Koch Brothers Launch Attack to Kill Electric Cars

[JHan]

"When Fueling U.S. Forward launched last August, the organization's president Charles Drevna described the campaign as an effort to rebrand fossil fuels by focusing on the "positive" aspects of coal, oil and gas. This newly released video seems to further confirm investigative journalist Peter Stone's reporting from last spring that the Kochs were "plotting a multimillion dollar assault on electric vehicles."

How do we know that Fueling U.S. Forward is this Koch-funded campaign? First, Charles Drevna, who is leading the effort, developed the concept while serving as a distinguished senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, a pro-fossil fuel think tank that was partially founded by Charles Koch and that is run by a longtime lobbyist for Koch Industries. Second, and more concretely, Drevna told DeSmog's Sharon Kelly that he was working with Koch Industries' board member (and longtime Koch brothers' confidant) James Mahoney on the campaign and that it was funded by "one of the brothers."

Echoes of America Rising Squared

Fueling U.S. Forward and America Rising Squared (or AR2) have no public affiliation. Yet within a few weeks in June, both groups launched attacks on electric vehicles using the same misleading arguments and nearly identical language. While the former group is a known Koch-funded campaign to promote fossil fuels, the latter has close ties to the GOP establishment, and has invested heavily in promoting alleged hypocrisy among climate action advocates, even paying "trackers" to follow around the likes of Tom Steyer and Bill McKibben.

In June, as DeSmog reported, AR2 published a white paper that purports to reveal the "human and environmental costs of 'clean energy,'" taking electric vehicles and solar panels to task for their reliance on rare Earth metals. As we wrote at the time:

-Here's what the white paper doesn't mention: many of the very same rare Earth minerals that the AR2 report bashes are critical components of cell phones, computers, cameras, military and defense equipment, and even traditional gas-powered vehicles. What's more, the petroleum refining process is critically dependent on some of the same rare Earths that AR2 lambasts in this white paper.-

The new video from Fueling U.S. Forward echoes the AR2 talking points, almost to the word. "...

https://www.ecowatch.com/koch-brothers-electric-cars-2456866524.html

[Chasstev365]

1. Hope they are both electrocuted!

That would be ironic!

[padfun]

2. The Koch's vs Elon Musk

This should be interesting. A friend in the car industry told me that most of the automotive research is now going toward electric and battery improvements.

[JHan]

13. if they were smart they would have invested in renewable tech ages ago...

now they're bitterly fighting a losing fight... all they're doing is obstructing the inevitable. disgusting.

[AgadorSparticus]

26. +1,000!!! Even if they were late to tha party, they should have

Joined in on the fun. They will still make a shit ton of money....late or not. But that is hard to see when you have your head stuck you your ass.

[Takket]

23. i work for a auto manufacturer and it is true. the investment in both

electric and self driving vehicles is huge right now.

[Skidmore]

3. Wealthy Luddites

trying to squeeze every last drop of profit out of the planet.

[workinclasszero]

16. They will murder this planet and everyone on it for a dollar profit

Capitalism's end game is here folks.

Good luck.

[hunter]

17. No, not Luddites, just greedy old fucks trying to claw their way back to the 19th century...

... when giant smokestacks spewing poison were celebrated as PROGRESS and generated wealth for a privileged few.

[Maven]

4. FUCK THESE FUCKING FUCKERS!

[Boxerfan]

5. They can try but as they say.....

That horse already left the barn....

Further cementing their reputation.


Or they could be right because you know they never did come up with an alternative to a horse drawn wagon.

[Quixote1818]

6. The sooner they die of old age + stop influencing policy the more lives will be saved in the future

I don't know why they they care so much at their age? They are all in or close to their 80's.

[Raster]

9. Agreed! They are both a waste of good oxygen.

[Initech]

11. Two of the worst human beings alive right now!

[dogknob]

19. Nah, their offspring, accustomed to their lifestyles and comforts, will pick up the dirty torch. n/t

[brush]

7. These wingers are such hypocrites. Even the names of their front organizations are opposite to...

what their intentions are: Fueling U.S. Forward, America Rising Squared (or AR2), Americans for Prosperity, The Clear Skies Initiative, The Clean Water Act and on and on and on.

They create these positive sounding names for organizations that work for the exact opposite of what the meaning of their names imply so as to fool the public.

The pure evilness of it just gets to me. I worked on the two Obama campaigns and Hillary's campaign and found myself many times working against Americans for Prosperity in registering voters.

I was a volunteer but the Americans for Prosperity workers were paid for each registrant they got and they were primarily after repug voters. They were so phony in their friendliness and their "all for cause" enthusiasm. It didn't fool me though as we weren't told about them in our org. meetings, so after the first contact with them I googled Americans for Prosperity and found out they were a Koch Brothers-funded group and from then on it was on like Donkey Kong against them.

These people and groups are not to be trusted.

[Raster]

8. The Cock Bros. just need to die. I am tired of their bircher bullshit.

Attention Agent Mike: Not advocating violence or murder or ANYTHING illegal. Just making a simple observation.

[meow2u3]

25. Hell, I hope the Cock Bros. go broke--overnight, if possible!

I'd like to see them either sued out of their ill-gotten fortunes or lose every penny via civil forfeiture for the crimes against the planet.

[kysrsoze]

10. That ship has sailed. Automakers are going full-on electric.

Volvo is headed that way, starting with hybrids elec only in 2018. VW has five full EV'a in the pipeline. Chevy has the bolt. Tesla Model 3 is in production. Every euro maker has an electric onslaught coming, and China is heading that way too. There are numerous serious electric car startups and multiple countries looking to ban the gas automobile. It's a done deal, no matter what those fucksticks want.

[JHan]

14. Yep, and they've enjoyed the advantages of being a behemoth in fossil fuel extraction for so long..

they wouldn't know how to compete effectively in renewable-tech industry.

[Initech]

20. Yup, those dipshits are fighting a losing battle.

They get rich off gas and fossil fuels. But the fossil fuel industry is a dying industry, Renewable energy and clean energy are the wave of the future and if these fossils can't change with the times, then I won't feel sorry for them when they go bankrupt.

[JHan]

21. +++ Exactly, and almost zero innovation to be found in extraction atm.

[Initech]

22. But, but... cleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan coaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!!!!!!

[Yavin4]

12. Swimming against the global markets

There are billions of people in India and China. You tell me what kind of cars are they going to buy? One that runs on expensive fossil fuels or one that runs on cheap electricity generated by the sun.

The Kochs can buy off all the US politicians that they want. In the end, they're killing the American auto industry and jobs by putting it further behind their foreign competitors.

[JHan]

15. +++

[nikibatts]

18. If we can't make the here, they will be made elsewhere. And there goes our trade deficit.

[Warren DeMontague]

24. "This is not your dad's gas"

[sharedvalues]

27. Good. They will meet their match.

Unlike most people the Koches fight, Google and Tesla have a ton of cash to fight back.

Finally a fair playing field in which the Koches are fighting other corporations with billions to spend. Here their false arguments will meet their match and be destroyed by the truth.

Too bad the 99.9% can't organize themselves enough to spend hundreds of millions fighting the Koch lies about tax cuts on the wealthy.

[Best_man23]

28. Rare Earth Metals

Let's put some detail to this...

Catalytic converters (required for fossil fuel cars) use platinum and palladium, both increasingly rare elements. BTW, one of the biggest sources of palladium is located in....wait for it....RUSSIA. 100% electric cars do not use catalytic converters.

Computers, both electric cars and fossil fuel cars have computers, so the rare Earth metals used in those is a wash. Same for copper used in vehicle wiring. I would be willing to wager an electric car may use less copper by weight than a large car like a Dodge Challenger or Cadillac. I know the wiring in a newer Cadillac comes in close to 400 lbs.

AR2 letter is BS...bunch of Koch suckers.

[Locut0s]

29. Even the auto makers can see the writing on the wall...

As other above said. All the big auto makers are hedging their bets heavily in favour of electric taking off big and replacing the ICE. I'm seeing charging stations pop up all over the place in malls, apartment buildings and government facilities. Even the oil industry itself has been investing in renewables.