Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America

by Christopher Leonard

The efforts to undermine popular support for a cap-and-trade bill were effective. In late 2009, 57 percent of Americans believed there was strong evidence that global warming was real, according to a poll from the Pew Research Center. While this was a majority, it was a slimmer majority than in 2008, when 71 percent of Americans believed it. In 2006, 77 percent believed it.

Koch disinformation campaign destroyed public belief in climate change. Purpose was to kill cap and trade bill.

In March of 2010, Greenpeace released its forty-three-page report entitled Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine, which detailed Koch’s extensive giving to groups like the Mercatus Center, the Cato Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The publicity culminated in August of 2010 when the New Yorker magazine published a detailed report of Koch’s political history, with contemporary accounts of Americans for Prosperity’s coordination with Tea Party activists. The article, “Covert Operations: The Billionaire Brothers Who Are Waging a War Against Obama,” was written by Jane Mayer, one of the most prominent investigative reporters in America. It cemented the Koch brothers’ role as public figures who were deeply influencing political affairs. A widespread narrative raced through American politics, a narrative that the Koch brothers hadn’t just assisted the Tea Party but had created it. The story line was inflamed by the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which lifted restrictions on campaign donations to independent political groups. This

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During 2013 and 2014, Koch Industries spent billions of dollars to amass new assets and enter new lines of business. It acquired companies in an impossibly diverse array of industries: from steel, to glass, to greeting cards.

2013 acquisitions