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Mapping The Koch Brothers’ Influence Over Trump’s Environmental Policies

Despite repeated snubs from the fossil-fuel billionaires, the President-elect’s administration is set to be full of their allies

 Ben Jervey
01.03.17

Last summer, Donald Trump called other Republican presidential hopefuls “puppets” for meeting with the billionaire Koch brothers—the notorious free-market activists who amassed the lion’s share of their fortunes through oil and gas processing and distribution. But as the inauguration approaches, the Trump transition team and his prospective administration are filling up with prominent players in the Koch political network—leaving many policy experts to speculate whether the president-elect himself might be their unwitting puppet.

Throughout the presidential primaries and the general election, the Koch brothers were steadfast in their refusal to support Trump, consistently critical of his candidacy. Charles Koch even once described choosing between Trump and Clinton as picking “cancer or a heart attack.” And when they hosted 400 wealthy conservative donors and politicians at their annual Koch network gathering at a luxury resort in Colorado, Trump wasn’t invited—a sequel to fundraising drama that played out a year earlier.

Yet, even after all the public snubs and criticism, Trump has been filling up his transition team and administration with scores of the Koch brothers’ friends, employees, and other fossil fuel advocates who have benefited from Koch funds. According to an analysis from the Center for American Progress, of the roughly 300 names currently on the transition team books or in play for Cabinet or other positions in the administration, nearly one-third are affiliated with the Koch network.

Scroll and zoom through the above map that I built for a DeSmog project that tracks Koch attacks on clean energy on the LittleSis platform, and it’s easy to see how the brothers are poised to influence Trump’s energy and environmental policies. From the Institute for Energy Research and the Heartland Institute to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a number of oil and gas shills and straight-up climate deniers are in prominent positions on Trump’s teams.

Take, for instance, the Department of Energy transition team, which is being lead by, Thomas Pyle, who was once employed directly by Koch Industries, then went on to a lobbying contract with Koch Industries, and today serves as president of a think tank that was founded by Charles Koch and receives considerable funding from the Koch network. Or the transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency, led by Myron Ebell, a prominent and outspoken climate denier who works for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market public policy organization that has received millions from the Kochs.

There are plenty more where those came from. For all the snubs and Trump’s talk of puppets and “draining the swamp,” the Koch brothers seem well-positioned to have more direct influence on the White House’s energy and environmental policy than ever before.

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Infographics

Youth activists gather to fight climate change at UN Summit: 'We need to transform anger into action'

Julian Meehan

Young leaders from around the world are gathering at the United Nations Headquarters in New York Saturday to address arguably the most urgent issue of our time. The Youth Climate Summit comes on the heels of an international strike spearheaded by Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden, who arrived in New York via emissions-free sailboat earlier this month.

Translated from Swedish, "berg" means "mountain," so it may feel fated that a young woman with Viking blood in her veins and summit in her name would be at the helm. But let's go out on a limb and presume Thunberg, in keeping with most activists, would chafe at the notion of pre-ordained "destiny," and rightly so. Destiny is passive — it happens to you. It's also egomaniacal. Change, on the other hand, is active; you have to fight. And it is humble. "We need to get angry and understand what is at stake," Thunberg declared. "And then we need to transform that anger into action."

This new generation of activists' most pernicious enemy is denial. The people in charge — complacent politicians and corporation heads who grossly benefit from maintaining the status quo — are buffered from real-life consequences of climate change. But millions of people don't share that privilege. For them, climate change isn't an abstract concept, but a daily state of emergency, whether it comes in the form of "prolonged drought in sub-Saharan Africa…devastating tropical storms sweeping across Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific…[or] heatwaves and wildfires," as Amnesty International reportsare all too real problems people are facing on a regular basis.

RELATED: Greta Thunberg urges people to turn to nature to combat climate change

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The Planet

18 of the best signs from New York's Climate Strike march

Millions of people in over 150 countries across the globe marched for lawmakers and corporations to take action to help stop climate change on Friday, September 20.

The Climate Strikes were organized by children around the world as an extension of the of the "Fridays for Future" campaign. Students have been walking out of classrooms on Fridays to speak out about political inaction surrounding the climate crisis.

"We need to act right now to stop burning fossil fuels and ensure a rapid energy revolution with equity, reparations and climate justice at its heart," organizers say.

There's no doubt the visual images from the marches send a powerful message to those on the ground but especially those watching from around the world. GOOD's own Gabriel Reilich was on the scene for the largest of the Climate Strikes. Here are 18 of the best signs from the Climate Strike march in New York City.

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How you can get involved in the Global Climate Strike

September 20th marks the beginning of a pivotal push for the future of our planet. The Global Climate Strike will set the stage for the United Nations Climate Action Summit, where more than 60 nations are expected to build upon their commitment to 2015's Paris Agreement for combating climate change.

Millions of people are expected to take part in an estimated 4,000 events across 130 countries.

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Why the iPhone 11 is making people with trypophobia experience panic and revulsion

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via Apple

When the iPhone 11 debuted on September 10, it was met with less enthusiasm than the usual iPhone release. A lot of techies are holding off purchasing the latest gadget until Apple releases a phone with 5G technology.

Major US phone carriers have yet to build out the infrastructure necessary to provide a consistent 5G experience, so Apple didn't feel it necessary to integrate the technology into its latest iPhone.

A dramatic new feature on the iPhone 11 Pro is its three camera lenses. The three lenses give users the the original wide, plus ultrawide and telephoto options.

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Woman dreams she swallowed her engagement ring and wakes up with it missing

Dreams can have a powerful effect on us.

via I love butter / Flickr

We often dismiss our dreams as nonsensical dispatches from the mind while we're deep asleep. But recent research proves that our dreams can definitely affect our waking lives.

People often dream about their significant others and studies show it actually affects how we behave towads them the next day.

"A lot of people don't pay attention to their dreams and are unaware of the impact they have on their state of mind," said Dylan Selterman, psychology lecturer at the University of Maryland, says according to The Huffington Post. "Now we have evidence that there is this association."

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