Koch Network Mobilizes to Kill Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade Climate Bill

After the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act (cap-and-trade climate bill) on June 26, 2009, the Koch brothers’ network immediately launched a massive campaign to kill the legislation in the Senate. Americans for Prosperity, whose top initial funding came from David Koch, deployed its “No Climate Tax” pledge to pressure senators into opposing the bill, ultimately securing enough commitments to prevent passage.

The Koch network’s multi-pronged attack on cap-and-trade demonstrated sophisticated regulatory capture: from 2005 to 2008, the Koch brothers poured almost $25 million into dozens of organizations fighting climate reform. In 2009 alone, they disbursed $6.4 million to front groups and think tanks spreading inaccurate climate science information, bringing their total to $54.9 million since 1997. At Americans for Prosperity’s 2009 annual summit meeting, David Koch explicitly acknowledged that he and Charles provided the funds to start the organization.

The campaign combined grassroots-appearing pressure through tea party mobilization with coordinated think tank messaging from Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, and other Koch-funded organizations. These groups flooded the media with claims that cap-and-trade would devastate the economy—messaging that contradicted mainstream economic analyses showing manageable costs. The network’s political influence proved decisive: despite House passage and Obama administration support, the Senate never brought the bill to a vote.

This defeat exemplifies how concentrated fossil fuel wealth can capture the regulatory process by funding a network of organizations that manufacture apparent public opposition, produce pseudo-scientific denial materials, and deploy direct political pressure. Koch Industries, deriving wealth from oil refineries, pipelines, and fossil fuel operations, had direct financial interest in preventing climate regulation. The success in killing cap-and-trade established a template for blocking subsequent climate legislation for over a decade, demonstrating that regulatory capture can function not just by influencing agencies, but by preventing regulation from ever being enacted.