I wrote here and elsewhere about Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Congressman Henry Waxman’s letter to Koch Industries, demanding information about Koch’s purported role in the Keystone Pipeline. The letter was based on a story in the Washington Post, which I discredited here, here and elsewhere. Yesterday, Koch Industries’ General Counsel, Mark Holden, responded to Whitehouse and Waxman. His letter is reproduced below; click to enlarge:
The Democrats’ effort to shore up their unpopular opposition to Keystone by linking it to the Koch brothers is truly pathetic. Koch has nothing to do with Keystone, and in fact construction of the pipeline would damage Koch Industries’ economic interests. As Mr. Holden states in his letter to Whitehouse and Waxman:
[Y]our letter asks whether Koch stands by its prior statements that it has no financial interest in the Keystone XL pipeline. Koch reaffirms those statements, some of which were previously made in response to questions raised by representative Waxman about these very same issues in 2011 and 2012. Koch reiterates that it has no ownership or investment interest in the Keystone XL pipeline, it is not a proposed shipper or customer, and it has not taken any position with regard to any legislation before Congress concerning the Keystone XL pipeline. These prior statements also are consistent with those of TransCanada, which is seeking to build the Keystone XL pipeline. TransCanada has stated, more than once, that Koch has “absolutely nothing to do with Keystone XL (KXL). They are neither a shipper nor a receiver on KXL and this has been confirmed repeatedly and publicly many times.”
I note with satisfaction that Koch cited my posts, along with others, in noting that the Washington Post’s article has been “widely discredited.”
Meanwhile, both the Washington Post and Whitehouse and Waxman are maintaining silence in response to my questions about the Post’s article and their possible collaboration in publishing it. Has the Post, long a Democratic Party newspaper, stooped to the level of actively coordinating its news stories with Congressional Democrats? We don’t know, because neither the Post’s reporters, Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, nor Whitehouse and Waxman will tell us, despite repeated requests from me and many of our readers.
Let’s try again. Please send politely worded emails to Eilperin, Mufson and the Post’s Executive Editor, Martin Baron, at the following addresses:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
You can also send politely-worded tweets to Eilperin at @eilperin and Baron at @PostBaron.
You can send emails to Sheldon Whitehouse by going here and to Henry Waxman by going here, if you live in his district.
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