Koch Industries

Corporate PACs Donated $174 Million to Lawmakers Who Attempted to Overturn 2020 Election

| Importance: 8/10

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) reported in August 2025 that over 2,000 corporate and industry group PACs have donated more than $174 million to members of the ‘Sedition Caucus’—the 147 lawmakers who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election, …

Koch Industries American Crystal Sugar AT&T Corporate PACs Sedition Caucus systematic-corruption corporate-influence election-integrity insurrection
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Agriculture Committee Captured by Agribusiness - $523M Lobbying Shapes Farm Bill

| Importance: 8/10

Systematic analysis of lobbying disclosure reports revealed that between 2019 and 2023, giant agribusinesses, food and agriculture industry associations, and special interest groups reported more than $523 million in federal lobby expenditures on disclosure reports listing “farm bill” as …

Glenn Thompson David Scott House Agriculture Committee American Farm Bureau Federation Koch Industries regulatory-capture agriculture lobbying congressional-corruption corporate-subsidies
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Heartland Institute Billboard Compares Climate Scientists to Unabomber

| Importance: 8/10

On May 4, 2012, the Heartland Institute erected a digital billboard on the Eisenhower Expressway near Chicago featuring Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber) with text reading “I still believe in global warming. Do you?” The billboard remained live for 24 hours before widespread …

Heartland Institute Ted Kaczynski James Sensenbrenner State Farm Diageo +1 more climate-denial scientist-harassment extremist-rhetoric disinformation fossil-fuels
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ALEC Grants Corporate Lobbyists 'Equal Vote' on Model Legislation for State Legislatures

| Importance: 9/10

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a nonprofit organization bringing together state legislators and corporate representatives, continued operating its model legislation system where corporate lobbyists receive “equal voice and vote” with elected officials in drafting …

American Legislative Exchange Council State Legislatures Koch Industries ExxonMobil regulatory-capture lobbying corporate-corruption legislative-capture alec
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ALEC Distributes Climate Denial Model Legislation to Kill Regional Climate Pacts

| Importance: 8/10

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) distributed model bills in 2010 designed to kill regional climate pacts like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in New England and the mid-Atlantic, marking a strategic shift from federal to state-level climate denial efforts. ALEC activist …

American Legislative Exchange Council Koch Industries ExxonMobil Clint Woods Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative +1 more climate-denial alec legislative-capture fossil-fuels model-legislation +1 more
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Koch Industries Launches Massive Climate Denial Funding Network

| Importance: 9/10

Koch Family Foundations began systematic funding of climate science denial and clean energy opposition, eventually spending $145,555,197 directly financing 90 groups attacking climate science and policy solutions from 1997-2018. The Koch network funneled $127,006,756 to 92 organizations from …

Koch Industries Charles Koch David Koch Koch Family Foundations Cato Institute +4 more climate-denial regulatory-capture fossil-fuels think-tank-funding political-influence
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Cato Institute Founded by Charles Koch - Libertarian Policy Infrastructure

| Importance: 7/10

In 1977, Charles Koch (chairman and CEO of Koch Industries), Ed Crane, and Murray Rothbard founded the Cato Institute, establishing a libertarian think tank that would become central to promoting deregulation, privatization, and reduced government oversight across all sectors of American society. …

Charles Koch Ed Crane Murray Rothbard Koch Industries think-tank-infrastructure koch-network libertarian-movement deregulation privatization +1 more
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