Nearly a year ago, we were skeptical when Politico Magazine ran a feature on Charles Koch’s son Chase, and the supposed shift away from politics the network was poised to take. And we were similarly wary of a story last May in the Washington Post about the network’s softer, less political rebrand.
While it’s impossible to divine the Kochs’ true intentions, one easy way to check and see if they’ve stepped up or stepped back from political spending is to look at what they’ve done in terms of lobbying since last year.
Lo and behold, despite the stories saying the network is moving to more charitable giving, Koch Industry’s lobbying spending has increased somewhat significantly.
Disclosures obtained by PRWatch show that Koch Industries spent even more money on lobbying in the first three quarters of 2019, $9.1 million, than it did by that point in 2018 ($7.7 million).
DeSmog has the spending broken down by quarter, as well as links to the disclosure forms and the issues and legislation that Koch Industries lobbied on.
Unsurprisingly, Koch lobbying is centered on climate policies. For example, they spent money on both general carbon pricing issues as well as specific bills like the Carbon Dividend Act. They also lobbied on H.R. 9, the bill that would keep America in the Paris Agreement, and the Senate bill that would eliminate the tax credit for electric vehicles, something the Koch network has dedicated serious time, and money, to fight.
They’re also interested in Green New Deal resolutions, an indication that they’re not just targeting solid bills that are ready to pass, but also working the long game to try and shape how yet-to-be-crafted legislation is ultimately received.
In their defense, the 2018 election that gave the Democratic party control of the House is likely a justification for the $1.4 million increase in lobbying expenditures. All of a sudden the Kochs had to play defense against bills that would reduce emissions, as well as play offense in the Senate on bills that would increase their sales.
But still, this is solid, quantified evidence that when it comes the Koch’s recurring “we’re going to be less political now” PR pushes, there are a million reasons not to believe them.In fact, there are 1.4 million reasons.
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