Irony Alert: Bill Peacock, Paid Shill for Koch Instructs Us on Clean Air

If you just can’t get enough irony, go read this propaganda piece written by Bill Peacock on behalf of the energy industry.

Cleaner energy means cleaner air
By Bill Peacock
Published Thursday, January 24, 2008

The facts clearly show that Texans can have an affordable, reliable supply of energy and breathe clean air, too – if coal and other fossil fuels are allowed to meet Texas’ future energy needs.

Initially I was going to challenge his faulty logic but as I researched and discovered his funders, I think exposing that information will suffice. The following is the letter I sent to the Messenger today.

I was almost fooled by Bill Peacock’s commercial for the energy industry that was printed as an op-ed in Sunday’s paper. Not really. I’ve been paying attention so I knew that nationally Texas ranks number one in carbon dioxide emissions.

A quick check on Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, reveals that it’s funding comes largely from the oil and gas industry including Exxon and Koch Industries. The board of directors is a who’s who list straight from the Big Book of Republican Corporate Gangsters.

Koch Industries, the nation’s largest privately held energy company, is owned by two brothers, David and Charles, who are major Republican contributors and two of the richest men in America. In fact, they are so rich they set up foundations to fund organizations like Texas Public Policy Foundation. That way it appears these foundations have broad support of thousands of different people rather than two filthy rich Republicans. These foundations push public policy favorable to polluting corporations.

The Koch brothers are so in love with money that one of their subsidiary companies cut costs by disconnecting pollution controls and venting 91 tons of cancer-causing benzene directly into the air from its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas. The federal government brought a 97 count criminal indictment against Koch Industries.

After a $900,000 donation to the Bush campaign and the appointment of Attorney General John Ashcroft, 88 of the 97 charges were dropped. Ashcroft negotiated a settlement and the Koch brothers paid a small fine for falsifying documents.

This is only one example of the many egregious environmental atrocities committed by Koch Industries. There’s a mountain of dirt under the Koch Industries rug but my space is limited here.

The irony of the major polluters backing a propaganda piece instructing us on clean air is just too much! The facts clearly show, Mr. Peacock, that you are a corporate shill who has insulted our intelligence with a corporate sponsored, blatant propaganda piece.