Americans For Prosperity, a political advocacy network funded a the Koch brothers, recently launched a campaign to support President Trump’s efforts to roll back fuel efficiency and automobile emissions standards.
Through social media feeds of the many AFP state chapters, the group is promoting a petition to “Repeal Costly Obama-era Fuel Standards.”
Continue reading “Americans for Prosperity Launches Campaign to Crush Fuel Economy Standards”
A coalition of thirty conservative free-market advocacy organizations—the majority of which have clear ties to Charles and David Koch through their funding or leadership—have sent a letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) urging that Congress halt any expansion of the electric vehicle tax credit, or scrap it entirely. Continue reading “Koch-Funded Groups Again Speak Out Against Electric Vehicle Tax Credits”
Life: Powered is a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation designed to “ensure that Americans continue to benefit from abundant, reliable, safe, and clean energy.”
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a conservative think tank based in Austin, Texas that is listed as a “partner organization” in the Charles Koch Institute‘s Liberty@Work program. The TPPF has received at least $1.1 million from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and nearly $5 million from Donors Capital Fund and DonorsTrust.
According to its 2017 annual report, Life: Powered was originally TPPF’s “Fueling Freedom” project, which launched in 2015 “to combat the Obama-era Clean Power Plan.”
The annual report explains how Life: Powered will expand on the scope of the original “Fueling Freedom project:
“In 2018, we’ll be taking the project to a new level, expanding it to cover every aspect of the policies that promote abundant, reliable, and affordable energy to power modern life.”
TPPF’s Kathleen Hartnett-White was director of the Fueling Freedom project and co-authored the “Fueling Freedom” book with Heritage Foundation economist Stephen Moore. White is now listed as a senior fellow of the Life: Powered project.
Though there isn’t yet much public presence for the project, TPPF is currently hiring a Project Coordinator and Policy Analyst for “Life: Powered.” The organization also has a “Life:Powered” playlist on Youtube.
Given their recent history of attacks on clean energy and electric vehicles, it should come as no surprise that the Koch brothers have put mass transit in their cross-hairs. Last week, the New York Times exposed the breadth and depths of their efforts, run through the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, to undermine bus and rail projects across the country. Continue reading “Koch vs Mass Transit: How Americans for Prosperity is Fighting Bus and Rail Projects Nationwide”
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper announced Tuesday that his state would join 13 states and the District of Columbia in adopting California’s clean car emissions standards. “Colorado has a choice,” Gov. Hickenlooper said in a statement. “This executive order calls for the state to adopt air quality standards that will protect our quality of life in Colorado. Low emissions vehicles are increasingly popular with consumers and are better for our air. Every move we make to safeguard our environment is a move in the right direction.” Continue reading “Colorado Adopts California Clean Car Standards in Another Blow to Trump, Kochs”
A coalition of conservative groups, many with close ties to the Koch brothers, are calling for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt to strip California of its right to set stricter greenhouse gas limits for personal vehicles.
Not satisfied with Pruitt’s decision to rewrite the Obama-era emissions standards — which had been written cooperatively with the automakers, state of California, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and EPA — the American Consumer Institute (ACI) organized a letter to Pruitt calling “for the revocation of California’s waiver from the Clean Air Act, which allows the state to decouple from federal policy and impose strict emission standards on automobiles.” Continue reading “Koch vs. California: These Groups Are Pushing Pruitt to Undo the State’s Right to Regulate Auto Emissions”
Until February, Christine Harbin spent most of this decade combating clean energy initiatives at the state and federal level for Koch-funded organizations ALEC and Americans for Prosperity. She is now a senior adviser for external affairs in DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. Continue reading “Another Renewable Energy Bashing Koch Network Alum Joins Department of Energy”
Over this past weekend, with no announcement or notice, the website for Fueling U.S. Forward went dark. The Koch-funded campaign that had set out to promote the “positives” of fossil fuels has seemingly shut down, having wiped the website from the internet and deleting all traces on Facebook and all of its videos off of Youtube. Continue reading “Farewell to Fueling U.S. Forward”
Hot on the heels of their deceptive “Dirty Secrets of Electric Cars” video (which we debunked thoroughly, and others did too), Fueling U.S. Forward has released a new video that criticizes EV tax credits as a “massive wealth transfer from poor to rich.” It’s time for another debunking! Continue reading “Fueling U.S. Forward Bashes Electric Cars Again With Second Attack Video”
Just last week, we fact-checked and debunked every line of “The Dirty Secrets of Electric Cars,” a video produced by Fueling U.S. Forward that represents the group’s first public pivot from fossil fuel boosterism to EV attacks. More electric vehicle experts are also picking the video apart. Continue reading ““The Dirty Secrets of Electric Cars” Debunked Again and Again”
