Koch Industries refuses to comply with US senators' climate investigation

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Koch Industries refuses to comply with US senators' climate investigation

Investigation by Senate Democrats involves whether company has funded
groups that deny climate change

Alan Yuhas in Washington
Friday 13 March 2015 21.07 GMT

The Koch brothers’ conglomerate Koch Industries has refused to comply with an investigation by three Senate Democrats into whether the company has funded groups or researchers who deny or cast doubt on climate change.

In response to a request from senators Barbara Boxer, Edward Markey and Sheldon Whitehouse for information about Koch Industries’ support for scientific research, Koch general counsel Mark Holden invoked the company’s first amendment rights.

“The activity efforts about which you inquire, and Koch’s involvement, if any, in them, are at the core of the fundamental liberties protected by the first amendment to the United States constitution,” Holden wrote the senators in a letter dated 5 March and posted online by Koch Industries this week.

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Asked by the Guardian to elaborate on how the first amendment protects such funding and whether Koch Industries would pursue legal action to prevent disclosing information, Holden said: “Our letter speaks for itself.”

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/13/koch-industries-refuses-senators-climate-investigation

[android fan]

1. Slap the RICO Act lawsuit against them already

It's clear they are not interested in helping America.

[elleng]

2. “The activity efforts about which you inquire, and Koch’s involvement,"

ain't a proper 'subject,' and don't have no first amendment rights. Sorry, counsel.

[FBaggins]

4. That's may be true...but three Senators don't have subpoena power.

Why didn't they do this just a few months ago when we had the majority? They could at least have implied a committee investigation at that point.

[pbmus]

3. The Kochtopus