Wayne Slater has the scoop in today’s Dallas Morning News about another effort by the Kochs to use their largesse to advance a self-serving political agenda, this time to the benefit of their fertilizer business in Texas.

After last year’s tragic fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, Texans’ interest in knowing where these dangerous chemicals are stored naturally increased. According to the report, for decades, this information was available to the public on the Department of State Health Services’ website. Yet in the wake of the accident in West, Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott has ruled that these records are closed, citing a post-9/11 anti-terrorism state security statute.  Abbott contends that concerned Texans can still drive to chemical facilities in their area and inquire in person about what potentially dangerous or explosive chemicals are stored on-site. (Sounds safe, right?)

Why the change in disclosure policy? According to Slater, Abbott’s campaign has received thousands of dollars from chemical and fertilizer companies, including $75,000 from Koch interests in the months following the West explosion. Abbott received $25,000 each from Charles Koch, the Koch Industries’ PAC and from Chase Koch, Charles’ son and the head of Koch Industries’ fertilizer business. A previous DMN report noted that Koch Industries subsidiary Georgia Pacific operates a plant in Sweetwater, one of several dozen chemical plants in the state that stockpiles at least 10,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate or ammonium-related material.

The Koch brothers have previously opposed federal efforts to secure chemical plants from terrorist attacks, yet in Texas, the Kochs are pouring thousands into backing Abbott and his industry-friendly interpretation of state anti-terror regulations.