Though they still refuse to spend to support Trump, the Kochs apparently feel they have to do something with their $750 million budget to influence voters. Beyond focusing on down-ballot races, they’re also revving up a new (probably) anti-electric car and (definitely) pro-fossil fuel front group as part of their ongoing efforts documented by the new microsite, KochsVsClean. Teased last February, publicly announced on Saturday and exposed by DeSmog’s Sharon Kelly on Sunday, the “Fueling U.S. Forward” group seeks to get the public emotionally invested in fossil fuels as being “pro-human.”
To do so, it will deploy the kind of doublespeak propaganda that we’ve come to expect from these entrenched interests, if its name or debut are any indication. As described in the post you should just go read at DeSmog, the president and CEO of the new group told the crowd at the Red State 2016 gathering that not only are fossil fuels all the usual talking points of “reliable, abundant, efficient,” but also they are “sustainable.”
Which, of course, is as backwards as can be. Not only are fossil fuels finite resources that will at some point be depleted if we continue business-as-usual, but they’re also mostly responsible for that little old thing called climate change. So even if they were a renewable resource, they still wouldn’t be sustainable indefinitely, in that if we continue burning them, it would render the planet incapable of sustaining human life.
At this point, you may be wondering why the Kochs are bothering to spend big bucks on such an obviously absurd ad campaign. Is this just fodder for talk show mockery, like John Oliver’s brilliant (though NSFW) skewering of the American Petroleum Institute’s new ad campaign?
Unfortunately, it’s much more than that. Though those who oppose renewables may not be nationally successful, they are finding wins at the state level. Case in point: the coal-heavy Wyoming, where state legislators are considering a massive tax increase on wind power as a major new project is being developed.
Seems without the glare of national media, deniers are able to advance their anti-clean energy agenda. This means instead of going forward on the path to a clean energy future, the Kochs’ funding is not fueling the U.S. forward, but backwards to the time when our only energy options were their “pro-human”* fossil fuels.
*”Human” defined as “one who makes money off of fossil fuels,” since apparently those are the only people that count in the Koch universe.
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