10 East Doty Street, Madison, Wisconsin

Koch Pipeline Company, L.P. operates a pipeline system that crosses Wisconsin, part of the nearly 4,000 miles of pipelines owned or operated by the company.

The C. Reiss Coal Company is a leading supplier of coal used to generate power. The company has locations in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan.

All three of these Wisconsin based companies are the largest –or among the largest – in their fields. And they all have one thing in common.

Each of these companies is a subsidiary of Koch Industries.

Now, the theory in play suggests that the entire bruhaha over collective bargaining rights is simply a distraction to get the following deal; The governor will, eventually,back off his efforts to kill the state employees union. In response, the state congress will pass the budget as currently written- including the section that allows the state utilities to be sold to whomever the Governor wants and at whatever price Walker chooses to sell for.

The result (according to the conspiracy theory) – Koch Industries gets to buy or operate the Wisconsin state utilities for pennies on the dollar, creating one of the greatest state monopolies we’ve ever seen.

Any truth to this? Who knows?

At best, it is highly irregular that a state legislature would grant the executive the power to sell off or lease public utilities without a bidding process. At worse – well, I would hate to think that such a bargain could be struck all for the benefit of one particular company.

Note that there is absolutely no proof whatsoever that such a conspiracy in under way. This is just a theory being circulated – and, at this point, nothing more. But it is, at the least, a theory that we will eventually be able to substantiate or finally dismiss depending on what happens to the state’s public utilities.

Let’s all hope that the conspiracy theorists are just having some fun. Because if governors begin giving away public utilities in exchange for campaign support, we are all in very big trouble.