Study Says Kochs Gave Nonprofits and Colleges $71-Million to Push Views

Billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch donated more than $71-million to hundreds of tax-exempt advocacy groups and institutions of higher learning from 2007 to 2011 to promote their libertarian positions on issues such as climate change and regulation, writes The New Yorker.

The article cites a two-year study of the Koch brothers’ political and policy influence by the nonprofit Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University. According to the report, released Monday, the Kochs gave $41.2-million to 90 nonprofit groups and $30.5-million to 221 colleges and universities over the four-year period, often for academic and advocacy efforts mirroring their climate-change skepticism and calls for lower taxes and less regulation of business.

Their conservative advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, also enlisted hundreds of legislators to sign a pledge promising to oppose climate legislation “unless it is accompanied by an equivalent amount of tax cuts.”