The Koch brothers are firing back against an ad released last week by Sen. Mark Begich. In its response to that ad, Flint Hills Resources, which is owned by the Kochs, is accusing Begich of making “misleading and false statements” about them and their refinery in North Pole, Alaska. Koch Industries announced last month that it was pulling out of Alaska. The fate of the refinery is unknown.
The Koch ad is the latest salvo in an escalating war against Begich that has been being waged even before the current election season.
Here’s a little background on the latest battle: The Koch brothers’ funded political group has been airing ads, accusing Begich, among other things, of supporting a carbon tax, which would hurt Koch Industries. Among Koch Industries holdings is a refinery in North Pole, Alaska. While waging the ad campaign on the carbon tax, Koch Industries announced that it was pulling out Alaska. Begich used the first commercial of his campaign to point out that he does not support a carbon tax. Also, the ad says that we shouldn’t trust the Kochs, whose refinery left “a mess.”
The refinery has left about 300 households and businesses with tainted water, and a sulfolane plume that’s 3 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. About 80 people who worked at the refinery are at risk of losing their jobs, and other entities, including the Alaska Railroad, also relied heavily on the refinery and are now considering layoffs.
For more detailed background read here and here.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
This campaign is deteriiorating into he said , she said. What is intersting to me is that Begich’s campaign style is one of defelction and destroying. All he talks about is how everyone else is bad, wrong and not worthy of the job. He never tells us why he is suitable. Personally speaking, I’m appaulled that he voted with Obama 97 percent of the time. Since Obama seems to be trying to ruin Alaska about 97 percent of the time, I’d say that Mr. Begich is running from his record because he doesn’t want the truth told. Consequently, he spends his time tearing down others to make himself look better. It doesn’t work for me.
Welcome to the wonderful world of purchased speech equating to individual free speech. You hire your sincere sounding voice with actors playing the part of the aggrieved then I’ll hire mine. Amanda’s map of Senate races in an earlier article leaves no room for independent constituent-oriented candidates; only candidates with degrees of allegiance to one party or the other. How sad.
As to Flint Hills, the Koch Brothers purchased a contaminated property. They knew that fact to be true at the time of purchase. No “well maintained” refinery allows ground water contamination to continue for decades. You can purchase all the bottled water, water filters, and skimmers in the world but if you don’t mitigate the source of contaminate, you are taking the cheap route to the exit door, which is exactly what they are doing. Now as a final F.U. to the folks at North Pole Flint Hills wants to allow the allowable concentration of contaminate in ground water to be increased from 14ppb to 362 ppb.
To seriously compound the problem, the State of Alaska since the time the contamination was noticed, including the last five years under the Sean Parnell Administration, chose to ignore the problem until a plume of contamination described as being 2 miles by 3 miles and 300 feet deep now exists under the community of North Pole. Apparently, in an election year, the Governor is finally making a gesture toward litigation. Talk about closing the barn door a little late. Of course he and the North Pole politicians will not do or say anything that might actually upset their political party owners/donors. Now the State Royalty Oil that feeds the Flint Hills Refinery is probably going to the Tesoro Nikiski plant and with no other source of crude that will be the stake in the heart of Flint Hills.
Another farce brought to you by the same folks who now promise our salvation with the significantly state funded AKLNG gas line project.
I agree with Roger. I can’t figure out who is sleeziest between Begich and the Koch brothers. It all is smelly and disgusting.
Flint Hills Refinery is leaving a mess. Much of the environmental degradation that is facingg the community and citizens now was actually created by the company the Koch Brothers acquired Flint Hiills from. The real question I have is where is the State of Alaska? Shouldn’t the Governor , the Attorney General and the Department of Environmental Conservation be more engaged? As far as Begich is concerned, this “argument” is just another example of him trying to have it both ways. He says he’s not for a carbon tax and then he has a voting record showing that he did and then he didn’t and then he did. So typical Mark Begich. The other unanswered question I have from my previous readings is why did the Koch Brothers ever give him a $5000 contribution and why did he take it? Frankly, I think that Begich and the Koch Brothers deserve each other – – they ‘re all awful.