This Fight Is Our Fight, by Elizabeth Warren: on Energy & Oil


David Koch: Funded $88M to groups that deny existence of climate change

The billionaire Koch brothers' vast conglomeration of businesses has been one of the top polluters of our country's air and water, as well as one of the top emitters of greenhouse gases. No surprise, then, that they (among others) bought up a bunch of experts-for-hire and gave them PR training so they could serve as spokespeople. They funded phony op-eds, underwrote fake academic articles, and shoveled big money into friendly think tanks to support even more fake experts.

The Koch brothers and their organizations poured more than $88 million into groups that deny the existence of climate change--that is, $88 million that anyone could count. Since 2006, there's been a huge surge in secret donations through opaque nonprofit organizations. One study turned up $558 million in secret donations made between 2003 and 2010 to groups denying climate change. In a perverse way, that makes perfect sense: when someone has dirty hands, why would they hold them up for all the world to see?

Source: This Fight is Our Fight, by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, p.200 Apr 18, 2017

Elizabeth Warren: BP fined $42B for 2010 explosion, then deducted it on taxes

One loophole gives corporations a tax deduction for paying punitive damages when they break the law. In 2015, the New York Times reported that "at least 80 percent of the more than $42 billion that BP has paid out because of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that killed 11 people and spewed oil into the Gulf of Mexico qualifies for a tax deduction." Think about that: BP got fined for killing people and nearly destroying the Gulf of Mexico-- and its fine was tax deductible, sort of like a charitable contribution or a regular business expense. And BP wasn't the only corporation rewarded this way.
Source: This Fight is Our Fight, by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, p.115-6 Apr 18, 2017

  • The above quotations are from This Fight Is Our Fight
    The Battle to Save America's Middle Class
    by Elizabeth Warren    .
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