Koch brothers now at heart of GOP power 

The billionaire brothers' influence is most visible in
the makeup of the House Energy and Commerce Committee,
where members have vowed to undo restrictions on
greenhouse gases.

By Tom Hamburger, Kathleen Hennessey and Neela
Banerjee, Los Angeles Times

February 6, 2011

Reporting from Washington 

latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-koch-brothers-20110206,0,1681069.story latimes.com 

The billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch no
longer sit outside Washington's political
establishment, isolated by their uncompromising
conservatism. Instead, they are now at the center of
Republican power, a change most evident in the new
makeup of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Wichita-based Koch Industries and its employees formed
the largest single oil and gas donor to members of the
panel, ahead of giants like Exxon Mobil, contributing
$279,500 to 22 of the committee's 31 Republicans, and
$32,000 to five Democrats.

Nine of the 12 new Republicans on the panel signed a
pledge distributed by a Koch-founded advocacy group --
Americans for Prosperity -- to oppose the Obama
administration's proposal to regulate greenhouse gases.
Of the six GOP freshman lawmakers on the panel, five
benefited from the group's separate advertising and
grass-roots activity during the 2010 campaign.

Claiming an electoral mandate, Republicans on the
committee have launched an agenda of the sort long
backed by the Koch brothers. A top early goal:
restricting the reach of the Environmental Protection
Agency, which oversees the Kochs' core energy
businesses.

The new committee members include a congressman who has
hired a former Koch Industries lawyer as his chief of
staff. Another, Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, won a
long-shot bid to unseat a 14-term moderate Democrat
with help from Americans for Prosperity, which
marshaled conservative activists in his district. By
some estimates, the advocacy group spent more than a
quarter-million dollars on negative ads in the
campaign. "I'm just thankful that you all helped in so
many ways," Griffith told an Americans for Prosperity
rally not long after his election.

Perhaps the Kochs' most surprising and important ally
on the committee is its new chairman, Rep. Fred Upton.
The Republican from Michigan, who was once criticized
by conservatives for his middle-of-the-road approach to
environmental issues, is now leading the effort to rein
in the EPA.

Upton received $20,000 in donations from Koch employees
in 2010, making them among his top 10 donors in that
cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

In recent months the congressman has made a point of
publicly aligning himself with the Koch-backed advocacy
group, calling for an end to the "EPA chokehold." Last
week the chairman released a draft of a bill that would
strip the EPA of its ability to curb carbon emissions.
The legislation is in line with the Kochs'
long-advocated stance that the federal government
should have a minimal role in regulating business. The
Kochs' oil refineries and chemical plants stand to pay
millions to reduce air pollution under currently
proposed EPA regulations.

Koch Industries is the country's second-largest
privately run company, a conglomerate of refining,
pipeline, chemical and paper businesses. Their products
include Lycra and Coolmax fibers, Brawny paper towels
and Stainmaster carpets. Last year, Forbes magazine
listed the brothers as the nation's fifth-richest
people, each worth $21.5 billion.

A spokesman for the famously press-shy family declined
to comment. Koch allies say the brothers act out of
ideological conviction.

A Washington energy consultant familiar with the Kochs,
Javier Ortiz, said the committee agenda reflects the
"needs of the American people" and a broad shift in
political sentiment.

A symbolic arrival

When the 85 freshman GOP lawmakers marched into the
Capitol on Jan. 5 as part of the new Republican House
majority, David Koch was there too.

The 70-year-old had an appointment with a staff member
of the new speaker, Rep. John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). At
the same time, the head of Americans for Prosperity,
Tim Phillips, had an appointment with Upton. They used
the opportunity to introduce themselves to some of the
new legislators and invited them to a welcome party at
the Capitol Hill Club, a favorite wine-and-cheese venue
for Republican power players in Washington.

The reception was a symbolic arrival for the Kochs, who
have not always been close to the Republican hub. The
brothers were known as hard-liners unafraid to take on
conservative icons -- even President Reagan and the
American Petroleum Institute -- whom they occasionally
perceived to be too accommodating to liberal interests.
David Koch ran as the Libertarian Party's vice
presidential candidate in 1980, when Reagan was the GOP
presidential candidate.

The Kochs provided initial funding for the libertarian
Cato Institute and are key donors to the Federalist
Society, among other conservative organizations.

In recent years, they began drawing conservative media,
business and political leaders to semiannual meetings
in the West to discuss protection of the free-market
ethos and to raise funds for their causes. The most
recent was in Rancho Mirage a week ago.

Frustrated with the state of conservatism in Washington
during the George W. Bush era, the Kochs began to shift
the discussions at recent meetings from fundraising for
think tanks to more specific electoral strategy.

Longtime ties

At the center of the new ground-level strategy is a
beefed-up role for Americans for Prosperity. Along with
other well-funded conservative groups, the group was
very active in the congressional midterm election -- in
many cases taking on roles often performed by national
and state parties.

Americans for Prosperity is the political arm of the
Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which David Koch
co-founded in the 1980s under the name Citizens for a
Sound Economy. He is chairman of the board of the
foundation, which says it aims to educate citizens on
"a return of the federal government to its
constitutional limits."

Americans for Prosperity says it spent $40 million in
the 2010 election cycle, organized rallies and phone
banks, and canvassed door to door in nearly 100 races
across the country. The organization found scores of
energetic activists in the "tea party" movement to
carry its message.

Throughout this effort, Americans for Prosperity kept a
strong emphasis on promoting its views on climate
change and energy regulation. In 2008, it began
circulating a pledge asking politicians to denounce a
Democratic-led effort to compel oil refineries and
utilities to clean up emissions of greenhouse gases
through a so-called cap-and-trade system. The
organization said it amounted to a hidden tax increase.

The cap-and-trade legislation passed the House but died
in the Senate. Americans for Prosperity began working
to defeat House Democrats who voted for the bill,
showing the power of its new activist base.

The advocacy group does not disclose spending in
individual races. But it said it facilitated tens of
thousands of phone calls and organized dozens of events
in recent congressional campaigns. Among the
beneficiaries, besides Griffith, were newly elected
Reps. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Adam Kinzinger
(R-Ill.). All three now sit on the Energy and Commerce
Committee.

Gardner and Kinzinger declined to comment on their
relationship with Americans for Prosperity and the Koch
brothers, although a spokeswoman for Gardner emphasized
that the group's work was "totally independent" of his
campaign, in line with federal election rules.

Other committee members have deeper ties to the Kochs.

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), who represents Koch
Industries' home district, launched an aerospace
company with investment help from a Koch subsidiary. He
sold the company last year. His chief of staff is Mark
Chenoweth, a former Koch Industries lawyer.

Phil Kerpen, vice president for policy at Americans for
Prosperity, said the organization was pleased with the
committee's new members.

"From a policy standpoint, I think those are pretty
good choices," he said, mentioning Griffith in
particular.

Griffith has questioned the EPA and the science behind
its proposed regulation of global warming. "We have to
be sure the EPA is reined in," he said recently.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the EPA had the
power to regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants
under the Clean Air Act. Pompeo, Griffith and others
want to strip the EPA of that authority.

Until recently, Upton would have been an unlikely
champion of that view.

In 2009, he told a Michigan newspaper: "Climate change
is a serious problem that necessitates serious
solutions." Rush Limbaugh ridiculed Upton for his
sponsorship of an energy-saving bill. Tea party groups
opposed his bid for the committee chairmanship.

But as chairman, Upton said that EPA Administrator Lisa
Jackson would have to attend so many hearings before
his committee that she would need her own parking space
on Capitol Hill. In daily e-mail blasts, he hammered at
the EPA's "job-killing" regulations.

His bluntest rhetoric against the EPA came in late
December, in a Wall Street Journal commentary he wrote
with Phillips of Americans for Prosperity.

The EPA's regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, they
wrote, "represents an unconstitutional power grab that
will kill millions of jobs -- unless Congress steps in."

In an e-mail statement, Upton denied that his position
on climate change had shifted, and he explained his
work with conservative activists. "Meeting with and
listening to individuals and organizations that will be
affected by the laws and regulations this committee
oversees is one of our fundamental responsibilities,"
he said.

The change on the committee is "like night and day,"
said Jeremy Symons, senior vice president of the
National Wildlife Federation, a nonpartisan
organization that lobbied the committee to stem
greenhouse gas emissions.

"In the past the committee majority viewed the Clean
Air Act as an effective way to protect the public,"
Symons said. "Now the committee treats the Clean Air
Act and the EPA as if they are the enemy. Voters didn't
ask for this pro-polluter agenda, but the Koch brothers
spent their money well and their presence can be felt."

Republicans wave off such comments, saying the focus on
the Koch brothers is just the left's latest conspiracy
theory.

"[Former Chairman] Henry Waxman stacked the committee
with liberal environmentalists," said Rep. John Shimkus
(R-Ill.), who now chairs the economy and environment
subcommittee. "Now we are moving things back to the
center."

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Copyright (c) 2011, Los Angeles Times

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