyer released by the organization. The group also pushed hard for Barrett, whose father worked for Shell and the American Petroleum Institute, a powerful trade group for the oil and gas industry. And it campaigned for Gorsuch, whose mother presided — disastrously — over the EPA under President Ronald Reagan. Charles Koch is also closely connected to Leonard Leo, co-chair of the Federalist Society, a conservative organization Koch has supported directly and through his family foundation.

The case itself can also be tied directly to Koch. The challengers are 27 Republican attorneys general, who were supported by the Koch-funded Republican Attorneys General Association. At least four Koch-funded entities have filed amicus briefs in the case: the Cato Institute, which was co-founded by Charles Koch; the Competitive Enterprise Institute; the New Civil Liberties Alliance; and Americans for Prosperity. Another foundation that filed an amicus brief, the Landmark Legal Foundation, denied receiving Koch funding, though Jane Mayer reports in her book “Dark Money” that Koch helped subsidize it.

Continues…

https://theintercept.com/2022/06/30/supreme-court-epa-climate-charles-koch/

[librechik]

1. yup. We got owned.

Everybody wants to be a billionaire. So we take it easy on them. And take their money.

Dems too.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. They get what they pay for. And what we pay for, too.

Money and Power are Buy-Partisan.

Study: Congress literally doesn’t care what you think

https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/

[JanMichael]

3. I guess they bet better than the Hunt brothers and silver...

[Kid Berwyn]

4. At heart, socialists: They take the profits as we take the risks.

"One of the things that is interesting about reading conspiracy theory is that much of what folks think is conspiracy is really many people acting in concert to make or protect their money." — Catherine Austin Fitts

Little Sis keeps an eye on Big Brother:

https://littlesis.org/org/37180-Council_for_National_Policy