Koch Industries, who made millions building oil refineries for the communists during Stalin era, is chief funder of climate science deniers

Koch Industries, the second-largest privately-held company in the United States which operates crude oil refineries and pipelines across North America is one of the chief funders of climate science denial and clean energy opposition, spending over $48.5 million since 1997 to fund the climate denial machine according to a Greenpeace report recently released. 

The Greenpeace report exposes how Koch Industries and its industry front groups spent far more than ExxonMobil in recent years on industry front groups opposed to clean energy and climate policies.

The company’s founder, Fred Koch, who earned $ millions building oil refineries for the communists in the former Soviet Union during Joseph Stalin’s reign, also co-founded the extreme right-wing group The John Birch Society.

During the 2008 elections, Koch Industries contributed over $1.8 million, 88% to Republican candidates. Koch’s political action committee (PAC) also spent more than $2.5 million on contributions to federal candidates for that period, more than any other oil-and-gas sector PAC.

One of the industry front groups Koch Industries has bankrolled is Americans for Prosperity.  AFP, known primarily for its role in organizing the tea party movement in the U.S., brought widely known climate denier Lord Monckton to the Copenhagen climate summit as its guest speaker where he compared college students advocating for a clean energy future to “Hitler Youth and The Nazis”.

While attending a GOP fundraiser in Wisconsin Monckton described President Barack Obama as a monster, and said the stimulus package had been written by Communists to funnel money to extreme left wing Marxist organizations. It’s astounding that he would reference communists given that his principle sponsor Koch Industries made millions working for Stalin. 

The Greenpeace report also notes Koch’s role in funding the Institute for Energy Research, which was behind a Danish study that attacked the viability of wind power.  In addition to the AFP and the IER Koch also funds’ the Heritage Foundation another right-wing foundation opposed to clean energy and climate policies.