My neighbors $115 billion in income, really.

Koch Industries now brings in $115 billion a year in sales.  Owned by two of the four brothers (the others were pushed out of their equal share with a few million each in a forced buy out, imagine if they would fuck their brothers out of it penny's on the dollar what how they will treat anyone else).  A half dozen others own a couple percent each of the company.  The two are said to be worth 16 billion each, that would be a deliberate underestimation. •

Yesterday they purchased Odessa Power, their first utility company, they won't have the controls and title to it for a few weeks.  The 1000 MW Texas power plant is a gas burner, so expect more push for fracking.  Sale price not revealed.  The Kochs spend lots of money and employ lots of people to fight solar and wind energy and net metering and permitting home solar panels.  I volunteer to work with groups of farmers and  environmental groups that are promoting clean energy.  There aren't many if any volunteers opposing us, they seem to be all paid professionals spreading incorrect info about the cost of clean energy and a trumped up pseudo nationalism that coal, oil and gas are God given American resources and somehow wind and solar are not.  This purchase will give Kochs a new seat at the table, as a utility owner they will have even greater (if that's possible) access to energy policy, rate boards, regulation committees to hammer private ownership of energy production, net metering and stall new PV/wind farms.  You can be sure the Odessa area will not welcome a solar panel on a home roof after this.

How much is enough, 115 billion doesn't seem to be.
• One of the brothers pushed out is now in coal, I can't recall if he either mines it or is in the business of transporting it, but it is big, he is not a minor player.  The fourth I think runs a company in Europe that renovates castles, so far as I know he is not into dirty energy, not sure of his politics.