His attack on the Koch brothers, their organization and their lobbyists was specific and dead-on. "You start seeing massive lobbying efforts backed by fossil fuel interests, or conservative think tanks, or the Koch brothers pushing for new laws to roll back renewable energy standards or prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding--that's a problem."
The President called for an end to oil company tax subsidies, an issue that has come up previously. The last time it was put before Congress was in 2012. The Kochs were in favor of extending the subsidies, while some major oil companies like Shell came out in favor of ending them. Congress voted to continue the $20 billion gifts.
Charles Koch was not happy seeing his family name singled out during the President's speech.
what eye thynk: As one pundit wrote, "The truth hurts."
Let's face facts, the public record of Koch money funding pro-fossil fuels interests to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars is well known. Yet Chuck said he was "flabbergasted" at the President's pointing that out. He added that he thought it was "beneath the dignity of the President to be doing that,' claiming that his remarks "were the opposite of the truth. I was really dumbfounded. I didn't expect that from the President."
Mr. Koch may be able to get his family's GOP puppets to agree that what President Obama said was "the opposite of the truth;" but the facts support President Obama's assessment.
Two years ago, the Kochs' American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that focuses on lobbying state legislatures, and the Koch's Americans for Prosperity, embraced a crusade to push legislation that would roll back EPA clean energy standards.
(An aside: Did you ever wonder what the American Legislative Exchange Council actually "exchanges?" Money for votes maybe?)Rebutting the President's statement, Koch whined "We are not trying to prevent new clean energy businesses from succeeding. As a matter of fact, we're investing in quite a number of them, ourselves, whether that's ethanol or renewable fuel oil. We're investing a tremendous amount of research to make those more efficient and create higher-value products." I guess we're not supposed to notice that the research he is touting is focused exclusively on fossil fuels. And then there's the industry claim of "clean coal"--which is anything but--that they love to banter about. Claiming you're trying to find cleaner ways of selling your same polluting products does not give you a pass on lobbying against solar or wind power while bribing politicians to roll back environmental regulations.
The White House did not back down. Josh Earnest responded to the Koch's hurt feelings by coming an inch short of actually calling Charles an out and out liar.
"I'm not sure whether to describe (Charles Koch's) comments as remarkably rich or utterly predictable... I think what is also interesting is the claim that somehow Koch Industries hasn't advocated for the continuation of those oil industry tax subsidy policies. The fact is that Koch Industries has spent at least hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying Congress, these are public disclosures, in support of those kinds of policies, to say nothing of the millions of dollars that they have spent punishing those candidates that didn't side with them."
The Kochs have become so used to Republican lawmakers pocketing Koch money in return for spouting Koch propaganda, that, when someone speaks the truth, they're "flabbergasted."
Note to Charles and his equally wealthy brother: Telling the truth is never "undignified"; and no amount of money can bury a lie.
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