POWER POLITICS: Big Oil behind shady climate bill attack

In an effort to scuttle key climate legislation being considered by Congress, a mysterious group calling itself the American Energy Alliance is running radio ads targeting 11 key moderates on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill in question --- the American Clean Energy and Security Act sponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) -- would create a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas pollution with tougher targets than those proposed by President Obama, promote renewable energy and expand electric vehicle production.

In recent days, questions have been raised about who's behind AEA.

So we looked for clues and discovered Big Oil's fingerprints -- more specifically, those of Koch Industries, the nation's largest private oil and gas company.

Last week, the Climate Progress blog reported on the shadowy 501(c)(4) advocacy group, which on its website says it's an "independent affiliate" of the Houston-based Institute for Energy Research. Climate Progress wrote (bracketed correction ours):

Aside from the cryptic nature of the oxymoronic phrase "independent affiliate," it is worth noting that the Institute for Energy Research "has received $307,000 from ExxonMobil since 1998." The [CEO] of IER is one Robert Bradley "who previously served as Director of Public Policy Analysis at Enron, where he was a speechwriter for CEO Kenneth Lay," who was convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges on May 25, 2006.

AEA's website says the group started in May 2008. But Sourcewatch points to a 1993 Time magazine story that documents a group by the same name launched by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute to fight the so-called B.T.U. tax, a proposed Clinton-era levy that would have hit oil especially hard. Adding to the questions around AEA, the New Mexico Independent tried to learn more about the group but could find no Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or Internal Revenue Service filings.

National Public Radio's Secret Money Project helpfully shined some light on AEA last year, when it reported that the group is run by Thomas Pyle, who also serves as IER's president. Previously a policy analyst for former U.S. Rep. Tom Delay (R-Texas), Pyle recently lobbied for the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association -- and Koch Industries.

We discovered another curious connection between AEA and Koch Industries: It appears that for a time AEA shared a Washington, D.C. suite with the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, one of the Koch Family Foundations whose funding comes from Koch Industries. AEA lists its address as 655 15th Street, NW Suite 825 in Washington; that was also the address for the Charles G. Koch foundation until that outfit moved to Arlington, Va. about eight months ago, according the foundation's receptionist. A filing with Washington state's Secretary of State for fiscal year 2007 gives as AEA's address the 15th Street location.

Charles G. Koch, head of his eponymous foundation, owns Kansas-based Koch Industries with his brother David, who also operates a charitable foundation bearing his own name. Charles and David Koch respectively are the 19th and 20th richest people in the world, according to Forbes magazine. The sons of ultraconservative John Birch Society founding member Fred G. Koch, the Koch brothers have used their oil wealth to fund an extensive network of free-market advocacy groups.

As Facing South reported earlier this year, the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation -- another of the Koch Family Foundations -- were the financial forces behind the recent campaign opposing the $787 billion economic stimulus bill approved by Congress. Among other things, the stimulus legislation offered $50 billion for sustainable energy alternatives including financial support for plug-in cars.

It's not surprising that the Kochs would be involved in the effort to block the clean energy legislation, as they have long financed organizations working to raise questions about the reality and urgency of climate disruption. Those groups include Citizens for a Sound Economy, a national policy think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. that has called global warming "a verdict in search of evidence," as well as the North Carolina-based John Locke Foundation, whose efforts to scuttle action on global warming at the state level were documented in a special Facing South investigation.

Besides supporting policy organizations that work to oppose action on climate disruption, the Kochs also engage in direct lobbying. DeSmogBlog reports that last year alone, Koch Industries spent $15,450,000 on lobbying -- almost 98% of which was used to lobby specifically for oil and gas interests. (Koch Industries also owns Atlanta-based paper giant Georgia-Pacific.) In addition, Koch Industries contributed $1,200,500 to various federal political candidates in 2008 -- almost as much as ExxonMobil, whose revenues are five times larger.

The intense politicking around the Waxman-Markey bill has already led its sponsors to seek special deals with some members of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The Washington Examiner reported that Waxman, the committee's chair, offered some lawmakers generous emissions breaks for their districts in order to protect them from the economic hit of greenhouse gas pollution restrictions. They include Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas), whose Houston-area district has several oil refineries, a major source of greenhouse gas pollution.

According to AEA, its radio ads opposing the climate legislation began airing on April 29 and are scheduled to run for two weeks in the home districts of Reps. John Barrow (D-Ga.), G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas), Baron Hill (D-Ind.), Jim Matheson (D-Utah), Charlie Melancon (D-La.), Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), Mike Ross (D-Ark.), and Betty Sutton (D-Ohio).