Bill Koch and Oxbow Donate $1 Million to Romney Super PAC

By Lisa Rab Wed., Feb. 1 2012 at 11:26 AM

Categories: Election, Palm Beach, Politics

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Kim Sargent

Bill Koch says Romney is friendly to coal mining.

Six months ago, Bill Koch's spokesman told us the Palm Beach billionaire's political allegiances were "hard to pin down." Unlike Tea Party sugar daddies Charles and David Koch, "Wild Bill" was the Koch brother who supported more traditional Republican candidates and liked to fly under the radar. Sure, he was a member of Mitt Romney's Florida fundraising team, but by August, he had donated only a total of $165,000 to GOP candidates throughout the country.

Well, times have changed. From September through December, Koch and his energy company, Oxbow Carbon, donated a cool $1 million to Mitt Romney's super PAC, Restore Our Future. That's an undeniably large chunk of cash, putting Koch in a high-rolling category with just six other donors to the PAC.
Let's review the reasons Bill Koch supports Romney. For a man running a coal, gas, and petroleum company, President Barack Obama has been a major nuisance.

"He does not agree with the president's economic policies," Koch spokesman Brad Goldstein said in August. "This administration has made it extremely difficult for businesses to operate."

Specifically, Koch doesn't appreciate the way Obama officials treat coal mining and calls the Environmental Protection Agency "hyperaggressive."

"It's far easier to get permits to mine for natural resources outside the United States than inside," Goldstein says. "He thinks Mitt Romney would be much more pro-business than Barack Obama."

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney also opposed an offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound -- a project Bill Koch spent more than $1.5 million fighting.

So there you have it, folks. Vote for Romney and make it easier for coal barons like Koch to rake in the dough.

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