SINKING IN
BUREAUCRACY
the campaign to stop Cape Wind,
which includes major funding for
Parker’s alliance, is William Koch,
scion of the founders of the oil refining giant Koch Industries, chairman of the gas and coal supplier
Oxbow Corp. — and owner of a
sizable estate in Osterville, Mass.,
just west of Craigville beach.
From a recent compilation prepared by the environmental group,
The Sierra Club:
“While the Alliance is largely a
local group, concerned about the
possible environmental, aesthetic,
and economic impacts of the wind
farm, their efforts have been sustained almost entirely by Mr. Koch
and his gas and coal conglomerate, Oxbow Corp. In a 2006 interview with Forbes, Mr. Koch admitted spending $1.5 million on the
Alliance. The group’s 2011 annual
report form filed in Massachusetts
includes Mr. Koch as a co-chairman for the organization — despite
his Palm Beach, Florida, address,
thousands of miles from Nantucket
Sound. The Alliance’s 2009 ... IRS
form indicates that Mr. Koch also
paid most of president Audra Parker’s $147,499 salary.”
Koch has made no mystery of
HUFFINGTON
03.10.13
his opposition to Cape Wind, and
Parker is unfazed when asked about
his involvement in the alliance, describing it as a red herring that distracts from what she says are thousands of grassroots supporters.
“Bill Koch is our biggest donor,
over time he’s been our biggest
donor,” Parker conceded, adding that he accounts for about 20
percent of the group’s operating
budget, with smaller donors representing the rest. “Yes, our largest donors are funding the bulk
of it, yes — but that’s typical.
Obviously you’re going to have a
few $100,000 donors and a lot of
small donors, so you just do the
math. But it’s pretty typical of a
nonprofit,” she said. “Koch has
property here, so he cares about
the area just like everyone else. It
has nothing to do with oil and gas
interests. I really don’t think his
business model is threatened by
Cape Wind.”
To further demonstrate her
point, Parker digs into a file folder
and produces letters from a variety of supporters and small donors to the alliance. “I’m elderly
and I have a limited income, but I
gladly offer this small amount because I do not want to leave this
earth with the Sound desecrated,”
reads one letter, which accompanies a $15 donation. A $25 donor
writes: “You will never know how