andrewottoson.com

The shape of Koch’s political operations in Kansas may be old news to long-time Kansans, but quite a bit of it was new to me.

IMO, the really interesting point here is that in Kansas, the company’s ideological proxies are strongly associated with its household name and resistance to Koch-backed organizations may be stronger than it is in parts of the country where the company is not a well-known political player. To wit:

The ferment being brewed by Koch-financed groups like Americans for Prosperity is paralyzing Washington and preventing the nation from dealing realistically with its many challenges. But in the Koch brothers’ own stomping grounds, their money and ideology are frequently trumped by fairness and common sense.

To reach this conclusion, KC Star columnist Barbara Shelly cites one example I noted here earlier this year and points out that another Koch-backed group, American Legislative Exchange Council, has pushed state-level legislatures to reject parts of the federal health care reform package. When it came time to balance the state budget earlier this year, the Kansas legislature chose to raise taxes to pay for necessary spending on education, health and other basic infrastructure—and Kansas voters, for the most part, have rewarded that choice. As importantly, according to the Star column, the anti-HCR push has already failed here in Kansas even as it has moved forward in other states.

I have to say, I’m both surprised and encouraged to see someone of Sanchez’ stature make this statement unequivocally:

…one reason libertarians ought to ally themselves with the progressive coalition in the United States is that unregulated carbon dioxide emissions constitute a massive violation of property rights.

Dave Weigel describes the group’s history, media, politics and future in considerable depth, but seems unconvinced as to whether the Tea Party can actually downsize popular government programs:

Bennett’s defeat was decided by a majority of around 3,500 activists who attended the Utah GOP convention. Murkowski’s defeat was at the hands of around 100,000 Alaska GOP primary voters. We’re talking about decisions that ended the careers of two senators made by a total of around 53,000 people. That’s just not repeatable many more times on a much larger scale.

David Frum thinks so:

In early July, Lindsey negatively reviewed at the liberal American Prospect website a new book by American Enterprise Institute president, Arthur Brooks. Brooks had provided an intellectual manifesto for the Tea Party, arguing that the United States now faced a culture-dividing battle over the continued existence of the free enterprise system. Lindsey’s view: “The attempt to turn economic policy disputes into a populist cultural crusade rests on deep-seated confusion about the nature of those disputes and how best to effect constructive policy change.”

A few days later, Lindsey – whoosh! – abruptly departed to a new job at the Kauffman Foundation, Wilkinson to a part-time blog at the Economist.

According to a report appearing at stltoday.com, Concern mounts over oil pipeline safety, Federal regulators have not applied consistent standards in the course of construction of TransCanada’s Keystone pipeline. The article also indicates there may be a much larger issue—what a representative of the NRDC calls “agency capture” refers to an inappropriate closeness between regulators and operators.

While landowners may have little immediate influence over whatever changes are necessary to improve safety in the wake of a series of glaring accidents, one Kansan is asking regulators very specific questions and is, thus far, getting no answers.

* * *

Below is a letter from Harry Bennett, a landowner whose property is adjacent to Keystone’s route and whose concerns I’ve cited before, to a regulator in the US Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety, to which Bennett says he has not yet received a formal response (emphasis added):

August 9, 2010

Mr. Harold Winnie
United States Department of Transportation
Office of Pipeline Safety
Central Region Office
901 Locust Street, Suite 462
Kansas City, Missouri 64106

Dear Mr. Winnie,

We are property owners and live adjacent to the right of way of the Keystone Cushing Extension pipeline being constructed for TransCanada, LLC in Marion County, Kansas. We are not easement holders but are within approximately 50 yards of the pipeline. Our property is to the east of the pipeline between 180th and 170th roads in Wilson Township, Marion County, Kansas.

Our small farm is on both sides of Spring Branch Creek and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks are the West border. The pipeline has had to cross Spring Branch Creek using a “wet-trench crossing” technique and then had to turn 45 degees and go under the rail right-of-way via a deep boring. During June and July of this summer we have observed the work of excavating very deep holes on both sides of the track, with the largest excavation occurring on the southeast side of the track, which is closest to our property. The excavations were open for a period of many weeks, and while turbid runoff rainwater filled the excavations and was pumped out, we noticed the holes would refill every evening with clean blue water. Photographs of this occurrence are available if you are interested. We contacted Mr. Don Carlson, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Bureau of Water, Industrial Program Chief, and asked if this water would perhaps be coming from the groundwater table. He said that most likely, given the depth of the excavation and the proximity to the creek, that it is ground water. We have lived on this farm for 32 years and take all of our water for household use, livestock, and crop irrigation from two wells that we have on our property; it is our only source of fresh pure water. The static level of our well is consistently 15 feet from the surface, which would indicate to us that the pipeline is indeed lying in the groundwater that we depend on for our home and farm.

The 36” pipeline between 180th and 170th roads has an extraordinary number of twists, turns and elevation changes in a very short stretch: crossing the creek, turning to cross the railroad track, and then turning back to continue the pipeline path due south. With so many welds and piping fabrications in a section of pipeline that is in direct contact with our water source we have grave concerns. Any leak that would occur in this pipeline with the operating volumes and pressures would be devastating to our supply of water. We would like to know what quality control measures were taken on this particular section of pipeline. We are requesting any reports by field inspectors of your agency on the installation of this specific section of pipeline. We would like to have access to the industrial radiologist’s reports on the radiological examinations of the pipeline welds on the pipeline constructions between 180th and 170th roads. Steve Craycroft, a TransCanada employee, told us at a meeting at our house on July 9, 2010 that every weld on the pipeline is x-rayed for quality assurance. If this is the case, we would like to see the results of those measures.

The pipeline leak in Michigan last month has made us very aware of the dangers associated with petroleum pipelines and water quality. Your agency stands between us and the possibility of a leak that would have dire consequences for the life-supporting water resource that my family and many others in this community depend on. Please respond promptly with the information I have requested.

Sincerely,

Harry E. Bennett

Bennett has spoken to the regulator and expressed frustration over being told “that the radiological reports I request may not be available because they belong to TransCanada….the fox doesn’t guard the henhouse, he owns the whole damn farm!”

The New Yorker’s Koch profile isn’t going away, and it seems there are more of these profiles on deck. Dave Weigel at Slate makes two very reasonable observations.

Great point #1:

Fink argues that Mayer treated the Kochs unfairly despite the access she received, but Mayer reports that she didn’t get face time with David or Charles. That’s the point I’m making — these attempts to keep the brothers out of the political fray just don’t work anymore.

Great point #2:

So pre-empt the coming exposes. Libertarians: Embrace the Kochs! Kochs: Embrace the Tea Parties! You are, Kochs and libertarians alike, among the few activists who should feel no need whatsoever to apologize for wealth and success. AFP’s Tim Phillips put it well when I asked him about this on Friday, responding to the New Yorker article by praising Soros: “This is America!” said Phillips. “God bless him! He made his money, and let him go out and try and spend it to see his vision of America fulfilled.”

But somehow, I doubt Weigel will be included in the group hug:

As a former reporter for Reason magazine, I’ve spent years poking around for information about the Koch family — especially since the Kochs’ big grassroots project Americans for Prosperity became a driving force behind the tea parties. This information is tough to get. The Kochs protect their image and it’s a fool’s errand to try for interviews with Charles, who helped found the Cato Institute, and David, who tops AFP. But in the last few months, I heard that at least four magazines were reporting out Koch profiles.

Nebraska Republican senator Mike Johanns and environmental organizations Sierra Club, Bold Nebraska and National Wildlife Federation have formalized their criticism of Canadian oil supergiant TransCanada for proceeding with efforts to acquire land for the Keystone XL pipeline route through that state even as the project awaits approval from US Federal authorities.

According to the Omaha World-News, Johanns and the environmentalists have independently criticized the company both for its timing and its apparent willingness to use eminent domain laws to force landowner to provide easements for the proposed pipeline’s right of way. The news organization also reports that letters went out to 50 landowners in July, and while the company has claimed it did not intend to threaten, the legalese included a 30-day window to sign “voluntarily” before condemnation proceedings would begin.

Bob Weeks, whose blog is the voice of the hard right in Wichita, apparently believes the much-discussed New Yorker profile is discreditable with two words: global warming. While the company’s stance on global warming and affiliation with the Tea Party is discussed at length, the larger argument in the piece drives at this conclusion:

The Kochs have long depended on the public’s not knowing all the details about them.

Weeks quotes Daniel Fisher who takes a broader view in his post on a blog at Forbes.com, but neither Fisher nor Weeks address the question that ProPublica identifies as the central bit of news contained in the piece: do the company’s profits from formaldehyde create a conflict of interest with David Koch’s Bush-appointed role on an advisory board to the National Cancer Institute?

That this possible conflict is largely unknown to the public is enough to make Mayer’s conclusion stick.

..two of their entertainments have been shared with me today. [1] [2]