“America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change. And frankly, approving this project would have undercut that global leadership. And that’s the biggest risk we face — not acting.”
– President Obama, “Statement by the President on the Keystone XL Pipeline,” November 6, 2015.
” … if Keystone had been in operation it would have lowered Koch Industries’ overall profits by $260 million per year.”
– Charles Koch, Good Profit (New York: Crown Business, 2015), p. 46.
In 1959, Fred Koch purchased an interest in Great Northern Refinery in Minnesota to turn Canadian crude oil into refined products for the Midwest. At the beginning (1955), the facility refined 25,000 daily barrels. Full control by Koch Industries came in 1959. Today, the renamed Pine Bend Refinery has a daily capacity of 339,000 barrels of crude oil that can be turned into 14 million gallons of petroleum products.…
Continue Reading“As an idealistic man in my twenties, I became passionate about the urgency of finding freedom-fueled solutions to human problems, even if the solutions were radical.” (p. 11)
“My readings covered the entire philosophical spectrum…. I discovered my own political orientation was much more nuanced than simply ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal,’ in the contemporary use of those words.” (p. 13)
– Charles Koch, Good Profit (New York: Crown Business, 2015)
Charles Koch’s Good Profit: How Creating Profit for Others Built One of the World’s Most Successful Companies defends the free and prosperous commonwealth against cronyism (aka ‘bad profit’). But more than that, the author presents insights about economic freedom to set up his business management ideal, Principled Entrepreneurship.
A baker’s dozen of quotations from Koch’s new book, and one more for good measure, follow.…
Continue ReadingOn October 5, 2009, President Obama issued an executive order, FEDERAL LEADERSHIP IN ENVIRONMENTAL, ENERGY, AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE, that sneak-previewed policies toward reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the rest of his time in office. The 15-page executive order, divided into 20 sections, provided strict guidance for all agencies in the executive branch and their interactions with outside organizations. Portions of the executive order follows:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release October 5, 2009
FEDERAL LEADERSHIP IN ENVIRONMENTAL, ENERGY, AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to establish an integrated strategy towards sustainability in the Federal Government and to make reduction of greenhouse gas emissions a priority for Federal agencies, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Sec.…
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