American Energy Alliance scorecard ranks 2016 candidates in one of several tactics to test hopefuls on issues of concern to the billionaire industrialists

A conservative group backed by the billionaire Koch brothers and their wealthy allies boasts a scorecard on its website that rates the presidential candidates based on their opposition to policies meant to tackle climate change, such as EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, a renewable fuels standard, and a tax credit that benefits wind energy.

Texas senator Ted Cruz scored the highest rating on the American Energy Alliance site, which labelled him a “hero” due in part to his opposition to regulation and taxes. Cruz was followed on the scorecard by four other Republican candidates – Florida senator Marco Rubio, ex-Florida governor Jeb Bush, ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and Kentucky senator Rand Paul, who were named as “defenders”.

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Other GOP candidates, such as Donald Trump and Ben Carson, were labelled “doubters”, while Hillary Clinton and her Democratic rivals Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley were bottom of the heap and branded “villains”.

As Republican presidential candidates compete to corral big checks from the industrialists Charles and David Koch and the 400-odd super-rich donors who support their political and advocacy network, the AEA scorecard is one of a number of tools that Koch-backed outfits are using to test the hopefuls’ conservative credentials – and perhaps sway their stances – on major energy issues and other free market, small government priorities they support.

“It’s a public negotiation with these candidates to see which ones will be best on their pet issues, like climate change and environmental regulations,” said one senior conservative operative.

Freedom Partners, the funding arm of the Koch network, and Americans for Prosperity, a leading political and advocacy group in the network, hosted separate multi-day gatherings in August which drew several candidates deemed strong on energy matters, plus slashing regulations and taxes. The events drew Rubio, Cruz, Bush and a few other contenders who gave talks stressing their pro free enterprise bona fides.

The Koch network’s intense political vetting process underscores the high stakes for candidates scrambling for six- and seven-figure checks for Super Pacs backing their campaigns, as well as scores of donors seeking the strongest candidate to implement their deregulatory climate-change skeptical and low tax agendas.

Super Pacs sprang up after the supreme court overturned decades of campaign finance law in 2010 and allowed corporations, individuals and unions to give unlimited sums to ostensibly independent groups promoting federal candidates.

With two months to go before the first primaries, Charles and David Koch have given mixed signals about their plans. In April, Charles Koch told USA Today that he and his brother might back more than one candidate in the primaries, suggesting that if “they want our support, one way to get it is to articulate a good message” on certain policies.

But in late November, in another USA Today interview, he took another tack.

“I have no plans to support anyone in the primaries now,” he said, leaving himself some wiggle room but surprising some donors and fellow conservatives.

“My view is that [Charles Koch] is trying to set up an advocacy competition between the major candidates for the support of network donors,” said former House majority leader Dick Armey, who after he left Congress spent about two years chairing a now defunct Koch-backed lobbying group. “Anybody who wants to get enthusiastic support from the Kochs is going to have to show real enthusiasm on the climate issue.”

The Koch brothers, whose combined net worth is close to $88bn, derive their fortunes from Koch Industries, the energy and industrial giant they control. The brothers and their donor network have long fought climate change regulations and several other high-profile EPA rules for a mix of ideological and business reasons, say some conservatives. Charles Koch has strongly rejected the idea that his political and advocacy efforts are driven by bottom-line concerns.

While the Koch brothers remain coy about their candidate preferences, a number of billionaire donors in the Koch network, including hedge fund chieftains Paul Singer and Robert Mercer, have either made large donations to Super Pacs supporting candidates, or are expected to do so. Rubio, who reportedly won a straw poll of some conference donors at a Freedom Partners event in January, and Cruz for now seem to have an edge among network donors.

Singer in October sent an enthusiastic letter to scores of big conservative donors – including a number in the Koch orbit – endorsing Rubio. Singer is slated to host a large campaign fundraiser for the senator in New York this month, and is expected to write a big check – and raise money from others – for a pro-Rubio Super Pac. And Mercer has already plowed a whopping $11m into one of four Super Pacs supporting Cruz.

Overall, the Koch network plans to spend $750m in 2016 on direct political activity and issue advocacy. The political spending is expected to total about $300m in the general election.

Besides prodding GOP candidates, several Koch-funded advocacy groups are engaged in aggressive energy lobbying drives at both the federal and state levels targeting EPA regulations of carbon emissions from power plants, efforts to expand wind and solar power usage via tax incentives, and the climate change accords currently under discussion in Paris.

The multi-front lobbying battles are being waged by several Koch backed groups, such as Americans for Prosperity and the American Energy Alliance. Tom Pyle, a former lobbyist for Koch Industries, runs the American Energy Alliance. The two groups are also working to lift the ban on oil exports and to end funding for the US government’s Export-Import Bank, which they deem an example of “crony capitalism”.

Currently, Americans for Prosperity, the American Energy Alliance and a few other nonprofits backed by the Koch network are embroiled in a big fight in Florida over a pro-solar ballot initiative in 2016 which, if passed, would expand solar power usage in the Sunshine State.

Charles Koch, in an interview with the Washington Post at the Freedom Partners donor retreat in August, raised alarms about the impact of climate change regulations on the economy, a point echoed by some GOP candidates. In the interview, Koch asked: “Do we want to create a catastrophe today in the economy because of some speculation based on models that don’t work?”

But some veteran oil industry lobbyists say that such economic arguments are often overblown. “If I believed all the predictions that the economy was going to hell because of new regulations, the industry would have declared Chapter 11 many times,” said Don Duncan, a former top lobbyist for ConocoPhillips.