Follow the Money: Climate Deniers, Koch Industries.

Greenpeace USA has put out a report on the amount of money Koch Industries has flushed into the anti-science of Climate Denial.

Here is a picture of the amount of money Koch Industries spends in its lobbying efforts. Only to be outdone by Exxon Mobile and Chevron.

Koch Industries spent a total of $37.9 million on oil and gas lobbying from January 2006 to December 2009. During this period in the oil and gas sector, Koch Industries was outspent only by ExxonMobil ($87.8 million) and Chevron Corporation ($50 million).

• 2009: $12.5 million total, $9 million spent on in-house lawyers.

• 2008: $17.93 million total, $15.3 million spent on in-house lawyers

• 2007: $4.17 million total, with $40,000 to Pyle and Associates and $100,000 to the Rhoads Group (Thomas Pyle worked at Rhoads Group before starting Pyle and Associates and is now President of IER and AEA).

• 2006: $3.36 million total, with $140,000 to Rhoads Group.

It is worth noting that Koch also hires outside lawyers to lobby on its behalf, in some cases the same firms that lobby for other groups of which Koch is a member. For example:

• Siff and Lake, $190,000 (2009), $220,000 (2008), $200,000 (2007), which also lobbies for Western Fuels Association.

• Mehlman/Vogel, $200,000 (2009), $120,000 (2008), $20,000 (2007) which also lobbies for API (2009, 2008),Business Roundtable (2009, 2008), EEI (2009, 2008) and Energy Future Holdings (2009).

• Pyle and Associates, $40,000 (2007), which also lobbied for the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, of which Koch is a member.

• The Rhoads Group, $100,000 (2007), which also lobbies for the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association of which Koch is a member.

• Hunton and Williams, $60,000 (2009), $150,000 (2008), $80,000 (2007), which also lobbied for National Association of Manufacturers (2009, 2008) and Americans for Affordable Climate Policy (2009), Edison Electric Institute (2009, 2008, 2007), Gas Processing Association (2009, 2008) and the Foundation for Environment and Economic Progress (2009, 2008, 2007).

• Capitol Tax Partners, $30,000 (2009), $240,000 (2008), $220,000 (2007), which who also lobbies for Edison Electric Institute (2009, 2008, 2007) and National Electrical Manufacturers Association (2008, 2007).

In addition, Koch executives serve on the boards of other organizations wielding influence against clean energy and climate policy. The Executive Vice President for Operations Excellence & Compliance at Koch Industries, James Mahoney, is also a vice-president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA). NPRA significantly increased its lobbying budget in 2009, reporting $1.68 million in direct federal lobbying expenses. This more than doubled the lobby spending of the organization from 2008, when its total lobbying budget was $810,000.

People are trying to paint climate science as some sort of hoax. But the truth lies with the amount of money, Big Oil, Gas and Coal are injecting into the argument. If the Science was not strong, why would they invest so much cash into doubting it?

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Has Obama's Regulation Slowed the Economic Recovery?

Economist Tyler Cowen thinks not.

He writes.

Monday night I gave a talk at George Mason University on the jobless recovery; in the comments Pete Boettke summarizes some parts of the talk. One point I made is that the slow aspects of the recovery do not, contrary to some accounts, seem to stem from uncertainty about the plans of the Obama administration. I see at least two reasons for this doubting this account:

1. Output has recovered much more rapidly than the labor market; last quarter gdp growth exceeded five percent yet employment is essentially flat. The labor market is one of the least regulated sectors of the American economy, so it would be odd if regulation were causing the slow aspects of the bounceback. Many of the extant government-blaming hypotheses predict slow output growth, not rapid output growth and slow labor market participation.

2. Arguably health care and finance have been subject to the most regulatory uncertainty. Yet the health care sector has held up OK and banks have made a very strong comeback in terms of profits.

I believe the causes of the jobless nature of the recovery are unique to the labor market

Old School Corruption.

Matt Taibbi wrote a piece for Rolling Stone called Looting Main Street, where he points out the awful behavior of not only local politicians in Jefferson County Alabama, but also the predatory lending practices of companies like JP Morgan Chase.

As I have said a million times, Taibbi is the best at breaking down the financial crisis and how the players took advantage to make their billions.

Taibbi writes.

There were also a few bills that were unique to the area — like the $64 sewer bill that Pack and her family paid each month. "Yeah, it went up about 400 percent just over the past few years," she says.

The sewer bill, in fact, is what cost Pack and her co-workers their jobs. In 1996, the average monthly sewer bill for a family of four in Birmingham was only $14.71 — but that was before the county decided to build an elaborate new sewer system with the help of out-of-state financial wizards with names like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. The result was a monstrous pile of borrowed money that the county used to build, in essence, the world's grandest toilet — "the Taj Mahal of sewer-treatment plants" is how one county worker put it.

Taibbi's Jefferson County article is a must read.

Was Bob Corker Elected by The People, or The Banks?

This is what Bob Corker "The Senate Loan Shark" is saying about Consumer Protection.

As Reported in The Tennessean.

Corker served temporarily as lead negotiator for the Republicans in the Senate banking committee, before U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, moved the bill out of committee earlier this month with provisions in it that Corker was still trying to get changed, such as:

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Corker is not against the creation of an agency – but he wants banking regulators to have veto power over the rules created.

Let me get this straight. Corker wants the Regulators of Banks to be able to Veto Consumer Protection Laws? Sounds like a conflict of interest to me.

But Corker wasn't done.

• Requiring banks to hold onto five percent of the loans they create, rather than selling them all to other investors. “That’s not going to address the problem,’’

I think part of the problem that led to the Great Recession was simple. We have a nation that sells debt to other institutions. If those sellers of the debt have a 5% stake in the loan sold. It stands to reason they might be more prudent when loaning funds.

Kieth Olbermann talked about Corker's strange take on Consumer Protection last night.

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What Would Make John Boehner Happy, Perhaps Oil Rigs in Lake Erie?

Obama opens up the Mid-Atlantic Region to Offshore Oil Drilling here.

John Boehner wants more here.

Reaction here and Boehner's claim of cheaper gas prices is a hollow claim according to this.

I believe Obama is trying to be centrist to get legislation through. His actions regarding Nuclear and now Offshore Drilling are clear concessions to the right. But will we see any movement from the right in regards to energy legislation? We will see how much pull Lindsey Graham has in the coming months. Can he pull any Senate GOP votes? I believe he can. The GOP cannot afford to be inactive like they were during Health Reform, and possibly Financial Regulation Reform.

Time will tell.

You Gotta Want it.

Thomas Friedman writes about The action or inaction from President Harmid Karzai of Afghanistan.

He writes.

We have thousands of U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan and more heading there. Love it or hate it, we’re now deep in it, so you have to want our engagement there to build something that is both decent and self-sustaining — so we can get out. But I still fear that Karzai is ready to fight to the last U.S. soldier. And once we clear, hold and build Afghanistan for him, he is going to break our hearts.

Give the article a read, it is a good one.

Dan Patrick Interviews Tom Izzo

For entire interview click here.

DP is the best interviewer IMO.