Report on the lesser Koch brother - David, the Goliath in Colorado

Go to: http://mexmigration.blogspot.com/2012/07/koched-out-in-colorado.html

Koch'ed out in Colorado

 

Credit: Brave New Films

 

Koch brother invests in the ‘Republic of Property’

LONG HISTORY OF PERPETUATING
 ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM

 

 

by Devon G. Peña, Ph.D.

 

(Seattle, WA.) I first heard reports about the Koch brothers and their abusive practices at the Environmental Justice Summit held in Washington, D.C. in 1991. At that historic gathering, a colleague from a group that shortly thereafter became the incomparable Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) shared information on the findings of a Senate investigation into Koch Industries activities in Indian Country. Koch Industries was the sort of company we had in mind when we started to document the history of environmental racism in this country.

 

In May 1989, the Senate Special Committee on Indian Affairs accused Koch Industries of “…a widespread scheme to steal oil on Indian land.” According to data the committee compiled, Koch took 1.95 million barrels of oil it didn’t pay for from 1986 to 1988, and left an environmental disaster in the wake of this theft. This occurred on the Oklahoma Osage reservation.

 

According to subsequent reports, the Senate referred the case to the Department of Justice (DOJ), but the Republican administration failed to deliver a criminal indictment; let’s not forget that Bush, “the First,” was also a player in the oil and energy industries and a close friend and ally to Saudi Kings and Koch Mandarins [sic].

 

In December 1999, after a lengthy civil trial, the jury found that “Koch Industries had made 24,587 false claims in buying oil, underpaying the U.S. government for royalties on Native American land from 1985 to 1989.” Koch settled the case in 2001 for a mere $25 million and it seems that the Osage received not even a pittance after the legal and accounting costs were settled.

 

The Koch brothers have a long history of antipathy toward environmental regulation dating back to the 1980s.  Indeed, they bankrolled an early precursor of the type of propaganda machine they routinely support today in the wake of the travesty known as Citizens United. I am referring to the “CO₂ is Green” campaign, a publicity stunt that cut its cynical teeth peddling this outlandishly cynical claim:

Congress is considering a law that would classify carbon dioxide as pollution. This will cost us jobs…because we all need CO₂ Read more at: care2.com

Sound familiar? This is the exact same line they are using to argue against rather timid Democratic, but Republican-inspired, climate change policies (i.e., cap-and-trade) and the Affordable Care Act (i.e., RomneyCare) as well as aggressive attacks on union rights and pretty much anything else they are opposed to. 

 

I suppose they should know because they are part of the 1%. Oh, pardon, part of the “job creator” class.  “Regulate us and we will stop being job creators,” seems to be their mantra, but the call for a political strike on investments is a very old capitalist song used whenever the 1% seeks to decompose working-class power and impose discipline on the multitude. It is happening now as corporations sit on trillions in excess liquidity from record-breaking profits instead of hiring workers so that they can bring down the tragically timid Obama Presidency.

The Koch brothers have a long history of exacting retribution against workers seeking to organize or defend their workplace health and safety rights. Inspired by the type of vulture capitalism that Romney made the norm at Bain Capital, the Koch brothers have been at the forefront of corporations that are good at making profits by shedding jobs through automation, work intensification, and outsourcing to offshore facilities (see chart below).

 

Credit: Source Watch based on The Rachel Maddow Show

 

In the 1980s, the Koch brothers were just warming up; pardon the pun. Their “CO₂ is Green” campaign pales to what they are currently unleashing with a half a billion-dollar pledge in campaign spending during this year’s election cycle, which they are funneling through their own Super-PAC, Americans for Prosperity, and Karl Rove’s group, Crossroads GPS. These are the same forces working to wreck whatever is left of our democracy by buying elections and completing the neoliberal enclosure of pretty much everything.

 

This brings me to the present state of the vast empire of Koch brothers investments, with their octopus-like stranglehold over our failing democracy. But I will focus on the lesser known of the three brothers, Bill, who is deeply involved and active in Colorado industrial and political affairs.

Who are the Koch brothers?

First important fact to know: Their father was Fred Koch, an early member of the John Birch Society and a staunch anti-communist until his last breath. Second important fact to know: There are three brothers (Bill, Charles, and David) and they don’t all get along very well; indeed there were serious internecine conflicts during the 1980s (some apparently provoked by the Osage oil theft mess) that led to the expulsion of one of the brothers, Bill, from the main family businesses, which are centered on the conglomerate known as Koch Industries. Third important fact to know: Bill is the brother that is now doing business in Colorado, although his principal holding company, Oxbow Group is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

Bill Koch, an America’s Cup champion, feigns himself quite the environmentalist, in sharp contrast to proud ecological thugs Charles and David. He has contributed to a high-priced version of NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) activism by funding the Alliance to Save Nantucket Sound, a group formed to protect wealthy amenity dwellers from a wind energy project that would have blemished their Cape Cod vistas of the open sea. He also recently (2012) donated $1 million to the pro-Romney Super-PAC, Restore Our Future. 

 

Dodge City meets Neverland, or a perfect storm overtakes Colorado?

 

Journalists and research scholars have covered more than enough about the Charles and David Koch, the brothers in control of Koch Industries, to shed considerable light on the far-reaching and transnational nature of their investments; long history of environmental wrongs bringing hundreds of millions in fines; role creating, funding, and directing the notorious and now increasingly discredited ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council); attacks on public sector unions in Wisconsin and elsewhere; and their contempt for democracy and pretty much anything that benefits the 99%. There is no need for me to revisit any of that.

 

Wm. I. Koch. Credit: America 3 Foundation.

Instead – since he is practically our neighbor and I wish to keep him as far away from our county as possible (we have enough billionaire neighbors already) – I will focus on what Bill Koch is doing in Colorado with the growing empire of assets that he has been silently accumulating over the past decade and a half or so.

 

The empire includes major investments in oil and gas, mining, real estate, and resort development – which pretty much covers everything of value [sic] to capitalists in Colorado except water. Oh wait! Koch is trying to grab water rights as well.

Through his privately-held Oxbow holding company, Bill Koch manages alternative energy electric power generation plants in the U.S. as well as the Philippines, China, Vietnam, and Costa Rica. Oxbow oversees Koch’s investments in coal mining, petroleum coke marketing, oil production, composite pipe manufacturing, and rel estate development.

A 2011 report in High Country News notes that Oxbow operates one of the largest coal mining operations in Colorado in the North Fork Valley outside Paonia. The company’s own website reveals plans for relocation and expansion of the coal mine to a richer seam on federal public lands, which was approved in March 2012 despite objections by local and statewide environmentalist organizations.

According to Greenpeace, Koch’s Elk Creek Mine has been cited with over 2000 violations by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA):

Oxbow has paid over $960,000 in fines since beginning the operation of the mine ten years ago. Of the 2000 violations, over 400 were deemed “significant and substantial,” meaning they could result in injury or death. One single violation of mine ventilation regulations in March 2010 cost Oxbow a penalty of $45,000. Explosive coal-dust buildup, excessive methane, in adequate ventilation, and poor maintenance including fire extinguishers, were among the violations, according to MSHA’s database. Such “significant and substantial” violations can lead to injuries and tragic fatalities. Though the MSHA investigation has not been completed, excessive methane and improper ventilation were recurring problems at Massey Coal’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, where 29 miners were killed in an explosion in April 2010.19 In the last decade, the only two fatalities in Colorado coal mines occurred at Oxbow operations.The Associated Press reported the death of a 37-year old miner in December 2000 at Oxbow Mining’s Sanborn Creek Mine, likely due to a faulty fitting on a high-pressure hose.21 At the Elk Creek Mine, a 26-year-old miner died in January 2007 when a bundle of materials fell on him.

So much for having a better environmental sensibility compared to his brothers, Charles and David. The NIMBY activism in Cape Cod seems like a poorly-orchestrated case of greenwashing in light of the record at Koch’s Colorado coal mining operations.

Despite such a poor record, very few mainstream media journalists have dared to report on Koch’s interests in the Rocky Mountain State. Madeleine Osberger, associated with an outfit called Aspen Journalism, broke the news on Bill Koch’s development project at his Gunnison County Bear Creek Ranch.

Gated entrance to Koch’s Colorado ranch. The high peaks of the Raggeds Wilderness are on horizon. Credit: Brent Gardner-Smith

Osberger, hailing from the high-rent district of Aspen, titled the article,  “Bear Ranch and the Price of Privacy,” without displaying the least bit of a sense of the contradictory irony involved in that phrasing. Regardless, she reveals quite a bit about this scion of the 1% club:

Billionaires by definition have money. But as Bill Koch is showing locals on the Western Slope, billionaires can also have hobbies on a grand scale. And the echoes of Koch’s wonderful Western world now under construction on his Bear Ranch are being heard in Delta, Gunnison and Pitkin counties. Koch’s activities in the region are centered on his latest obsession, building an “authentic” Western town in a former pasture at the base of the incredibly scenic Ragged Mountains, about 12 miles up Highway 133 from Paonia and just east of Paonia Reservoir. His luxury Western town includes a train station, a livery station, a saloon, a bunkhouse, a firehouse and two large Victorian-style homes. It’s part Dodge City, part Neverland.

This will be a private affair and the public will not be grated access to this billionaire’s Disneyland version of his imagined Wild West retreat. Presumably only fellows members of the 1% will be allowed on the premises, except of course for the dozens of workers required to operate, secure, and clean the place. Osberger notes that all workers are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement and are subject to 24/7 closed-circuit TV surveillance.

What is so interesting to me about this project, if one surveys the photography (shown below) is what a terrible planner Koch appears to be; but I suppose his apologists will defend the project by waxing poetic about the Old Western town layout.

Ironies abound. If Koch and his army of architects and planners knew anything about Old Western towns, the first thing they might abide by is location, location, location. The Bear Creek Ranch is located at close to 9000ft. above sea level in an area subject to severe winter storms and thus under snow for a good six to seven months of the year. 

 

David Koch's Bear Creek Ranch in Colorado. Photo by Brent Gardner-Smith; Courtesy of Aspen Journalism.

In other words, this is one of the last places anyone, even those with the most adventuresome frontier spirit [sic], would have thought to build a town; which is why there was none; that is, until Koch came around with billions to play with. This attempt at creating Dodge City at the foot of an untenable Western Slope mountain ridge is strictly Neverland; or should I say Never, Never Land.

 

There is poetic justice in the world: I predict a day will come, in the not too distant future, when the place will burn down; not because some ELF activists have at it, but as a result of the fire ecology of the Rocky Mountain biome. Koch may very well see his Westernized Neverland go up in smoke when the wild fire regime asserts itself like it has of late across wide swaths of Colorado, especially wherever the clueless or arrogant build fat cat dream homes and retreats in what is basically an anthropogenically aggravated tinderbox. 

 

This would be the ultimate irony: A Koch brother sees his investment destroyed by forces unleashed by the climate change he has helped to create as a member of the fossil fuel production club while investing millions to deny its existence. This would be a perfect storm; and I admit to being guilty of anticipatory glee.

 

Bill Koch owns a vintage Patton tank shown here parked at Bear Creek Ranch.

The tank buster: Tiananmen Square redux

 

There are other ironies confronting the lesser known of the Koch brothers in Colorado. Perhaps Bill Koch really believes a class war is coming, that is, one with guns and bazookas and bombs and all that? He certainly appears to be preparing for some sort of proletarian apocalypse. Parked at his high mountain retreat outside Paonia is a vintage Patton Army tank; it appears to be an M-44A, the second generation of medium-sized tanks and the last U.S. tank with a bow-mounted machine gun in the hull; the better to mow down the unruly hordes of proles?  Koch collects these vintage tanks and they are fully weapon-ready.

I had no idea one could just go out and buy these sorts of weapons. I suppose if you are rich enough, nothing is beyond purchase, for the right price.

Whatever the case, the neighbors certainly appear to view it as a warning to anyone remotely considering a home invasion of this rich man’s domain. That tank is loaded and ready to fire.

So, in a recent display of his patriotism and good neighbor spirit, Koch had one of his other tanks, an M-15 Duster antiaircraft gun, squarely set in the middle of a small hometown parade. The occasion was Paonia’s annual Cherry Harvest Parade, which is truly a big affair for a little town. 

I live and work in a town quite a bit smaller than Paonia; San Luis, Colorado. We also have an annual parade that pays tribute to our patron saint feast days. I also know that the event is a big family and town reunion. If you want to meet all the locals and their extended kin, this is THE event of the year. 

The same holds true for Paonia and every other little hamlet or small town in the Rocky Mountains, each with their own unique version of this ritual collective and decidedly working-class and good-natured celebration. So, it seems a bit odd for a billionaire to come out and join in such decidedly plebian activities. But this is William Koch, the less notorious and presumably less evil of the three. In last year’s parade, according to The Denver Post, Koch actually rode shotgun on one of his historic horse-drwan wagons; presumably one of those he'll use to entertain his upper-crust guests at Bear Creek.

Who knows what motivated Koch to entered one his other WWII tanks in the annual Paonia parade, but he did and the results were, again, a perfect storm of irony and an unintended opportunity for a smart activist to engage in a bit of kynicism. 


You see, Sid Lewis, a former member of the Paonia town council rained all over Koch’s parade, or perhaps better stated: He pulled a Tiananmen Square-like protest move on his drivers. Captured in a photo that has gone absolutely viral, brave Sid, now affectionately known as Tiananmen Sid, blocked the progress of the clunky tank in the midst of the parade procession, an act of protest directed against Koch’s plans to get a public road closed off so he can more safely secure his expanding Republic of Property. The arrogant cynicism of the 1% once again flails and is deflated before the righteous and creative satire of the 99%.

Tiananmen Sid blocks Koch's vintage antiaircraft tank. Credit: Jim Brett (HANDOUT)

I am now left imagining a Butterfinger moment, when that sugary substance somehow and mysteriously makes it way into the innards of the mechanical beast called the Duster, and it bites the dust. 

Below is a video of Tianenmen Sid versus one of Koch’s weapons of mass distraction, or is it to be used in the coming proletarian apocalypse? Enjoy. This is once again the battle of cynicism against kynicisn.