Charles Koch primarily, Ruler-in-Chief and Poisoner-in-Chief of Koch Industries, polluters of land, sea and air and starter of toxic fires:
Under the nearly five-decade reign of CEO Charles Koch, the company has paid out record civil and criminal environmental penalties. And in 1999, a jury handed down to Koch's pipeline company what was then the largest wrongful-death judgment of its type in U.S. history, resulting from the explosion of a defective pipeline that incinerated a pair of Texas teenagers.
The volume of Koch Industries' toxic output is staggering. According to the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Political Economy Research Institute, only three companies rank among the top 30 polluters of America's air, water and climate: ExxonMobil, American Electric Power and Koch Industries. Thanks in part to its 2005 purchase of paper-mill giant Georgia-Pacific, Koch Industries dumps more pollutants into the nation's waterways than General Electric and International Paper combined. The company ranks 13th in the nation for toxic air pollution. Koch's climate pollution, meanwhile, outpaces oil giants including Valero, Chevron and Shell. Across its businesses, Koch generates 24 million metric tons of greenhouse gases a year.
www.rollingstone.com/…
Poisoning our air, blocking research on climate change, air disasters pending:
In 2010 Koch Industries and the billionaire brothers who run it were exposed as a major funder of front groups spreading denial of climate change science and a key backer of efforts to roll back environmental, labor, and health protections at the state and federal levels. Through enormous campaign contributions, an army of lobbyists, and funding of think tanks and front groups, David and Charles Koch push their agenda of a world in which their company can operate without regard for the risks they pose to communities, workers, and the environment. This report, Toxic Koch: Keeping Americans at risk of a Poison Gas Disaster, examines how Koch Industries has quietly played a key role in blocking yet another effort to protect workers and vulnerable communities; comprehensive chemical security legislation.
www.prwatch.org/…
Busily poisoning water in Florida:
Here’s news sure to shock everyone: The Koch Brothers are paying exorbitant amounts of money to pollute our water supply. Environment Florida reports that a Koch Industry subsidy, Buckeye Florida LP, spent $14 million in lobbying — in a single year — after the company was caught dumping over 200,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into Florida’s water back in 2012.
aattp.org/…
Aptly tagged by Diane Sweet in Crooks & Liars:
The Koch Brothers: Godfathers of Greed
crooksandliars.com/…
Piles of petcoke — perhaps it should be labeled PetKoch — on the banks of the Calumet River in Illinois:
Petcoke, which is over 90 percent carbon, has a higher energy content than coal and emits between 30 and 80 percent more carbon dioxide than coal per unit of weight. The use of pure petcoke as a fuel is no longer allowed in the United States, however Koch Industries is doing a very lucrative business selling the fossil fuel to places like China, India and Mexico where environmental regulations are even more lax. As of 2013, Oxbow Corporation, another Koch company was a major dealer in petcoke.
www.truth-out.org/…
Yummy! Petcoke, PetKoch, whatever.
Meanwhile, we Left Coasters must gird ourselves for the pending wildfire plague in the Washington and Oregon states which has worsened due to climate change, while keeping a wary eye on the ongoing plague of forest fires in Portugal.