BAT posed . . . Koch Industries’ oil refinery in Pine Bend: Liz Hampton and Catherine Ngai, “Border Tax Ideas Roil Oil Markets, Favor Gulf Coast Refiners,” Reuters, January 27, 2017; “US Oil Lobby ‘Concerned’ About Import Tax Plan,” Oil Daily, January 5, 2017; “Koch-Backed Group Pledges to Fight Controversial Border Tax,” Daily Oil Bulletin, January 31, 2017; Jim Geraghty, “Koch Network Ready for a Fight on the Border Adjustment Tax,” National Review, January 29, 2017.
Koch Industries bought 9.55 million barrels of Canadian crude: Oil import figures taken from Energy Information Administration database, “Company Level Imports.” The author is deeply grateful to Liz Hampton, energy reporter at Thomson Reuters, for steering him to this database when he called for help. Tar sands oil prices are taken from the database of Alberta government, “Oil Prices.” Also Nick Cunningham, “Canadian Oil Prices Plunge to $30,” OilPrice.com, last modified December 16, 2017; Verleger et al., “Border Adjustment Import Taxation.”
The Koch political network moved against: “Koch Kicks Off Lobbying Salvo Against GOP Tax Proposal,” O’Dwyer’s 31, no. 5 (May 2017): 84; “How the Koch Network Is Derailing House GOP’s Border Tax,” Congressional Quarterly News, May 19, 2017; Nicholas Confessore and Alan Rappeport, “Divide in G.O.P. Now Threatens Trump Tax Plan,” New York Times, April 2, 2017; “Spending Surges in Lobbying’s Top 50,” Hill, August 2, 2017; “US Oil Lobby ‘Concerned’ ”; “Koch-Backed Group Pledges to Fight”; Geraghty, “Koch Network Ready for a Fight.”
The attack was well fashioned: Comprehensive Tax Reform: Un-Rigging the US Economy (Arlington, VA: Americans for Prosperity, May 2017); Americans for Prosperity, “The Problem with a Border Tax,” video, 1:12, February 17, 2017; Pomerleau, “What Is the Distributional Impact?”
In fighting . . . out of step with Republican voters: Jonathan Swan, “Inside the Freedom Caucus Meeting on Border Adjustment,” Axios, last modified February 7, 2017; “Interview with North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows,” CEO Wire, February 7, 2017; “Trump Eyes Border Tax.”
after Meadows made his comments . . . Kevin Brady: “Koch-Backed Group Pledges to Fight Controversial Border”; Caitlin Owens, “Rep. Meadows Likely a ‘No’ on Border Adjustment Tax,” Axios, last modified February 13, 2017.
Paul Ryan was unbending . . . tax reform: Bade and Dawsey, “Ryan Bucks White House”; “How the Koch Network Is Derailing.”
This thinking . . . articulated in 1977 by Murray Rothbard: Rothbard, “Toward a Strategy,” 13–14.
As Americans for Prosperity . . . to help shape the tax bill: Marc Short, interviews by author, 2018.
Paul Ryan and Kevin Brady released a statement: Damian Paletta, “Speaker Ryan Admits Defeat, Giving Up on Border Adjustment Tax,” Washington Post, July 27, 2017.
AFP released a statement, crowing about its achievement: “AFP’s Defeat of the Border Adjustment Tax Clears the Way for Principled Tax Reform,” statement from Americans for Prosperity, July 31, 2017; “The Koch Brothers Put a Knife in Border Adjustment,” Congressional Quarterly News, June 1, 2017.
Americans for Prosperity rented out a large event space: Notes and audio recording from Americans for Prosperity event, 2017.
The tax bill passed . . . signed into law before Christmas: Thomas Kaplan and Alan Rappeport, “Republican Tax Bill Passes Senate in 51–48 Vote,” New York Times, December 19, 2017; Heather Long, “The Final GOP Tax Bill Is Complete. Here’s What Is in It,” Washington Post, December 15, 2017; Danielle Kurzleben, “Charts: See How Much of GOP Tax Cuts Will Go to the Middle Class,” NPR online, last modified December 19, 2017; “Tax Cuts Will Cross All Income Lines but Disappear by 2027,” CBS News and Associated Press, December 19, 2017; Tom Kertscher, “House Tax Plan: Permanent Tax Cuts for the Rich, Eventually Tax Hikes for All Middle-Class Families?,” PolitiFact, last modified December 15, 2017.
the bill looked very much like the typical tax bill that Mark Meadows described: Distributional Analysis of the Conference Agreement for the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (Washington, DC: Tax Policy Center report, December 18, 2017); Borys Krawczeniuk, “Congressional Candidates Talk Tax Cuts, Jobs,” Associated Press, October 21, 2018; Analysis: Koch Brothers Could Get up to $1.4 Billion Tax Cut from Law They Helped Pass (Washington, DC: Americans for Tax Fairness, January 24, 2018).
Koch’s block-and-tackle strategy was paying dividends: Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “Paul Ryan Credits Koch Network for Supporting GOP’s Tax Overhaul,” Washington Post, January 28, 2018.
the Trump administration’s transition team . . . described their effort in military terms: Two senior EPA officials speaking on background, interviews by author, 2017–18; EPA “Landing Team” roster, reviewed by author, 2018.
the Tuesday before Thanksgiving . . . arrived at EPA headquarters: Two senior EPA officials speaking on background, interviews by author, 2017–18; Gayathri Vaidyanathan, “How to Get a Skeptic to Believe in Climate Change? Scientists Are Studying That,” ClimateWire, last modified August 8, 2016.
this put Ebell directly at odds with the career staff at the EPA: Senior EPA official speaking on background, interviews by author, 2018.
When Myron Ebell finally arrived . . . two senior EPA officials: Ibid.
This influence was apparent . . . at the EPA: Two senior EPA officials speaking on background, interviews by author, 2017–18; EPA “beachhead” roster reviewed by author, 2018.
Schnare was an imposing presence: David Schnare, two senior EPA officials speaking on background, interviews by author, 2017–18.
Schnare came up with a plan to get rid of it: Schnare, interviews by author, 2018. Descriptions of EPA headquarters taken from notes and photos during reporting trip, 2017.
Schnare’s office was on this floor: Schnare, two senior EPA officials speaking on background, interviews by author, 2017–18.
Schnare’s forty-seven-page transition plan: “Agency Action Plan”: US Environmental Protection Agency. This document is undated but was provided to the author in 2017.
The new EPA administrator would carry out these policies: “How Senators Voted on Scott Pruitt for EPA Administrator,” New York Times, February 17, 2017.
Pruitt arrived for work: Schnare, two senior EPA officials speaking on background, interviews by author, 2017–18.
Almost immediately after he arrived . . . Pruitt apparently became convinced: Two senior EPA officials speaking on background, interviews by author, 2017–18; Liam Stack, “Scott Pruitt’s Wish List: Private Jets, Fancy Furniture, 24-Hour Security,” New York Times, April 6, 2018; Ethan Sacks, “EPA Chief Scott Pruitt’s $43K Soundproof Phone Booth Violated Federal Spending Laws, GAO Says,” NBC News online, last modified April 16, 2018.
Pruitt’s . . . policy stances were well known: Eric Lipton, “Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance with Attorneys General,” New York Times, December 6, 2014.
Pruitt’s political career . . . Oklahoma’s political culture: Two senior EPA officials speaking on background, interviews by author, 2017–18; Kevin Bogardus, “EPA Protesters Deemed Threat to Pruitt, Triggered Probe,” Greenwire, last modified January 23, 2018.