This afternoon, Ted Cruz will chair a Senate hearing questioning the existence of climate change. There aren’t many people still in Ted Cruz’s camp promoting climate change denial, but the list does include two people Cruz is trying to win over: Charles & David Koch.
Cruz has been wooing the Koch network for years in hopes they’ll get behind him and his opening remarks are sure to sound like something Koch cronies would have written themselves.
The Kochs’ climate change denial isn’t ideological — it’s about protecting the profit margins of their pollutant-expelling business interests.
The numbers speak for themselves. According to a University of Massachusetts Amherst study:
Climate change policy could negatively affect Koch Industries’ earnings — the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute found that Koch Industries ranked among the top 30 companies for CO2 emissions in the United States in 2011.
The Kochs have funneled millions of dollars to climate change denial front groups. They’ve been rated as one of the top polluters in the country. They’ve launched massive lobbying efforts against climate change legislation. Their political groups have successfully made it untenable for GOP politicians to support climate action. And a new scientific study published proves that their corporate influence has created polarization in public debate despite the fact that the scientific community is largely in agreement on climate change.
And recently, in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Charles Koch ludicrously suggested that the scientific consensus of climate change is an “anti-science” rejection of the scientific method. Elaborating further, Charles said, “And now we have what Einstein criticized…so-called scientists having a theory and then running around and just finding the pieces that will support it.”
Today, Ted Cruz is promoting an extreme agenda that 97 percent of climate scientists disagree with, but is sure to get a nod of approval from Charles and David Koch. The Kochs “expect something in return” when they spend millions propping up their puppet candidates and Ted Cruz’s hearing promoting climate change denial proves to the billionaire brothers that if they get behind him in 2016, their return on investment will be strong.