#1 Thing Blocking a National Energy Plan is Koch Industries, According to T. Boone Pickens

May 11th, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

I’m still catching up from my ~3- to 4-day vacation last week (first in a long time), but I’m obsessive about “not missing anything” and so I’m still going through the thousands of articles that were waiting for me in Google Reader. Some of them I can’t help but republish or call attention to, such as this gem from Joe Romm of Climate Progress — as the title implies, it’s about a statement made by T. Boone Pickens that Koch Industries is the number one reason we don’t have a national energy plan, and important related matters (including the price of natural gas), but read on:

by Joe Romm (originally published on Climate Progress)

Billionaire energy investor T. Boone Pickens has a bone to pick with the country’s leading pollutocrats.

Pickens said in an interview Wednesday with Yahoo’s Daily Ticker that Koch Industries, the company owned by Charles and David Koch, is the major stumbling block to a coherent U.S. energy policy:

“The biggest deterrent to an energy plan in America is Koch Industries,” the BP Capital founder tells Yahoo’s Aaron Task. “They do not want an energy plan for America because they have the cheapest natural gas price they’ve ever had, and they’re in the fertilizer business and they’re in the chemical business. So their margins are huge. And they do not want you to have an energy plan, because if you had a plan, then natural gas prices would come up.”

Watch it:

Back in October, a German state minister explained that the country could decarbonize with renewables because “We Don’t Have the … Koch Brothers.” He was referring to the Kochs’ lobbying for dirty fuels and against clean energy, and its spending on climate science disinformation, which exceeds that of ExxonMobil. As Business Insider explains:

The second-largest private company in the United States, Koch Industries has spent at least $5 million in lobbying in each of the past four years, and given at least $1,000,000 in seven of the last eight election cycles, according to data from OpenSecrets.

In 2008, the company spent nearly $18 million on lobbying for oil and gas interests alone, according to Open Secrets. They’ve already spent $2.3 million on oil and gas lobbying in 2012.

Pickens was referring to the Koch brothers’ Americans For Prosperity front group, which has been bashing Pickens’ beloved NAT GAS Act (HR 1380) to promote natural-gas vehicles (NGVs). Since the AFP campaign began, 14 House Republicans have withdrawn support for the legislation. Of course, we now know that NGVs are bad for the climate (see “Natural Gas Is A Bridge To Nowhere Absent A Carbon Price AND Strong Standards To Reduce Methane Leakage“). As EDF chief Fred Krupp put it, “I’m here to tell you today that every truck we switch to natural gas damages the atmosphere.”

Still, who can argue with Pickens’ central point? The men from Koch — and the groups, politicians, and disinformation they fund — are now the Sith Lords of climate and clean energy inaction in the country.

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Tags: charles koch, David Koch, koch, koch brothers, Koch Industries, national energy plan, pickens, quickies, T. Boone Pickens

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

http://www.energyquicksand.com/ Edward Kerr

The fact that we have specific targets to point our fingers at offers no consolation to this student of our energy crisis. The problem is much larger than the Koch bros. They are simply the poster boys. It is only through the inaction of the majority of the population that their lobbying is as effective as it is. With few people demanding that congress and the executive institute a “renewable energy” policy it makes pandering to the Koch’s by congress all that much easier. They will resist getting serious until WE get serious.

This issue goes way beyond the price at the pump and cannot be solved with a 2 year plan every two years. The transition to renewables is going to be difficult, expensive in the short term, take a couple of decades and be fraught with pitfalls like the issue at hand. A long term serious plan is going to be necessary. If we fail to make this revolution happen then those who survive (if any do) can look to a much diminished life style. Looks to me that for the most part we will party and bull s*$t till the revolution comes.

Good lookin out Zach,
Ed
- Clean Energy Deb
  
  Check out Jeremy Rifkin The Third Industrial Revolution for workable and working solutions! Many of us from Occupy to Interfaith Power & Light to Greenpeace to Public Citizen are working to make this change a reality. it is hard when the politicians and major media are bought out by these creeps, but there are millions more of us learning more of the truth every minute. Keep the faith. Deb