Weekend Economists' Harvest Ball September 21-23, 2012

[Demeter]

56. AGAINST MY BETTER JUDGMENT, HERE'S THE LATEST KOCH NEWS

I'M STUFFING IT ALL IN ONE POST, BECAUSE I'D REALLY RATHER BAN THE BROS.
UNTIL THEY NO LONGER CONSTITUTE A THREAT TO ANYONE, HOWEVER, WE NEED TO BE INFORMED. THESE GUYS MADE IT INTO THE "ROVE" CATEGORY.

Classic Koch: How California's Prop. 32 Could Enrich Two Billionaires

http://www.alternet.org/environment/classic-koch-how-californias-prop-32-could-enrich-two-billionaires?akid=9438.227380.Rejp-n&rd=1&src=newsletter714892&t=20&paging=off

On September 14 the Web exploded with news that billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch had donated $4 million in support of Proposition 32...Despite their reputations as libertarian true believers, the Koch brothers are nothing if not practical businessmen, who have no trouble taking advantage of government subsidies when it bolsters their bottom line. (Koch Industries, for instance, was for years heavily invested in the $6 billion, federally subsidized ethanol industry.) That bottom line runs up and down the state of California, where Koch Industries has hundreds of millions of dollars invested through its subsidiary Georgia-Pacific—a gypsum, pulp paper product and packaging company that operates 11 facilities in California with more than 1,100 employees and $190 million in annual payroll and benefit expenses. Other Koch subsidiaries, such as Flint Hills Resources—a petrochemical company–stand to make a killing should California reverse its strict carbon emission standards. Koch Industries has an array of powerful lobbyists working for its interests in Sacramento and a nearly decade-long history of major donations to California politicians in support of the Kochs’ business agenda. The brothers’ latest crusade, to pass Prop. 32 and reduce the political voice of unions in California, stands to vastly increase their personal fortunes—at the expense of the rest of us...For years prior to becoming the piggybank of the conservative movement, Koch Industries quietly channeled money to various California lawmakers through its Georgia-Pacific subsidiary...

Georgia-Pacific, incidentally, is registered with the California Secretary of State’s office as a limited liability company (LLC). This means none of its political activity will be hampered by Prop. 32’s proposed restrictions should the measure pass, as it only “[prohibits unions and corporations from contributing directly or indirectly to candidates and candidate-controlled committees.” An LLC is not considered a corporation nor, certainly, a union...The Kochs’ most conspicuous foray into California politics—prior to their Prop. 32 support –came in 2010, when the Koch Industries subsidiary Flint Hills Resources donated $1 million to support Proposition 23. Had voters ratified it, Prop. 23 would have overturned California’s landmark climate change prevention statute, AB 32. Flint Hills didn’t chip in out of climate change denial. The company has a substantial investment in Canadian tar sands oil, whose extraction and consumption creates a Sasquatch-sized carbon footprint. Robust clean emissions standards, Koch Industries complained on its website, “would cripple refiners that rely on heavy crude feedstocks.”

MORE...NO WONDER CALIFORNIA IS SUCH A MESS...

Matt Fleischer is an award-winning investigative journalist, a former LA Weekly staff writer, and an editor at FishbowlLA.

Koch Brothers Cashing in 220,000 Acres of Tar Sands Holdings

http://truth-out.org/news/item/11682-koch-brothers-cashing-in-220000-acres-of-tar-sands-holdings

A Canadian division of Koch Industries is reviewing a range of offers to buy up to 220,000 net acres of its many undeveloped oil sands properties within Alberta's vast reserves of oil sands. The company, Calgary-based Koch Oil Sands Operating ULC, said in June it was looking for strategic investors to help accelerate production on six properties held by the limited partnership Koch Exploration Canada. The company later said it would entertain offers to acquire the entire Koch Exploration partnership or to buy any of the projects...The move by Koch to sell off one of its partnerships pulls the curtain back further on the Koch family's deep but quiet involvement in Canada's tar sands industry. Koch Industries has had a stake going back 50 years in Canadian heavy oil through mining, pipeline development and refining. Its Pine Bend Refinery in Minnesota is now responsible for about 20 percent of the oil sands crude being piped into the United States and has played a key role in the growth of the family's fortune. The family stands to profit further from growing U.S. reliance on tar sands imports...

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