Quantcast
Environmental News for a Healthier Planet and Life

Koch Brothers Decline Tom Steyer's Climate Change Debate Invitation

Brandon Baker
May. 05, 2014 11:11AM EST Climate

Remember last week when Tom Steyer challenged billionaire clean energy opposers Charles and David Koch to a climate change debate?

Steyer, a billionaire activist for renewable energy and climate awareness, took things a step further Friday by placing an advertisement requesting a debate in the Koch's hometown newspaper, The Wichita Eagle. A bold move, no doubt, but not enough.

The Kochs have declined the offer.

Graphic credit: NextGen Climate

“We are not experts on climate change,” Koch spokeswoman Melissa Cohlmia told the newspaper. “We do believe there should be free and open debate on the climate issue and it should be based on sound science and intellectual honesty."

Steyer extended the invitation after Charles Koch argued in theWall Street Journal that there needed to be more free and open debate on climate change. Apparently, Koch didn't mean that he or his brother should be a part of that.

“We’re glad that Koch Industries has acknowledged that they are not experts on climate change,” said Heather Wong, a spokeswoman for Steyer's NextGen Climate Action. “The scientific community has, in fact, had a free and open debate about climate change and reached an unequivocal conclusion: Our climate is changing and carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels is primarily responsible.”

The actions of Koch Industries show that the brothers don't agree with that, and now their words show that they're unwilling to debate it.

“The Koch Brothers have always been shrouded in secrecy, their labyrinth of shadowy organizations have spent hundreds of millions of dollars benefiting candidates who deny basic science and push legislation that enables climate change,” the advertisement read. “Charles Koch has already mourned the oppression of ‘free and open debate.’

"Here’s his chance to do something about it.”

——–

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE

Activist Tom Steyer Challenges Koch Brothers to Climate Debate

New Report Reveals Koch Brothers Could Make $100B Profit if Keystone XL Pipeline is Built

Jimmy Carter Slams Koch Brothers and ‘Unpleasantly Successful’ Climate Denial Campaign

——–

climate change featured kansas

EcoWatch Daily Newsletter

fossil fuels

Fossil Fuels Add to World’s Marine Dead Zones

Oceans
Heavy industry on the lower Mississippi helps to create dead zones. AJ Wallace on Unsplash.

Cutting out coal-burning and other sources of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from heavy industry, electricity production and traffic will reduce the size of the world's dead zones along coasts where all fish life is vanishing because of a lack of oxygen.

Read More Show Less
emissions marine life environment pollution fossil fuels oceans
keystone xl

Construction Begins on Keystone XL Pipeline in Montana

Energy
youtu.be

Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has restricted the ability to gather in peaceful assembly, a Canadian company has moved forward with construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, according to the AP.

Read More Show Less
keystone xl coronavirus pipelines climate crisis indigenous peoples donald trump canada montana
Sponsored
methane

Methane Levels Dramatically Increase

Energy
A gas flare from the Shell Chemical LP petroleum refinery illuminates the sky on August 21, 2019 in Norco, Louisiana. Drew Angerer / Getty Images.

Methane levels in the atmosphere experienced a dramatic rise in 2019, preliminary data released Sunday shows.

Read More Show Less
climate science pollution emissions fossil fuels gas methane
coronavirus

Coal Miners With Black Lung Brace for COVID-19

Health + Wellness
A retired West Virginia miner suffering from black lung visits a doctor for tests. Andrew Lichtenstein / Corbis via Getty Images

In some states like West Virginia, coal mines have been classified as essential services and are staying open during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though the close quarters miners work in and the known risks to respiratory health put miners in harm's way during the spread of the coronavirus.

Read More Show Less
coal coronavirus black lung west virginia kentucky
renewable energy

Renewable Sources Made up 72% of New Energy Added in 2019

Renewable Energy
Solar panel installations and a wind turbine at the Phu Lac wind farm in southern Vietnam's Binh Thuan province on April 23, 2019. MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP via Getty Images

Renewable energy made up almost three quarters of all new energy capacity added in 2019, data released Monday by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) shows.

Read More Show Less
renewable energy climate crisis solar wind coronavirus