Koch Industries

``Political activity

The Koch brothers operate the Koch Family Foundations, a major source of funding for libertarian and sometimes conservative political causes in the United States, including think tanks such as the Cato Institute.

From 2005 to 2008, Koch industries donated $5.7 million on political campaigns and $37 million on direct lobbying to support fossil fuel industries. Between 1997 and 2008, Koch Industries donated a total of nearly $48 million to climate opposition groups.[34] According to Greenpeace, Koch Industries is the major source of funds of what they call "climate denial".[35][36][37] Koch Industries and its subsidiaries spent more than $20 million on lobbying in 2008 and $5.6 million in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group.[38][39]

Koch Industries founded Americans for Prosperity, formed as a successor to Citizens for a Sound Economy. Fred Koch co-founded the John Birch Society, though neither of his sons is a member or supporter of the organization. His sons, Charles and David, did not follow in their father's arch-conservative views but instead converted to libertarianism under the influence of Robert LeFevre. In the mid-1970s the Kochs started to fund a network of libertarian organizations including the United States Libertarian Party, for which David ran as the vice presidential nominee in 1980.[40][41] The Kochs withdrew their financial support of the Libertarian Party after an acrimonious 1983 convention,[42] but continue to support libertarian institutions independent of the party such as the Cato Institute, and in more recent years some groups with an orientation toward the Republican Party.

Rich Fink, a Koch executive vice president, is a member of the board of directors of Americans for Prosperity. Previously he served as president of Citizens for a Sound Economy. Rich Fink also founded the Mercatus Center.''

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