Consumer Watchdog Exposes Koch Industries on Times Square Superscreen for Pollution, Tea Party Funding, and Climate Change Denial Using Coke Parody

News provided by

Oct 13, 2010, 09:18 ET

NEW YORK, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A national consumer group is running a 30 second commercial on a Times Square Superscreen that challenges Koch Industries, "the largest oil company you've never heard of," for its record of environmental degradation, political influence, Tea Party funding and climate change denial.

The parody of a Coca Cola commercial exposes Koch (pronounced Coke) Industries in the largest public square in America on a 520 square foot screen eighteen times per day and is sponsored by Consumer Watchdog and its Oilwatchdog.org project. Koch Industries is owned and operated by Charles Koch and David Koch, whose combined net worth is over $40 billion. David Koch was recently named the richest man in New York.

Watch the Times Square advertisement and read about Koch Industries here: http://www.oilwatchdog.org/meet-koch-industries/.

"Koch Industries is not a household name, but in the world of right wing, anti-environment politics, the Koch brothers have become an uber-brand," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog and author of The Progressive's Guide To Raising Hell (Chelsea Green). "Koch stands for climate change denial, global warming, cash-register politics and propping up of the Tea Party. Every American should know this company and what its owners stand for."

Consumer Watchdog noted that Koch Industries was named one of the top ten air polluters in the United States (Source "Toxic 100 Air Polluters," http://www.peri.umass.edu/toxic_index/). In addition, since 1997, the Koch foundations have contributed over $48 million in grants to climate opposition groups (Source: Greenpeace, "Koch Industries Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine," March 2010). The Koch Family Foundations have donated over $17 million to organizations that "educate," train, and organize the Tea Party.

Consumer Watchdog also noted that a subsidiary of Koch Industries recently contributed $1 million to the ballot measure campaign to repeal California's greenhouse gas emissions cap, Proposition 23 on the November ballot. The Tea Party is working against Proposition 23 as well.

Consumer Watchdog is nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest group with offices in Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Read more at http://www.consumerwatchdog.org. For two decades the group has been fighting corrupt corporations and crooked politicians. Consumer Watchdog's Oilwatchdog.org project charts the hidden hand of oil companies in politics, markets and society.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog