Randal O'Toole's self-styled "Thoreau Institute" lies at the core of his ferocious jihad against urban planning, Smart Growth, New Urbanism, public transport, and rail transit (a jihad that he also promotes through spinoffs and front groups such as his American Dream Coalition"). So, just what – and whom – does the Thoreau Institute represent?

Media Transparency – which exposes what amounts to "an interconnected web of conservative organizations" funded by far-right "philanthropies" (almost univerally opposed to public transport and rail transit) – provides some answers by revealing the primary funding sources of O'Toole's outfit.

According to Media Transparency's research, O'Toole's Thoreau Institute, based in Oak Grove, Oregon, received major grants totalling $ 321,100 between 1997-2005. Here's a tabulation of the organization's main funding sources in that period.

Date	Amount	Funder
12/31/2005	$50,000	Sarah Scaife Foundation
01/01/2002	$50,000	Sarah Scaife Foundation
01/01/2002	$10,000	Charlotte and Walter Kohler Charitable Trust
01/01/2001	$50,000	Sarah Scaife Foundation
01/01/1999	$50,000	Sarah Scaife Foundation
01/01/1999	$10,000	Charlotte and Walter Kohler Charitable Trust
01/01/1998	$50,000	Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation
11/11/1997	$22,550	The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc.
08/11/1997	$22,550	The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc.
04/07/1997	$3,000	The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc.
04/07/1997	$3,000	The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc.

Who are these donors? Media Transparency has provided information on three out of the four (no information was available on the Kohler Charitable Trust). The Light Rail Now Project has supplemented with additional information, where appropriate.

Sarah Mellon Scaife Foundation – This is "a foundation financed by the Mellon industrial, oil and banking fortune", according to Media Transparency.

At one time, its largest single holding was stock in Gulf Oil Corporation. it was estimated some years ago to be a $200 million foundation. it became active in supporting conservative causes in 1973, when Richard Mellon Scaife became chairman. Since then, Scaife has been a leading financier of New Right causes.

Charles G. Koch Foundation – This foundation is deeply rooted in the petroleum and petrochemical industries. According to Media Transparency,

David and Charles Koch, sons of the ultraconservative founder of Koch industries, Fred Koch, direct the three Koch family foundations: the Charles G. Koch Foundation, the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation. David and Charles control Koch industries, the second-largest privately owned company and the largest privately owned energy company in the nation; they have a combined net worth of approximately $4 billion, placing them among the top 50 wealthiest individuals in the country and among the top 100 wealthiest individuals in the world in 2003, according to Forbes.

Koch industries, Inc. has primarily been involved in petroleum and chemicals. its website boasts that...

Koch companies have been involved in the petroleum business since 1940, growing refining capacity more than 80-fold in six decades. Today, the Flint Hills Resources group of businesses, subsidiaries of Koch industries, are engaged in petroleum refining, chemicals and lube oil production, crude oil supply and trading, and wholesale marketing and trading of fuel oil, base oils, gasoline, petrochemicals, chemical intermediates, asphalt and other products. A subsidiary of Koch Supply & Trading also produces jet fuel, gas oil, naphtha and residual fuel in Europe.

[...]

As a result of Flint Hills Resources' various interests in production facilities in the petroleum chain, the company has expanded its marketing capability regularly to create value for customers. An example of that expansion is the 2003 entry into the base lube oil business following the purchase of a half-interest in Louisiana- based Excel Paralubes. The lube oil business is a natural extension of Flint Hills Resources, and has introduced it to a new customer base. The company's products are used in motor oil, agriculture oils and marine oils, among others.

in 2005, Flint Hills Resources began operating a system of strategically located asphalt terminals, formerly owned by Koch Materials Company, to market product from the Minnesota refinery. This refinery's production of asphalt sparked Koch companies' 1979 entry into asphalt marketing.

Koch further emphasizes its roots in the oil. gas, and chemical pipeline industry:

As part of a 1946 refining acquisition, Koch industries' predecessor company acquired a small crude oil pipeline system in southwestern Oklahoma. Over the years, Koch companies have bought or built and sold pipeline systems transporting crude oil and refined products, as well as natural gas, natural gas liquids and anhydrous ammonia. Today, Koch Pipeline Company, L.P. owns and operates pipelines carrying crude oil, refined products and natural gas liquids.

Major donors to Randal O'Toole's anti-transit, pro-sprawl campaign stand to gain from continuing overwhelming dependency on motor vehicle mobility, and from sprawl development which reinforces that dependency. Through its involvement in asphalt production, Koch industries profits from highway construction, such as this jumble of freeway ramps and bridges in Milwaukee.
[Photo: Congress for the New Urbanism]

Media Transparency provides the following additional information with regard to the Koch family's political ideology and "charitable" investment policies:

Following in the footsteps of their father, a member of the John Birch Society, the Kochs clearly have an ultra-conservative bent. Charles Koch founded the Cato institute, and David Koch co-founded Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) [now FreedomWorks], where he serves as chairman of the board of directors. David also serves on the board of the Cato institute. The Koch foundations make substantial annual contributions to these organizations (more than $12 million to each between 1985 and 2002) as well as to other influential conservative think tanks, advocacy groups, media organizations, academic institutes and legal organizations, thus participating in every level of the policy process. Their total conservative policy giving exceeded $20 million between 1999 and 2001. As reflected in their creation and funding of Cato and CSE, most of their contributions go to support organizations and groups advancing libertarian theory, privatization, entrepreneurship and free enterprise. David Koch even ran for president as the Libertarian Party candidate in 1980. in describing his foundation's contributions, he states, "My overall concept is to minimize the role of government and to maximize the role of private economy and to maximize personal freedoms."

The brothers' libertarian and free-market orientation comes as no surprise, given their ownership of Koch industries, an oil and gas corporation.

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Inc. – According to Media Transparency, "With $516 million in assets1 (2004), the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is the country's largest and most influential right-wing foundation."

As of the end of 2004, it was giving away more than $33 million a year. its financial resources, its clear political agenda, and its extensive national network of contacts and collaborators in political, academic and media circles has allowed it to exert an important influence on key issues of public policy. While its targets range from affirmative action to social security, it has seen its greatest successes in the areas of welfare "reform" and attempts to privatize public education through the promotion of school vouchers.

More than three years ago, as our article Exposing Those Far-Right Propaganda "Think Tanks" pointed out, "Throughout the USA, public transportation is virtually under siege" – calling attention to "a veritable barrage of misinformation, directed especially against rail transit services and proposals, coming from so-called "think tanks" with warm and fuzzy "heartland"-style or "academic"-redolent names...."

As our article continued,

Despite their "grassroots" pretenses, these groups' high intensity of pricey activities belie heavily endowed bank accounts: a steady stream of "surveys", supposedly erudite research projects and reports, cash channelled into local anti-transit and anti-New Urbanism organizing efforts, and visits by national "hired gun" transit assassins like Wendell Cox and Randal O'Toole.

Gradually, with more and more information coming to light, all the dots are being connected. And what's becoming clearer and clearer is that the efforts to roadblock the development of rail transit and Smart Growth policies are directly linked to powerful, extremely wealthy interest groups that stand to profit substantially from thwarting rail transit and other major public transport investments and from maintaining dependency on private motor vehicle transport and suburban sprawl land development patterns in perpetuity.