Reid says the Kochs are 'waging a war against anything that protects the environment.' Reid: Kochs cause climate change

Charles and David Koch are one of the “main causes” of climate change, charged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the Senate floor.

“While the Koch brothers admit to not being experts on the matter, these billionaire oil tycoons are certainly experts at contributing to climate change. That’s what they do very well. They are one of the main causes of this. Not a cause, one of the main causes,” Reid said.


Now in his fifth month of flogging the billionaire conservative benefactors on the Senate floor, Reid dubbed them “multizillionaires” on Wednesday and mockingly applauded their spokeswoman for saying the Kochs and the energy conglomerate that they run aren’t experts on climate science. Wealthy liberal investor Tom Steyer challenged the Kochs to a debate on climate change last week in a full-page newspaper advertisement, but they declined to take him up on it.

It wasn’t just climate change: Reid also blamed the Kochs for imperiling an energy efficiency bill currently on the Senate floor, an accusation that comes not long after the Democratic leader blamed the Kochs for stalling Ukrainian aid.

“Charles and David Koch are waging a war against anything that protects the environment. I know that sounds absurd, but it’s true,” Reid said. “In the Senate now, we are considering an energy efficiency bill. Who’s working against that more than anyone else? The Koch brothers.”

For the record, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans simply want votes on amendments to the energy bill — and didn’t mention the Kochs at all in his morning speech.